Your eyes play a crucial role in your daily activities whether you’re preparing food, driving, or working in the office. Thus, it’s vital to keep your eyesight in check. Luckily, there are simple hacks to help keep your vision at its best.
Having your eyes regularly checked is one way to maintain your best vision. However, there are also other steps you can take to prevent eye damage and have better eyesight.
- Give Your Eyes Some Rest
Your eyes also get tired as you work through the day especially if you work with a computer. To give your eyes some rest, think about the 20-20-20 rule. You can do this by looking somewhere 20 feet away for 20 seconds after every 20 minutes of staring at the computer. You can also do this when reading, letting your eyes rest every 20 minutes.
- Eat Healthily
To ensure the health of your eyes and body, include foods that are rich in vitamins A and C. Eat broccoli, carrots, citrus, red peppers, spinach, broccoli, strawberries, and sweet potato to improve your eye health. Make sure that you’re eating foods high in antioxidants, too. These include fish, leafy green vegetables, and fruits. Other foods such as fatty fish, contain omega-3 fatty acids that are vital to your eyes’ health especially the macula, which is responsible for central vision.
The lack of antioxidants and the consumption of too much-saturated fats and alcohol may produce free-radical reactions that can negatively affect the health of the macula. Diets that contain too much fat may also lead to deposits that will limit blood flow in the arteries. Your eyes are especially sensitive to this condition because of the small size of the blood vessels that surround them.
- Maintain A Healthy Weight
Keeping a healthy weight doesn’t only make you look good but it also keeps your eyes in their best condition. An active lifestyle and staying fit can help lower your chance of getting type 2 diabetes, which destroys the blood vessels in the eyes. If you have this disease, small arteries in the retina will leak fluid and blood into the eyes, which can impair vision.
- Avoid Or Quit Smoking
Cigarette smoking has been proven to harm your health. It can damage the lungs, skin, heart, and teeth. However, smoking has been found to affect your eyes, too. This is because smoking increases the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration and cataracts. Smoking also causes dry eyes and leads to the early formation of wrinkles around the eyes.
- Have Annual Health Checkups
Because hypertension and diabetes increase the likelihood of getting eye diseases such as cataracts and glaucoma, it might be helpful to get regular annual health checkups. Blurry vision is a symptom of various health issues such as hypertension. Thus, a regular checkup with your doctor is beneficial.
- Ensure Eye Protection From The Sun
When you stay outdoors under the sun for long periods of time, you should give your eyes the protection they need. Remember to protect your eyes from the sun all year round and not just during the summer. Use sunglasses that help block UVA and UVB radiation. If you’re constantly exposing your eyes to sunlight, you increase your chances of having macular degeneration and cataracts.
Also, spending time in very cold temperatures can also lead to dry, dehydrated eyes. If you experience this, it’s best to use eye drops or a humidifier to improve eye lubrication.
- Minimize Blue Light Exposure
Many people use digital devices for extended periods of time each day for their work or home activities. These devices expose your eyes to blue light, which is called such because the wavelengths they emit are within the bluer part of the spectrum.
Here are some tips you can do when working with a computer:
- Place the computer monitor within 20 to 24 inches from your eyes.
- The top of the computer monitor should be slightly below eye level.
- Manage lighting preferences to reduce glare on the screen.
- Blink frequently.
- Use eye drops to soothe dry and irritated eyes.
- Always Keep Your Hands Clean
Practicing good hygiene such as keeping your hands clean will help preserve your eyes’ health. Your eyes can easily become irritated if it comes in contact with germs. Thus, it’s best to practice washing your hands often especially before touching your eyes or before putting on or removing contact lenses.
Final Thoughts
Your eyes help you perform your daily tasks correctly and maintaining your health is vital. Protecting your eyes from the harmful rays of the sun and living a healthy lifestyle may not protect you against all eye diseases. However, doing the given tips can reduce the risk of developing vision-related problems.
