It’s common knowledge that to have a healthy body and mind, you have to lead a healthy lifestyle. You exercise your body daily. You eat the right foods as much as you can. You try to drink plenty of fluids throughout the day.
But most people forget one organ that also needs to be kept in mind when it comes to staying healthy: your eyes.
The gateway to the viewing world, your eyes need to be kept healthy too. Luckily, there are many ways you can keep your eyes healthy as you age.
Take these 10 ways for starters:
1. Get an Annual Eye Exam
It almost seems redundant, doesn’t it? But you would be surprised how many people don’t get their annual eye exam. And even though they don’t realize it, not getting one can negatively affect their current and future eye health.
Doctors, schools and workplaces are so adamant about your getting regular eye exams because they are the main places that track your eyes’ health. Just like you get a physical checkup every year with the doctor, you should be getting an eye exam.
2. Don’t Smoke
We understand it’s harder than it sounds, but smoking doesn’t just damage your lungs — it affects your eyes too! Smoking can lead to macular degeneration, which is a fancy way of saying your eyes slowly losing their ability to see.
3. Wear Protective Eye Wear
By protective eyewear, we mean safety glasses, goggles and sunglasses. Safety glasses and goggles are used in sports or rigorous activity like construction work, where your eyes have the chance of being hit or damaged. You can get them from your eye doctor in prescriptions or from regular stores such as sporting good stores.
Sunglasses are important because they do more than make you look cool on a warm summer day. They help protect your eyes from radiation. The best kind will protect your eyes from 99 to 100 percent of both UVA and UVB radiation.
4. Wash Your Hands
Washing your hands regularly will keep you from spreading infection into your eyes.
People touch their faces a lot through the day, whether that be scratching, itching or rubbing. If your hands are dirty, they can bring germs and dirt into the eye that will irritate it or lead to infections.
5. Eat Well
There are many beneficial vitamins and foods you can be eating and taking daily to improve your eye health. Vitamins A, C and E are good choices of daily vitamins. Along with those carrots, red peppers, broccoli, strawberries and citrus are some examples of fruits and vegetables that positively affect your eyes.
6. Rest Your Eyes
Our eyes can get tired from looking at a screen for too long, squinting for extended periods of time or not getting enough fluid around them. Make sure you are resting your eyes if you work at a computer all day or taking a break here and there from binge-watching TV.
And this break should not include a phone because that’s just another screen! And don’t forget to blink regularly.
7. Clean Your Contacts
Always wash your hands before handling your contacts because as we said before: germs. From there, make sure to thoroughly wash your contacts before putting them in or before putting them in their case if you don’t wear daily contacts.
Dirty contacts can lead to all sorts of problems, especially for those with allergies that affect the eye.
8. Get Enough Sleep
When you don’t get enough sleep, you feel tired, right? Well, so do your eyes.
Without enough sleep, your eyes don’t have the chance to fully replenish themselves after a long day. They become tired more easily and might feel uncomfortable or hard to open. By getting enough sleep, you avoid dry eye, eye twitches and under-eye bags.
9. Drink Plenty of Water
Drinking water every day, at least six cups, allows every organ in your body to function correctly, including your eyes. Your eyes are surrounded by fluid so it makes sense that if there’s not enough fluid going into your body, there won’t be enough fluid to go around to every organ, so dry eye can occur.
Adore Your Eyes
No matter how old you are, it’s always important to keep your eyes healthy. They are what allow you to see and experience the world around you, so it should be a top priority to keep them healthy.
Here at VisionQuest, we can help you keep your eyes healthy through exams, vision correction, vision therapy and much more.
Schedule an appointment with us today, and see how much our eye care specialists want the best for you and your vision.
Dr. Collin Rush is passionate about bringing clear eyesight and better eye health to the community. Having graduated in the top 1% of his class at Indiana University School of Optometry, Dr. Rush primarily focuses on dry eye and keratoconus but is also trained in laser therapies for glaucoma and secondary cataracts.