Diabetes Awareness Day
November is National Diabetes Awareness Month. Did you know that diabetes can affect your vision and even lead to vision loss? Diabetes accounts for 8% of all cases of legal blindness and is the leading cause for new cases of blindness in adults aged 20-74. Each year almost 24,000 people will lose their vision due to complications from diabetes. Things are especially bad here in South Carolina where we have the 10th highest prevalence of diabetes in the US with more than 10% of our local population suffering from diabetes and 20% of those have visual complications from their disease. Unfortunately, less than half of those people have had an eye exam in the past year. A comprehensive eye exam is the easiest way to detect early signs of diabetic retinopathy.
To help educate the public and provide care to more people, The Vision Center at Seaside Farms is having its annual Diabetes Awareness Day on Tuesday, November 30th. We will be providing free diabetic eye screenings as well as providing in office educational videos to patients. If you are in need of a diabetic eye screening or know someone who does, please call our office to schedule your appointment. Space is limited.
We will also be accepting donations for the American Diabetes Association to help in their efforts to fight this near epidemic disease.