We’ve been told by our grandmothers to always eat squash and carrots to avoid eye defects at an early age. Mine often scolded me if she saw me out in the scorching sun without a cap or a visor. She said that I’ll thank her later, and now I do. I know now – at 40 years old and with perfect vision – how vital taking care of our vision is.
Most of my colleagues at work are taking eye supplements like zinc and lutein. Some are regularly using contact lenses to correct their vision or just to change the color of their eyes. However whatever way you deal with your eyes, do make sure you are aware of the natural ways of protecting yourself from devastating eye disorders – and be eye-healthy for a long time.
The Relevance Of Eye Exams
If you have not visited your ophthalmologist recently, you should schedule an appointment soon. Several eye problems, like glaucoma and cataracts, develop slowly, and you don’t notice that your vision is gradually emerging until it becomes advanced.
Eye exams are an important part of our journey through healthy living. Taking care of our vision is as relevant as keeping track of what we eat and drink. Having our eyes checked monthly or quarterly allows us to be aware of what we need to do in case something serious – or not so serious – comes up. It’ll be a great deal to be able to correct a visual abnormality as early as possible.
Eye Health And Visual Impairments
Apart from having regular eye assessments, modifying some of your habits and improving your eating plans can definitely improve your chances of preserving your perfect vision up until your age progresses. However, it’s not a guarantee. Thousands of people worldwide are inflicted with a range of visual impairments, from simple astigmatism to chronic visual disorders such as macular degeneration, cataracts, retinopathy, and glaucoma.
Surveys from 2000 until recently revealed a 90% increase in eye problems, particularly due to diabetes, with about 8 million people who are over 40 showing signs of diabetic retinopathy, cataracts, and glaucoma. On the other hand, an estimated 2 million Americans are affected by macular degeneration.
Natural Ways To Keep Your Eyes Healthy
The details above only prove how essential it is for all of us to monitor our eye health. Here are some natural methods that we can follow, as recommended by 500 Time-Tested Remedies and the Science Behind Them.
- Wear A Cap Or Sunglasses When You’re Out In The Sun. Yes, the sun supplements us with vitamin D, but not at all hours! So when you’re out in the unholy hours of the day, and it’s scorching hot, protect your eyes with sunglasses or a cap. Prolonged exposure to ultraviolet light destroys eyesight, which is why protection from your glasses should also be about 99-100%
- Take Time To Walk Daily. It doesn’t have to be vigorous. Just as long as it wakes your heart and your lungs, it will go a long, long way. Jogging, running, or walking regularly prevents hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes – all villains of the eye.
- Maintain A Healthy Weight. Obesity is also a culprit and one of the most critical causes of diabetes and is, therefore, a risk factor for visual impairments. We will be saving ourselves from a ton of mental and physical disorders by striving to keep our ideal weight. However, Traci Stein, Ph.D., MPH, warns, “If your weight changes at the expense of your mental health, friendships (because you’re always so focused on weight), energy levels, or your sense of self-worth, something is way out of balance. And, even if you achieve the goal weight you’ve idealized, this alone won’t make you feel happy, loved, or worthy.”
- Avoid Smoking. Adi Jaffe, Ph.D., a lecturer at UCLA and the CEO of online mental health and addiction program IGNTD, says that quitting smoking without help is hard, “It seems that the first week may be difficult because of general cognitive interference by stimuli and cues that are nicotine associated. Those cues make it hard to pay attention to much else, and they interfere with normal thinking and attention process, making sticking to the quit attempt difficult.” Smoking is a risk factor for almost all conditions, especially arterial diseases, which is one cause of eye damage. It contains chemicals that produce adverse effects on the body’s cells, ultimately leading to cell death.
- Have A Cup Of Tea. The extracts of green tea have been shown to help prevent diabetes and cardiac conditions and also fight against the lens and retinal destruction (which leads to cataracts). “No matter where [you] live, mindfully sipping on a drink can change your sensations, soothe your taste buds and fill you with stress-buffering nutrients,” says clinical psychologist and mindful eating expert Susan Albers, Psy.D. If you’re not a tea lover, you might as well learn to make it part of your time. Dr. Albers suggests, “Find a quiet place to mindfully drink your tea.”
Takeaway
Following the tips mentioned above is not a surefire way to prevent eye diseases, but there’s no harm at all in practicing healthy habits that may help us in one way or another improve or maintain our health – mentally, physically, and, of course, visually!