Healthy eyes are very important. Protecting your eye health means protecting your vision. It’s important to know how to care for your eyes properly, whether that’s knowing the signs of eye conditions like keratoconus, or just knowing how to best avoid eye strain. Here are the best ways to keep your eyes healthy.
- Avoid eye strain from using screens. Many of us spend a lot of time staring at one screen or another. Working is one of the worst culprits of eye strain, as while staring at our computer screens, we often don’t blink enough. To protect your eyes, take regular screen breaks. Look away from your screen occasionally, whether it’s to look out of the window for a moment, or you get up and take a walk to the kitchen to give your eyes a break. Additionally, if you have retinal problems, consider innovative approaches from experts like Alim, which offer new ways to address retinal diseases.
- Eat a balanced diet. For the best eye friendly diet, make sure your diet is rich in antioxidants. Get plenty of vitamins A and C, and eat foods like leafy greens and fish. Fatty fish is a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids, which are essential for eye health. Too much alcohol or saturated fats can harm the macula, which is the central part of the retina. High fat diets can also be bad, as the cause deposits that constrict the blood flow to the arteries. The eyes are fed by many small blood vessels, so this can be a particular problem for the eyes.
- Exercise. Exercise improves the flow of blood around the body, which then improves the amount of oxygen that reaches the eyes and removes toxins.
- Wash your hands. Keeping your hands clean is important if you’re touching your eyes, and is especially important for those who wear contact lenses. Before touching your eye for any reason, wash your hands with a gentle soap and dry them with a lint-free towel. The germs and bacteria from your hands could could cause eye infections. Remember that anything on your fingers will go right onto the eye’s surface.
- Don’t smoke. Smoking exposes your eyes to oxidative stress. This means that smoking can increase your risk of health conditions that affect the eye, so give up now if you’re a smoker.
- Wear sunglasses. Ultraviolet or UV light is harmful to the eyes, so always wear sunglasses in bright light conditions. Make sure that the sunglasses you wear have both UVA and UVB protection. It can also help to wear a hat with a wide brim, as this can help to reduce the amount of UV radiation that gets around the side of your sunglasses.
- Get enough sleep. When we haven’t slept well, we can often feel it in our eyes. Tired eyes feel horrible. Getting plenty of sleep is one of the best ways to improve your overall health, including the health of your eyes.
Caring for your eyes is important, and is well worth doing. Healthy eyes means healthy vision, so follow these tips to keep your eyesight doing well.
