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When most people think about getting checked for diabetes, going to see the eye doctor is probably not their first stop.

"We recommend that everyone get their eye exams every year just to maintain healthy vision," said Dr. Trina Warden, of Love & Warden Eye Care in Bowling Green.

For diabetics, or those who are high risk for the disease, getting that exam is more crucial than you think.

"Especially with diabetics, getting that yearly checkup and most often a dilated eye exam," said Warden.

Eye doctors can detect changes in the eye that point to diabetes.

"Changes in the blood vessels in their eyes. Those blood vessels could hemorrhage or cause buildup in the retina. That would be a sign of diabetes," said Warden.

Dr. Warden says blurry vision is also a diabetes complication.

"One day they could have perfectly clear vision and then the next their vision is blurry. That can be caused by diabetes because the fluid can get built up in the lens of the eye," said Warden.

An Iridologist studies the eyes in connection with the rest of the body, and Randell Carter, an iridologist in Bowling Green, said by looking at the eyes, he can tell if diabetes is present.

"Overlay the iris with the iridology chart. Overactivity in the area that corresponds to the pancreas," is a hint that diabetes may be a possibility, said Carter.

In his diabetic patients, one area of the eye will show an abnormality, which can help patients get a handle on the disease.

Carter said "it can show things that haven't even manifested into symptoms yet. If the eye says it, it usually is so."

Eyes, it seems, not only help us see outside but also the inside of the body.

The longer a patient has diabetes, the more likely they are to end up with eye complications from the diseas