Ways To Protect the Eyes

The popular aphorism “the eyes are the windows to the body” is not an overstatement. The absence of the eyes from the body can plunge you into utter darkness. You honestly do not want this to happen to you. A blurry vision alone can bring discomfort and even lead to depression, talk more of complete blackout, or darkness (blindness). Not only will it restrict your movement, but it will also reduce the quality of your life. Try closing your eyes all day while you carry out your daily activities. At the rear end of the day, record your experiences. All that you experienced that day and more will happen to you if you leave your eyes uncared for.

The eyes are soft parts of the body, and a damaged eye can cause pain to both you and those around you. Caring for your eyes should be one of your full-time jobs. Monitor and report any strange, funny feelings you notice in your eyes.

Eye defects can be caused by several factors, ranging from birth defects to old age, eye defects, and sometimes accidents. However, before any of these factors completely damages the eyes, it must have shown some signs. These signs should be taken seriously and reported quickly to medical practitioners for early detection of the eye issue and an immediate remedying of the problem.

Simple eye care can help in the maintenance of your eyes later in the future. Hence the emphasis on the need for you to care for your eyes. The sound of eye defects like macular degeneration, cataract, glaucoma is enough to make anyone cringe. Although, most of these eye defects come with old age and might be inevitable for some people. However, when you start caring for your eyes from now, it will help reduce the impacts of these eye conditions on you later in the future.

You may be wondering how else to care for your eyes asides from eating eye-healthy foods. Yes, eating foods rich in vitamin A can help protect your eye health. However, there is more to it. Coupled with your healthy eating habits, you have to make little changes here and there to your lifestyle habits and how you use your eyes.

The following is a list containing simple healthy tips you can follow to maintain healthy eye health.

Reduce Your Screen Time

The world today has gone technological, and every job requires that you use a computer, tablet, or phone. This makes your work easier, faster, and even perfect. However, do not get carried away with the benefits of this technology while your eye health suffers the consequences. While using any screen, especially your computer, make sure to stay 25 inches away from it. Also, adjust your computer or phone settings to “eye care,” or you reduce the contrast to ensure that too much light from the screen is not entering your eyes. Ensure that your computer room has adequate lighting, not too dim and not too bright. In addition, apply the 20/20/20 law. This law states that you should look away after every 20 minutes of staring at your screen for 20 seconds and stare at something that is 20 feet or more away.

Eat Healthily

Changing your diet to eye-healthy ones and including eye-friendly foods will help protect your eye health. It begins with adding foods that are rich in vitamin A and other essential vitamins and minerals like omega 3 fatty acids, zinc, and vitamin E, among others. Some foods that can improve your sight and also help you maintain healthy eyes include;

• Fruits that are rich in vitamins. A good example is orange and other citrus fruits.
• Green leafy vegetables like kale and spinach
• Protein-rich foods like beans, eggs, and other foods asides from meat
• Healthy fatty fishes like tuna, mackerel, and salmon

Eating these foods can help you prevent age-related eye conditions.

Go for Eye Check-ups

It is one thing to care for your eyes, and it is another thing to monitor your eye maintenance progress. Monitoring this progress involves going for an eye check-up. This will help you know where and how to intensify your efforts in your eye care. It will also help in the detection of any latent health condition that may cause bigger eye problems in the future. Some of these health disorders include diabetes and high blood pressure. These health conditions can also take tolls on eye health. You will not know this or detect this easily if you do not go for check-ups. Experts have advised that everyone should go for eye tests at least every 2 years.

Follow a Healthy Sleep Routine

So long as every other part of your body need rest, your eyes need more rest. Depriving the eyes of rest can lead to severe eye conditions. Although you might have discovered that you are more productive at night and want to finish all your work before daybreak, This is not a bad idea, as it will help you stay updated at your workplace. However, this will be at the expense of your eyes. The eyes need adequate rest and enough sleep to function properly for you the next day.

Check Your Family History

Some families have histories of bad eye health. Since it sprints through the family, it is best to do research into your family health history to figure out whether or not you are likely to suffer from any eye health condition. Some of the most expected eye conditions that run in families include glaucoma, astigmatism, short and long-sightedness. Researching into your family history will help you detect what eye condition you are likely to suffer from and also trigger early detection and immediate treatment. This measure will prevent it from getting out of hand.

Avoid Dry Air

Dry air can come from smokes, car heaters, and even hair dryers. When airs from these things blow directly into your eyes, your eyes lose all their moisture, and this could be dangerous for your eyes. This can make your eyes irritated, causing you to scratch them, which eventually makes them turn red. To avoid such airs from entering your eyes, stay away from them, or on the other hand, keep your eyes hydrated or moisturized by adding eye drops to them. Also, if you are going to visit a place that is known to have too much dry air, try to take along with you scarves or sunglasses, as well as your eye drops to protect your eyes from the dry air and also keep your eyes moisturized.

Wear Sunglasses

Exposing yourself excessively to the sun can be dangerous for your health. It can, on the one hand, cause skin damage, and on the other, it can affect your eyes. The culprit of these problems is the ultraviolet rays from the sun. Leaving your eyes unprotected from the sun can affect your eyes, or staring directly into the sun can destroy your eyes; it could burn your cornea and other delicate parts of your eyes. Thus, when you go out in the sun, do not wear only sunscreen for your skin, also wear sunglasses for your eyes. Experts have also suggested the use of umbrellas, as they have proven to be useful in the protection of the eyes and skin from the harmful rays of the sun.

Quit Smoking

If you love smoking, you should quit it if you love your eyes. Research has demonstrated that the risk of eye conditions like cataracts and macular degeneration doubles or even triples in smokers. Thus, if you do not want to go blind in your old age, or suffer severe eye conditions, quit smoking. Although it might be difficult to quit just like that, adopting a measure that can help make your quitting process easier will go a long way in helping you forget that you were once a smoker. Also, how long you have smoked in your life does not make it too late for you to quit now.

Healthy Exercises

You may be thinking about how physical exercises can help in the protection of eye health. Well, physical exercises for eye health happens not to be out of context. According to research, engaging in healthy physical exercises can help protect the eyes by pumping more oxygen and blood into the eyes. When these occur, the eyes stay strong and healthy for you.

Conclusion

No part of the body should be toyed with, especially the eyes. Since it is responsible for over half of what we perceive in the world, it should be maintained and properly taken care of.