[Kim Jae-ho's Life Story]<237> Diabetic Retinopathy Targets My Eyes

Among diseases affecting the eyes, the most significant factor that drastically reduces quality of life is vision loss. If someone who could see well yesterday suddenly loses their sight today, anyone would inevitably experience tremendous feelings of loss. Globally, cataracts, glaucoma, and macular degeneration are known as the three major causes of blindness. However, in South Korea, blindness caused by diabetic retinopathy?a complication of diabetes?macular degeneration, and glaucoma is more common than blindness caused by cataracts, with diabetic retinopathy being the leading cause of blindness among them.

Diabetic retinopathy is one of the most common complications of diabetes. It occurs when the blood vessels that supply nutrients and oxygen to the retina?which receives visual information and transmits it to the optic nerve?are damaged due to high blood sugar levels. This damage causes blood and fluids to leak out, leading to swelling of the retinal tissue and blurred vision. Initially, there may be no symptoms or only mild vision problems, but prolonged high blood sugar from diabetes increases the risk of blindness.

The reason diabetes causes various complications is that it worsens atherosclerosis, damaging blood vessels and nerves that perform critical functions. Atherosclerosis is a condition where substances like fats accumulate on the blood vessel walls, forming clots (thrombi) that block the vessels, narrowing them and impeding smooth blood flow. When high blood sugar caused by diabetes worsens atherosclerosis, nutrients and oxygen cannot be properly supplied through the blood vessels, causing damage to the vessels and the nerves that rely on them for nourishment.

When the blood vessels supplying nutrients and oxygen to the retina are damaged, the eye attempts to create new blood vessels to supply blood. However, these newly formed vessels do not develop properly and tend to leak blood and fluids easily, leading to diabetic retinopathy.

The U.S. National Eye Institute estimates that more than two out of five Americans with diabetes are at some stage of diabetic retinopathy, making it a common condition. Since vision loss generally takes several years to develop, it is possible to delay or halt vision loss through effort and maintain long-term vision.

Once diabetic retinopathy is diagnosed, treatments such as injecting medications into the eye to reduce inflammation and inhibit new blood vessel formation, or using lasers to seal leaking blood vessels, can be performed. In advanced cases, surgery to remove and replace the gel-like fluid at the back of the eye may be necessary. However, these treatments do not completely prevent vision loss, so it is crucial for people with diabetes to improve the unhealthy lifestyle habits that cause diabetes to prevent complications.

The likelihood of developing diabetic retinopathy increases the longer diabetes persists, and the risk is higher with elevated blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Therefore, people with diabetes should consistently monitor their blood sugar levels and manage their diabetes well to reduce the risk of diabetic retinopathy. The best approach is to adopt a Newstart lifestyle that addresses diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol simultaneously.

Healing all lifestyle-related diseases in our bodies?whether diabetes, hypertension, or hyperlipidemia?is fundamentally similar. All bodily problems that arise from our lifestyle are healed by the supreme physician encoded in our cells’ genes. If poor lifestyle habits interfere with this healing, one may develop diabetes and diabetic retinopathy. Even if humans discover artificial ways to lower blood sugar without fully understanding the sophisticated system encoded in our genes, that does not mean diabetes is cured.

Understanding how the supreme physician within our body works through genes reveals that methods to prevent and cure diabetes, enhance immunity to prevent and cure COVID-19, and others are essentially the same. It is sufficient to abandon harmful lifestyle habits that damage or inhibit gene activation and create an environment conducive to gene function?this is the Newstart lifestyle (see Life Story Part 6).

Among the eight components of Newstart, the first is Life Diet, which involves eating a variety of plant-based foods?including fruits, vegetables, and grains?in their whole form without selective eating. Along with this, it is important to reduce intake of sugar?which causes many problems when consumed excessively?as well as processed or refined bad carbohydrates, saturated fats, trans fats, salt, and alcohol.

Additionally, practicing the remaining Newstart components?exercise, water, sunlight, temperance, air, rest, trust, and love?is also important.

Jaeho Kim, Independent Researcher

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.