Your eyes are one of the most important organs in your body. Things like stress, nutrition, and blood pressure all affect your eyes. Taking good care of your eyes is the best way to stay healthy and to make sure you’ll be able to see well into old age.
The Importance of Eye Exams
Getting a yearly checkup might seem annoying, but there are so many important things an optometrist can tell by looking at your eyes. Inflammation, high blood pressure, and diabetes all leave signs in the eye.
On top of that, wearing corrective lenses can help stop eyesight loss. Glasses and contacts help limit eye strain and can stop or slow your eyes from continuing to decline. So, by getting an exam and realizing you need glasses you can keep yourself from having eyesight degrading.
Finally, getting an eye exam gives doctors the chance to identify what you could be at risk for. If you get an eye exam the doctor could tell you what lifestyle changes you need to make to keep your eyes healthy. This might be a change in diet, a prescription, or simply sunglasses!
Lifestyle Changes
The biggest risk to your eye health is smoking. If you smoke or are around smoke, you are at risk for cataracts, macular degeneration, and cancer. These all can affect your vision and seriously impact the likelihood of you having good eyesight when you're older. Obviously, the advice of “quit smoking” isn’t really enough. If you want support there are plenty of free options such as those on https://smokefree.gov and also BestHealth. Sharp has also put together an article on helping you quite as well, check it out by clicking here.
Diet is also a big part of eye health. Your eyes require a lot of nutrients that other parts of the body don’t need. Most of these nutrients are found in fish, fruits, and green vegetables. Spinach, peppers, kale, leeks, avocado, and blueberries all contain nutrients that keep your eyes up and running. The leading cause of blindness is AMD, age-related macular degeneration. Studies show that the right diet can decrease your risk for AMD by 40%!
Sleep is another huge part of eye health. Do you ever notice that your eyes feel dry when you sleep poorly? Your eyes are a unique organ and set of muscles that are basically always moving. They need rest! Chronic fatigue can seriously degrade your eye health. If you’re having a rough sleep schedule, try giving your eyes breaks throughout the day. If you can find 10 minutes to relax and close your eyes daily, your future self will thank you!
Exercise is one of the best ways to prevent all sorts of eye trouble. Your eyes need oxygen, just like any other organ and just like any other set of muscles, aerobic exercise is the best way to boost oxygen supplies and make sure your eyes are getting what they need to repair and stay healthy. Additionally, exercise helps lower blood pressure, high blood pressure can lead to glaucoma and ocular hypertension, both of which are severely damaging to the eyes.
Quick Fixes
Here are some rapid-fire eye tips for you!
-Limit screen time and use blue light filters on computers/phones
-Wear glasses and hats when outside in the sun (eyes can get sunburned and UV light increases your risk for AMD and cataracts)
-This is doubly true if you’re at the beach or at the ski slopes. These are two high UV areas! Be safe!
-Stay hydrated, especially if you’re drinking alcohol
-Wear goggles in high particulate areas, like construction sites or dusty warehouses
Vision Insurance can help
If you have VSP through SDPEBA or the City/County, they make getting an eye exam and taking care of your eyes easy!
If you want to learn more, check out this article to learn more about how vision insurance can help you!