Living well with diabetes: Protecting your eyes, kidneys, and feet

Diabetes can affect every part of your body. It can increase your risk for heart disease, and damage to nerves and blood vessels caused by high blood sugar can impact your eyes, kidneys and skin. But when you get regular preventive screenings and exams you’re helping protect your health and catch any problems early, when they’re easier to treat. Here are some key health checks to stay on top of when you have diabetes.

Dilated eye exam

Diabetes can cause diabetic retinopathy, which is when high blood sugar damages the blood vessels and nerves in your eye. Over time, untreated diabetic retinopathy can lead to vision loss and blindness. These changes happen slowly, so you might not notice any symptoms until it is serious.

Getting a yearly dilated eye exam can help find and treat diabetic retinopathy. As part of this exam, your eye doctor (an ophthalmologist or optometrist) will put eye drops in your eyes to enlarge your pupils. This lets them examine the back of your eye for signs of diabetes-related eye conditions.

Your eye doctor will recommend how often you need a dilated eye exam based on your results.

Diabetic nephropathy (kidney disease) screening

If you are diagnosed with diabetes, make sure that you are monitoring your kidneys with this important screening so you can prevent kidney disease. High blood sugar levels can damage the tiny blood vessels in your kidneys, which can lead to kidney disease and even kidney failure.

There are two important tests that can help check the health of your kidneys:

• A urine test: A urine albumin-creatinine ratio (uACR) test looks for protein in urine
• A blood test: An estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) test evaluates how well your kidneys are filtering waste

You should get each of these tests yearly. Regular screening can also help catch any kidney issues early, when they are easier to treat.

Check your feet

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), checking your foot health often is an important part of managing diabetes. Half of people with diabetes have nerve damage, which often affects legs and feet. If you have some nerve damage in your feet, then you may not notice a cut or other injury.
To avoid getting a foot ulcer or sore that doesn’t heal properly, the CDC recommends these tips:

• Check your feet every day
• Wash your feet every day
• Never go barefoot – outside or at home
• Wear shoes that fit well
• Trim your toenails straight across
• Don’t remove corns or calluses yourself
• Have your feet checked regularly by your healthcare provider
• Keep your blood flowing to your feet
• Choose feet-friendly activities like walking, biking or swimming

If you notice any issues with your feet, including ulcers or sores that aren’t healing, schedule a visit with your doctor to check on them.

Keep your doctor up to date

Managing diabetes or any other complex, chronic condition can mean that you go to a primary care provider (PCP), plus several specialists to help manage your health. When visiting your PCP, be sure to let them know about any specialist you are seeing, as well as what kinds of treatments you may be following or medications you are taking.
Keeping your PCP up to date will help them have a full picture of your health.

Don’t have a doctor? We can help.

Blue Cross of Idaho members can find an in-network provider in a few different ways.

Use our member app

Log in to the Blue Cross of Idaho member app and select Find Care to search for care, at home or on the go. From there you can search for providers by entering their name into the search field, or select an option like Urgent Care or Medical Care to see a list of results.

On the web

Log in to your member account at members.bcidaho.com and select Find Care. There, you can search and find a list of providers in your network.

Call for help

Call the Blue Cross of Idaho Customer Service Department at the number on the back of your member ID card.

 

Written by: Blue Cross of Idaho
Published: June 22, 2026