Protect Your Eyes
Protecting your eyes is the first step towards maintaining your eyesight. This helps to prevent or delay your chances of eye problems and also minimizes your chances of suffering from age-related vision issues. Here are some steps to ensure good vision at all times.
Regular eye check ups
Regular eye examinations can rule out any potential damaging problems at the onset. This helps to minimize damage to your vision. Annual eye checks are enough if you don’t already suffer from any eye problem. If left untreated even a gradual loss of vision can lead to other eye problems or even further damage your vision if you don’t use prescription glasses or contact lenses on time.
Regular health check-ups
Along with eye checks it is also important to go for annual health checks to rule out problems that affect vision such as diabetes or high blood pressure. If these conditions are not treated on time these can lead to diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, ocular hypertension and others.
Notice warning signs
You can prevent permanent loss to your vision or eye damage if you keep a look out for signs that indicate eye problems. Blurry vision, sudden or prolonged eye pain, floaters in front of your eyes, redness, irritation, itching or swelling are all signs of eye problems, which shouldn’t be ignored.
Protection from UV rays, dust and irritants
UV rays can cause a lot of harm to your eyes. Always wear protective sunglasses or else you risk getting cataract or some other eye problem. Also protect your eyes from dust and wash them immediately if dust particles get inside your eyes.
Always wash your eyes with cool water. Avoid hot water or very cold water for your eyes. Protect your eyes with goggles when swimming. Chlorine and other chemicals in water can cause irritation and redness and in some cases even damage the eyes.
Avoid smoking
If you smoke cigarettes then it’s time to finally quit the habit. Damage to lungs from smoking is a well-known fact. But smoking also adversely affects eye health. Smokers have a greater chance of suffering from cataract and macular degeneration.
Eat a healthy diet
A diet rich in antioxidants can protect your eyes from age-related vision problems such as cataract. Such food sources include vegetables like carrots and winter squash, oily fish like tuna or salmon and healthy nuts like walnuts, flaxseeds, kidney beans and olive oil.
So get your fill of omega-3s and protect your eyes from a host of problems. You can also take vitamin or fish oil supplements to keep your eyes healthy.
Be active
Regular exercise can reduce your chances of suffering from age-related eye problems such as macular degeneration. Mild exercise like walking is enough for good eye health if you can’t do anything strenuous. But keep an active lifestyle, play sports and exercise regularly for good eye health.
