Tips for Maintaining Your Vision and Eye Health

By Brian Acton

Too often, we take our eyes for granted. Even though vision is one of the most important senses, many people do very little to keep their eyes healthy and their vision sharp. Luckily, there are many ways to protect your eyes. Here are seven tips for maintaining your vision and eye health.

1. Get an Eye Exam - If you already wear contacts or glasses, you should go to the eye doctor annually to update your prescription and check for other eye conditions. But even if your vision is fine, you can benefit from regular eye exams. Eye doctors can diagnose conditions like glaucoma that have few obvious symptoms. And even if you believe your vision is fine, your eye doctor may recommend corrective lenses that could change your perspective.

2. Eat a Nutritious Diet - A healthy diet can protect your eyes and delay or prevent certain conditions, including macular degeneration (the leading cause of vision loss) and cataracts. Healthy diets full of greens, fruits, and lean sources of protein can help you protect your eyes. Avoid too much saturated fat, sugar, and sodium.

3. Maintain a Healthy Weight - If you are overweight or obese, you are at greater risk for diabetes, cardiovascular problems, and other conditions that can lead to vision loss. Losing weight may involve a greater lifestyle change, including a modified diet and regular exercise. If you have trouble maintaining a healthy weight, you should talk to your doctor about a weight loss plan.

4. Wear Sunglasses - The sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays are bad for your eyes. Too much exposure to UV rays can cause cataracts, vision loss, and astigmatism. Wear sunglasses whenever you go out on a sunny day - not only will you look cool, you’ll be protecting your eyes from UV damage. Choose sunglasses that block out 99% to 100% of UVA and UVB radiation.

5. Stop Smoking - Smoking increases your risk of macular degeneration, cataracts, glaucoma and many other eye conditions. Quit smoking now to protect your eyes and improve your overall health.

6. Reduce Your Screen Time - Computer, phone, and tablet screens can all cause problems such as eye strain, blurry vision, and trouble focusing. While there’s no concrete evidence that too much screen time causes long-term damage, it can cause plenty of discomfort, so it can pay to reduce your screen time. Cutting screen time can be difficult when you have an office job, but you can adjust the brightness of your screen, get up to walk around the office, and avoid glare to give your eyes a break.

7. Keep Your Eyes Moisturized - Dry eyes is a common condition that occurs when you don’t have enough quality tears to lubricate your eyes. Tears are necessary to maintain the surface of your eyes and provide clear vision. Dry eyes can be temporarily caused by external factors such as allergies or screens, but they can also be chronic due to inadequate tear production. Your eye doctor can recommend the best treatment for your dry eyes, but eyedrops and the MicroBeads Dry Eye Compress Moist Heat Pack can help relieve discomfort.

Sources: http://www.allaboutvision.com/over60/nutrition.htm https://www.aoa.org/patients-and-public/eye-and-vision-problems/glossary-of-eye-and-vision-conditions/dry-eye https://www.health.ny.gov/prevention/tobacco_control/smoking_can_lead_to_vision_loss_or_blindness.htm https://nei.nih.gov/hvm/healthy_eyes_glasses