Have you ever imagined what life would be like without your vision? It’s easy to take your eyesight for granted, but your eye health is vital to your quality of life.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that almost 21 million people in America suffer from vision problems. Worse, nearly 80 million of the citizenry have eye diseases that can result in blindness.
Luckily, many eyesight complications are entirely avoidable with a bit of TLC. Here are eight habits to establish excellent eye health.
Replace contacts regularly
You wouldn’t wear the same clothes every single day, so why should your eyes?
Follow the wearing and changing routine as recommended by your eye care professional. If you don’t correctly observe your routine, the natural protein in your eye fluids will gather on your lenses, and soon you’ll experience foggy vision.
After some time, your immune system will react to the accumulation as a foreign particle. The result is that your eyes get swollen, itchy, and irritated, and your foggy vision will go from bad to worse. In addition, pollen and dust also interfere with the effectiveness of your lenses over time, adding to the accumulated debris.
Therefore, you’re doing yourself a favor by changing your contact lenses as per your optometrist’s instructions. It may seem inconvenient and expensive, but it ensures your eyes remain healthy. Retailers like 1800 Contacts can help you by providing your contact lens upkeep as conveniently and affordably as possible.
Eat well
What you put into your mouth is the number one determinant of your eye health. Food rich in zinc, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins C and E, and lutein can help prevent age-related vision problems such as cataracts and macular degeneration.
Foods rich in these nutrients include:
- Tuna, salmon, and other oily fish
- Spinach, collards, kale, and other green leafy vegetables
- Non-meat protein such as beans, eggs, and nuts.
- Pork and oysters
- Citrus fruits and juices like oranges
Eating well can also lower your chances of developing Type 2 diabetes, which could cause blindness. A balanced diet is an excellent building block in maintaining healthy eyes.
Wash your hands
There are many reasons you should wash your hands regularly, and eye health is one of them.
Many vision-related problems are contagious, resulting from bacteria. If you touch inside or around your eyes with dirty hands, you may unknowingly spread an infection.
Staph, pink eye, gonorrhea, and chlamydia are examples of diseases you can pass on through your hands. What’s even more worrying is that these viral and bacterial infections can cause permanent damage to your eyes.
To establish and maintain good eye health, avoid touching your eyes with unwashed hands and develop a consistent hand washing routine.
Quit smoking
Research shows that smoking accelerates the risk of cataracts, macular degeneration, dry eye syndrome, blindness, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and vision loss. It’s reason enough to quit smoking or never to adopt the habit.
Rest your eyes
Most people spend a lot of time staring at their phone screens or computer monitors. As such, you expose yourself to a lot of the harmful blue light that these devices emit. In addition, you use your near vision more than your distance vision, which may result in eye strain and short-sightedness.
To avoid negative impact, always rest your eyes after spending long periods on your computer. You should also take breaks during screen time to look at faraway objects. After you’re done with work or play, you can take a walk to help increase blood flow to your eyes and limbs.
Protect your eyes from the sun
The ultraviolet (UV) light from the sun can damage your eyes. While you may have initially thought of sunglasses as just a fashion accessory, they’re more than that. For maximum effectiveness, go for sunglasses with both UVA and UVB protection.
When outdoors, protect your eyes from the sun by always wearing sunglasses, even on cloudy days. On very sunny days, wearing a brimmed hat goes a long way in protecting your eyes from the sun.
Exercise
Exercise does wonders in promoting excellent eye health. It’s one of those habits you find on every health-related advice article, and for a good reason.
Keeping fit helps keep your weight in check, which reduces the risk of developing diabetes and hypertension, conditions with a direct effect on your vision. Regular workouts can also increase the quality of your blood flow, which promotes healthy, oxygenated eyes.
Visit your optometrist regularly
Finally, there can be no better way to keep a check on the health of your eyes than visiting your doctor regularly for examination.
It’s worth mentioning that some conditions, like glaucoma, are only treatable in the early stages. Regular visits to the eye doctor ensure they can detect such diseases early enough to avoid irreversible damage to your vision.
Wrap up
Don’t let your vision become a sight for sore eyes. Take steps today to maintain your eye health.
Reply