Eye health is important. While there are some obvious things to do to keep your eyes healthy like protecting them from sharp objects and keeping your hands away from, there are many other, perhaps less obvious things, you can do that will help protect your overall eye health. Here are a few of the most trusted healthy eye care habits to put into practice!
Eat Good Food
Eye health can improve with a healthy diet. Certain foods can help eye health. Nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids, lutein, zinc, and vitamins C and E may even help decrease the likelihood of age-related vision problems. Foods that are high in these nutrients include green leafy vegetables, salmon, tuna, eggs, nuts, citrus fruits, and oysters. More than just eating healthy food to directly benefit your eyes, eating healthy can also help keep you at a healthy weight. This is important to your eyes as it lowers your odds of getting type 2 diabetes, sometimes linked to obesity, which is the leading cause of blindness in adults.
Exercise
Exercise can also help you care for your eyes in a similar way as it helps take care of your body which has positive effects on the eyes. Keeping your blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure at a healthy level can keep your circulatory system efficient. This is good for eye health as it benefits the proper blood flow needed for your eye health.
No Smoking
Not only is smoking bad for your lungs, but it is also bad for your eyes. It can increase your likelihood of many medical eye issues such as cataracts, macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and macular degeneration. It can also cause damage to the optic nerve.
Protect Your Eyes
There are a few different ways you can protect your eyes. Wearing sunglasses can help protect your eyes from the sun. An excessive amount of UV rays can boost your likelihood of developing cataracts or macular degeneration. You also need to protect your eyes when working on household projects or doing certain manual labor. Wearing safety goggles can help protect your eyes from flying debris that may scratch or injure your eyes.
Minimize Screen Usage
While it may be difficult or impractical to cut off screen usage entirely, be conscious of your exposure to it. Try to look away and give your eyes breaks from the computer or phone screen. We use so much of our vision to look at a close up computer screen or phone, but we want to make sure we are also regularly exercising our distance vision. Be sure to take breaks from the screen, let your eyes look past the screen into the distance, and even take walks to give yourself a break from the blue light of the screen. You may also want to consider getting blue light glasses.
Give us a visit!
Another important part of maintaining your eye health is regularly seeing the eye doctor. This can help with early detection which can lead to prevention or the best case scenario when it comes to eye health. Eye doctors like Dr. Moffatt at Moffatt Eye Care are specially trained to catch diseases early on that you may not have symptoms of until it is too late. Contact us with questions about your next eye exam or schedule a consultation with us today!
