EP #8: Understanding Diabetes: An Eye on Vision Loss

Get ready for a thought-provoking conversation with Dr. Laura Falco, who shines a light on the alarming issue of diabetes and its impact on vision. A pressing concern, diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in working-age Americans and it's not just the elderly who are at risk. With over 10% of the U.S population affected, and lifestyles becoming more sedentary, especially during the pandemic, the prevalence of diabetes is on the rise.

Dr. Falco doesn't hold back as she discusses the challenges of maintaining a healthy lifestyle in today's society. From the difficulty in accessing healthier foods to the shortage of endocrinologists, there's a lot to unpack. What's more, Dr. Falco highlights the importance of early detection and regular eye checks for diabetics, alluding to some serious eye complications that can occur if left unchecked. Get ready to have your eyes opened to the critical connection between diabetes and vision. Don't miss this episode as we delve into an area of health that needs more attention. Tune in and stay informed!

For more information visit: JazzyEyes.com

or contact: (954) 473-0100

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Welcome to the Jazzy Eyes podcast. Taking care of your vision with expert precision. Here's your host, dr Laura Falco.

Jeremy: 0:15

Hello everyone and welcome to the Jazzy Eyes podcast. I'm your cohost, jeremy Wolfe, and I'm joined by your host, dr Laura Falco. Dr Falco, always a pleasure.

Dr. Falco: 0:25

Good morning.

Jeremy: 0:27

How are you today?

Dr. Falco: 0:28

I'm good. How about yourself?

Jeremy: 0:30

Doing well. It is Monday yes, very excited for a productive week, and I think we have a fitting topic today, with Halloween shortly to be in the rearview mirror. You're going to talk a little bit about November. Is Diabetes Awareness Month, correct? So this is a topic that I know very little about. I certainly know even less what it pertains to the actual eyes, so please share with us, let us know, what's on your mind.

Dr. Falco: 1:02

So, yeah, diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in the United States for working age Americans. I think that's really important to understand. Like, we're talking about people who you know, the country loses GDP productivity because this is happening younger and younger. This is affecting people who are of working age not, you know, 85, like younger people who then cannot work, and that is a trickle down right that affects everything. So I think it's important to understand. Right now, as we know it, there's probably there are a little over 37 million patients diagnosed with diabetes. However, there's an additional 8 million patients who are currently undiagnosed diabetics 37 million, not in the US alone, right?

Jeremy: 2:04

You're talking about 37 million in the United States alone, out of a population 8 million yeah, 8 million undiagnosed right today in this country.

Dr. Falco: 2:14

So we're talking about 45 million Americans.

Jeremy: 2:18

That's like 10%, more than 10% of the population. More than 10%? I would have never thought.

Dr. Falco: 2:24

Yeah, we're, we are. If you look at the graphs we are itching our way towards. 14% of our population is diabetic and the pandemic made it worse. I think they're still figuring out whether or not COVID had a predilection for kidneys and possibly pancreas, affecting increasing the rate of diabetes. But I think what the pandemic did also was made people more sedentary and they're not commuting and they're not walking from the parking lot to their office and they're not walking from their office to the bathroom and they're sitting at home.

Dr. Falco: 3:07

So I think I mean I know the main three driving factors of diabetes in this diabetes in this country. You've got obesity we are more obese due to physical inactivity, which working from home doesn't help right. And the food. It's sad that we, if you want to eat healthy, that you're gonna spend ten times more. It's sad that you know you can get these really really cheap things to eat For money. You know like that are not good for you, but then if you want to go in and actually try to get the healthier foods, it's going to cost you a lot more.

Jeremy: 3:45

So the isn't it another problem? So to cut you off that a lot of times in our country in this day and age, you might think you're eating something that's healthy, but the way it's produced and manufactured with, yeah, it's just really not. So it's harder and harder to actually determine if something is even healthy for you when you think it might be.

Dr. Falco: 4:07

Yeah, no, it's really. It's really hard to determine. You know, and even if you're following the news, you know. It's something just as simple as oh my god, don't eat any egg yolks cholesterol than okay, no, egg yolks are good.

Jeremy: 4:19

You have the cholesterol I mean it's good, Great, we need the cholesterol.

Dr. Falco: 4:23

Now they're seeing increased rates of dementia and Alzheimer's and patients who are on statin drugs because Turns out, we need cholesterol in our brain. So eat the egg. So, even if you're, you'll make yourself crazy, you know Like it's, it's very hard and it's a it's a full-time job to really try to eat clean. You can only do the best that you can do and I and I get it. But unfortunately, you know, diabetes is is soaring and there's not enough endocrinologists in the area. You know I have most of my patient I don't even know it's half and half. Half of them are managed by their primary care doctor, half of them are probably managed by an endocrinologist and Some are managed by a cardiologist, like it's crazy. So the patients sometimes really don't have the most up-to-date Medications because they're being managed on outdated medications, because really there's not enough endocrinologists, because the population is exploding with diabetes and that's that's the doctor who's really specialized, you know, to manage that and it's, and we're seeing it in our office more and more and more and we're seeing complications in the back of the eye from diabetes more and more and more. So I think it's a really important topic, you know, knowing Halloween is coming, you know, because we really do want to make sure people understand that it is.

Dr. Falco: 5:47

It does affect the eyes. It affects the eyes in a couple of different ways and, like every condition that affects the eyes, early detection of Any changes in the back of the eye is key to managing the changes we can see from diabetes and preventing Sometimes permanent loss of vision due to Diabetes. So it's super important that patients who are diabetic have an at least an annual eye exam, including a dilated procedure, every year, because the entire retina in the back of the eye is at risk and we need to monitor Every year every patient that is a diabetic, sometimes more frequently than once a year, but at a minimum once a year. And In our office we have a diabetic summary report that we will send to Whoever's managing the diabetes to keep everybody on the same page so they know that how the patient is doing in the back of the eye.

Jeremy: 6:54

All right, let's end here, because this is a very broad topic and we want to get to the sink, then we'll pick it up on another segment. All right, thanks everyone for tuning in and we'll see you next time. Take care.

Speaker 1: 7:10

Thank you for listening to the jazzy eyes podcast. For more information, visit jazzy eyes calm or contact 954 473 0100. Welcome to the jazzy eyes podcast. Taking care of your vision with expert precision, here's your host, dr Laura Falco.