Health

Lighthouse Int'l Moves War On Diabetes To Midtown

Offers Aids, Training, Therapy To Those With Failing Eyesight

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Diabetes is the leading cause of vision loss and blindness in this country. Add the fact that we're in the midst of a diabetes epidemic and experts fear we could be looking at millions of Americans losing their eyesight.

CBS 2 HD has learned on what one organization is doing to help prevent this tragedy.

Nancy Kunis has known she has diabetes for about 10 years. She knows how important it is to check and control her blood sugar to help prevent the complications of diabetes, including one very important one.

"I know that it affects your eyes," Kunis said. "High blood sugar would affect your eyes and that if there's any change in your vision, it could have something to do with the diabetes."

Even more frightening is the fact that there are 24 million diabetics in this country, almost a million in New York alone. And with diabetes being the leading cause of vision loss in adults in this country, experts fear an oncoming epidemic of vision loss and blindness.

"Because if they can survive all the other things with diabetes they will lose their vision," said Dr. Tara Cortes, CEO of Lighthouse International. People with diabetes will lose their vision if it's not controlled.

That's why Lighthouse International has opened a diabetes center at its headquarters in Midtown Manhattan.

It helps people like Kunis who have already lost some eyesight with a variety of low-vision aids, training and even therapists who can check your home for safety.

But the real goal is to prevent diabetic vision loss in the first place – through education.

"We have the nutritionists. We have certified diabetes educators. We have social workers," said Lighthouse International's Andrea Zaldivar. "If we intervene early, and have people, individuals that have diabetes get screened early and intervene early, than we can prevent the progression of the disease and prevent blindness."

Kunis is very thankful.

"They're very good, they're very helpful," she said. "If I have any questions I can call, and they have been great, really great, so I'm very pleased to come here."

The idea is to teach people how to get tight control of their blood sugar through diet, exercise and medications, which in turn should help prevent diabetic vision loss.

The Lighthouse Diabetes Center is open to people of all ages with diabetes. For more information, log on to "Links and Numbers" on the wcbstv.com homepage.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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