Maintaining Healthy Eyes

A regular eye exam is the best way to protect your eyesight – and an easy precaution to take. Many sight-threatening diseases can be cured or slowed if caught early enough.

How important is nutrition to eye health?

Research indicates proper nutrition is critical to maintaining and preserving eye health for both men and women. As part of a healthy diet, choose foods rich in antioxidants; including foods like dark green, leafy vegetables and fish.

An inadequate intake of antioxidants and consumption of alcohol and saturated fats may create free-radical reactions that can harm the macula. High-fat diets can also cause deposits that constrict blood flow in the arteries. The eyes are especially sensitive to this, given the small size of the blood vessels that feed them.

Don’t smoke

Smoking exposes your eyes to high levels of oxidative stress and it is a known risk factor for developing AMD, with smokers up to four times more likely of developing AMD than non-smokers.

Exercise

Exercise improves blood circulation, which increases oxygen levels to the eyes and helps remove toxins which may help to protect the retina.

Wear sunglasses

Being outdoors in the sun can feel wonderful – but it can be tough on your eyes. Fortunately, there’s an easy solution: sunglasses. Be sure to choose a pair that can block harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays. Also, a hat with a wide brim will reduce the amount of UV radiation exposure from above or around the periphery of your sunglass lenses.

Computer use

Computer images are created from thousands of tiny dots – so there is no distinct image for your eye to focus on. You have to focus and refocus to keep the images sharp – and after two hours you can end up with the same kind of repetitive stress in your eye muscles that the keyboard causes in your wrists. You can reduce the impact of computer eyestrain by following a few simple rules:

• Keep your computer screen within 50-60cm of your eyes
• Keep the top of your computer screen slightly below eye level
• Minimise the distance between your computer screen and any documents you need to reference while working
• Use the 20-20-20 rule and take a break every 20 minutes to focus on an object over 20 feet away for 20 seconds
• Blink frequently to restabilise your tear film
• Adjusting the light to minimise glare on the screen

Eye Injuries

If your eye is injured, it is tempting to think that you can just flush it out with some cold water and it will be fine. However, it is not easy to judge the extent or severity of any eye injury, so you should always get immediate, professional medical attention. It is the best way to safeguard your vision.

Here are some symptoms that may signal serious eye injury:

• Obvious eye pain or vision problems
• Cut or torn eyelid
• One eye that does not move as completely as the other
• One eye that protrudes more than the other
• Abnormal pupil size or shape
• Blood in the white of the eye
• Something imbedded in the eye
• Something under the eyelid that cannot be easily removed