Tips to Prevent Eye Damage
Vision is one of the most important senses. The majority of what we perceive comes through our sense of sight. While your family history can play a role in poor eyesight, some habits diminish vision. Statistics show that nearly a billion visual impairment cases could be prevented, and taking care of your eye health will only lead to a better quality of life. Here are some tips on how you can help you lower the risk of eye damage.
Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle
General knowledge is that a healthy lifestyle will make you feel better and stronger, mentally, and physically. However, it is often overlooked that your lifestyle also affects eye health too. Let’s see what changes you can make to prevent eye damage.
Eat well
A healthy diet helps maintain a healthy weight, but also our overall wellbeing—including eye health. Certain nutrients and nutrient-rich foods can help reduce age-related vision problems. Some recommended food to boost eye health are:
- Fish that offer omega-3 fatty acids
- Nuts and legumes
- Seeds high in omega-3
- Vitamin C-rich citrus fruits
- leafy greens
- Meat rich in zinc
- And other sources of nutrients.
Get active
Health conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure (hypertension) can lead to vision and eye health problems. Exercising and getting active helps lower the risk of these illnesses. Just a simple walk a few times a week or other activities like biking, swimming, or dancing will help a lot.
Drink water
Hydration is a simple way to keep organs working properly, and it also helps to maintain our tear quality. Dehydration will have unfavorable effects on vision and general comfort in the eye. It relates to common eye health risks such as dry eye syndrome, eye strain, puffy and hollow eyes, among others. Try to make it a habit to drink plenty of water when you wake up, before going to bed, when you’re exercising, and on hot days.
Quit smoking
We all know that smoking is bad for your overall health, but it can also develop eye conditions that may lead to vision loss or blindness. Quitting can help prevent or slow down macular degeneration disease, also called age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Extra Care
Neglecting eye care can affect your quality of life but also hurt financially. Taking these precautions and gaining the habits listed below will be beneficial in the long run.
Utilize safety eyewear
Sports and heavy-duty work can also lead to eye injuries. Helmets with protective face masks or goggles provide impact, dust, and chemical splash protection. When it comes to sports eyewear with an elastic will hold your glasses securely on your head during activities.
Wear sunglasses
Sunglasses that block 99% of UVB and 95% of UVA light rays are the best option. UV rays can sunburn your eyes and lead to problems such as cataracts, macular degeneration, white tissue growth on the eyes, even snow blindness. If you wear contact lenses, there are some UV protection options. Still, wearing sunglasses as an extra layer is a better decision.
Avoid rubbing your eyes
Eye-rubbing is a habit that may seem harmless; on the contrary, it is damaging for eye health. Not only are our hands covered with germs that can cause diseases and infections, but rubbing will also cause tiny blood vessels to break or thinning of the cornea.
Be careful with tech devices
In this day and age, your work or hobbies require the use of digital devices for hours on end. Eye strain, headaches, dry eyes, and other discomforts are caused by staring at a screen for too long. To protect your eyes, talk to your doctor about computer glasses, position the screen, so you look slightly down at it, use an anti-glare screen and make sure to rest your eyes every 20 minutes.
Be gentle when cleaning eyes
Removing makeup before going to bed is not only good for your skin but forgetting to do so can harm your eyes, too. As we mentioned, rubbing excessively is harmful, so make sure to be gentle. Opt for gentle cleansers or if you’re more of a makeup remover gal, choose soft cotton pads or tissues.
Visit an eye doctor
Regular eye exams are recommended starting from childhood to adulthood. Not only can they find diseases that have no symptoms (glaucoma, refractive errors, age-related macular degeneration) earlier, your doctor can detect a problem Even if your eyes feel healthy.