In a Health Watch column, the Gate House News Service (11/10) reported that of the approximately “23 million Americans” who “are affected by diabetes…almost six million are unaware that they have the disease.” If diabetes goes undiagnosed, it can “result in vision impairment…and blindness.” Patients with diabetes should consider having “a dilated eye examination on at least an annual basis,” or even “more often” if they have “existing eye issues or more serious retinopathy.” In the process of a thorough eye examination, an optometrist “will perform a variety of tests, including looking in [the] eyes with lights and lenses that magnify the view of the retina, to identify signs of diabetes and other eye-related health problems.”