A study has found that there is a link between Type 2 diabetes and glaucoma that is not related to lifestyle behaviors.

The loss of one's sight can be a devastating consequence of diabetes, but I think that even more devastating for some people could be the feeling that they have done something wrong, something to cause their illness. Studies like these are invaluable in letting us know the risk factors but also that there are things we can change and some things we have to be aware of, but that we cannot change by lifestyle alteration alone.

The 20-year study of women in the Nurses' Health Study has shown that Type 2 diabetes is associated with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG), the most common form of glaucoma. POAG accounts for about 60 - 70% of all glaucoma. The study took into consideration the lifestyle factors that leads to both glaucoma and diabetes (such as hypertension, body mass index, physical activity, alcohol intake, smoking and family history of glaucoma) and showed that type 2 diabetes was positively associated with POAG. The study was done on women who did not have POAG at the start of the study and who were at least forty years old.

It is very important for diabetics to have regular eye exams and, according to this study, to also be screened for glaucoma.

A major twenty-year study conducted in Boston has concluded that there is a link between Type 2 diabetes and an increased risk for primary open angle glaucoma (POAG), which is the most commonly found form of glaucoma.

The research was carried out at Harvard Medical School, the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Brigham and Women's Hospital. A pretty amazing number of people were involved in the study: 76,000 women, enrolled between 1980 and 2000. The results have been published in the journal Ophthalmology.

The bottom line? Yes, Type 2 diabetes is associated with poor lifestyle choices and obesity. However, this study indicates that other, unrelated, factors are to blame for the diabetes-glaucoma link. So if someone develops Type 2 diabetes, for whatever reason, there are all kinds of other factors involved in determining risk factors for diabetes-related health complications, like glaucoma.