Return to site

A Guide To Healthy Eyes

Our five senses are the unique gifts that we own to feel the world around us and interact with it. They are invaluable, each one on its own. Yet, the eyes still the most sensitive organs among all our body organs. Keeping a good vision is not only good for the eyes. It also helps us perform better at home, at work, or behind the wheel. 

Never giving our vision enough attention and care can affect the quality of our daily life. Maintaining eye health reduces the symptoms that can affect our eyes and protect them from most diseases, such as cataracts, low vision, macular degeneration, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy.

Why is Maintaining Eye Health Important?

Of course, all five senses are significant, but vision is related to more than enjoying the beauty of the shapes and colors. It's also connected to the ability of learning. Do you know that we use our vision to perceive about 80% of all the environment around us? So, the eyes are vital organs to take for granted. 

Like any other organ in our body, the eyes’ health improves if we pay the necessary attention. Eyes are vital organs, don't wait for the symptoms to do an eye check-up. Try to improve your eyes health by following these few tricks during your daily activities.

Eye Health and Nutrition 

First Thing First, Eat Well. There's a Latin known quote that says: "Mens sana in corpore sano". It means "a healthy mind in a healthy body". Thus, whatever you put in your body either helps its organs' health or doesn't. Besides, eating a healthy balanced diet can help to prevent diseases like type two diabetes that damage the eye nerves and sometimes cause blindness for adults.

Several nutrients can help reduce age-related vision problems, such as macular degeneration and cataracts. Omega-3 fatty acids, lutein, zinc, and vitamins C and E are on the top of nutrients that should be included in your daily dishes. You can find such nutrients in red meats, fruits, and vegetables. If you want to know more about what food elements help you maintain good eye health, you can consider vegetables like spinach, kale, and collards. In addition to oranges and other citrus fruits or juices, and non-meat protein sources like eggs, nuts, beans. It's also good to consider taking protein from white meats like salmon, tuna, and other oily fish. However, try to stay away from high-fat diets. It can cause deposits that constrict blood flow in the arteries, which affects the eyes for being the organs with the most vulnerable blood vessels.

Eye Health and Smoking

Let's confess, whether we are regular smokers or not, smoking has many negative effects on our health in general. When it comes to keeping a healthy vision, you should consider quitting this habit. Smoking can cause cataracts, macular degeneration, damage to your optic nerve, and uveitis, in addition to many other medical problems. 

Recent research indicates that the possibility of smokers getting affected by these debilitating eye conditions increases twice to thrice more than non-smokers. Smoking compromises your eyes to high levels of oxidative stress. Besides, it increases the risk of having various health conditions that affect the eyes eventually.

Eye Health and Alcohol

We all know that alcohol has several side effects that can damage the body organs like the liver and kidneys. However, only a few people know that the extreme consumption of alcohol can cause annoying eye problems in the long run.

Alcohol can lead to several eye problems that develop into dangerous syndromes sometimes. Double vision, red eyes, dry eyes, trouble focusing are common side effects of alcohol. However, these side effects can develop if you drink large amounts daily, leading to loss of vision or what's known as toxic amblyopia. This condition happens when the toxic materials in alcohol cause damage to the optic nerve. Of course, we are not saying to quit drinking for good, but most specialists recommend avoiding drinking more than 14 units of alcohol per week.

The Importance of Sunglasses

The sun's ultraviolet (UV) rays can be more harmful to your eyes than your expectation. Regular exposure to UV rays can affect the eye's health and cause several problems like cataracts and macular degeneration. If we think about it this way, sunglasses have more importance than adding a stylish touch to your appearance.

Protecting your eyes from the ultraviolet (UV) rays requires a pair of sunglasses that block 99% to 100% of UVA and UVB rays. Also, try to consider wraparound lenses. This type of lens provides better protection for your eyes from the side.

As for polarized glasses, they reduce the sun's glare while driving, but their protection is limited. If you use contact lenses, you should pay attention to UV protection. Not all contact lenses feature good UV protection, and it's not a bad idea to wear sunglasses even if you are wearing contact lenses.

Use Safety Eyewear 

When we talk about protecting our eyes, we need to think about two different types of protection. First, we need to protect our eyes from physical injury, and second from exposure to dangerous materials.

Whether at home, work, or when you practice sports, our eyes are always vulnerable to injury. Some sports ice like hockey, racquetball, and lacrosse can also cause serious injuries to the eyes. When practicing these sports, try to wear sports goggles with polycarbonate lenses to avoid injuries and materials that can affect the eyes. Besides, if you work in a domain that requires dealing with hazardous or airborne materials, you should consider wearing protective eyewear.

Keep a Regular Eye Check

Time and early check-up have critical relevance when dealing with dangerous eye conditions such as AMD or glaucoma. The sooner you get them diagnosed, the higher is the chance of getting successful treatment. Thus, we recommend keeping up a regular eye check at the right clinic.

As for eye health and examination, you should be aware of the different specialties of eye doctors. There are two different types of eye doctors: ophthalmologists and optometrists. Ophthalmologists are medical doctors who provide general eye care, treat eye diseases, and perform eye surgeries. Optometrists are trained doctors who provide general eye care and can diagnose and treat most eye diseases. However, optometrists don't perform eye surgeries.

Another significant thing to pay attention to when it comes to different eye conditions is family history. A lot of eye diseases are genetic and run in families. For example, a family history of high blood pressure or diabetes means an increased risk of suffering from eye problems. So, our eyes need special care because they are one of the most sophisticated organs in your body. Eye specialists recommend having a comprehensive eye exam at least once every two years. 

The Price of Technology

As technology has offered various facilities in our lives, it comes with a price that we pay every day without feeling it. We spend hours and hours in front of our laptop screens daily without resting our eyes. In addition to laptop screens, there're phones, TVs, and multiple other devices. These technology devices are exposing our eyes to high-energy blue light.

To protect your eyes from this harmful ray, you should consider wearing protective eyeglasses or following some simple tricks that will leave your eyes with minimum damage. For example, you can adjust your screen lighting to minimize glare. You can also follow the 20-20 working rule that suggests working for tweeting minutes and resting your eyes for another twenty. You can also keep the computer screen within 20"-24" of your eye and use eye drops to soothe the irritation.