Maintaining Healthy Eyes

A regular eye exam is the best way to protect your eyesight – and an easy precaution to take. Another way to safeguard your vision is through proper nutrition.

Nutrition is a key component of eye health?

As part of an eye-healthy diet, choose foods rich in antioxidants, like vitamins A and C, such as dark leafy, green vegetables and fish. An inadequate intake of antioxidants, as well as over 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.

What if diet just isn’t enough?

Studies indicate that proper nutrition is important to maintaining eye health. As we age, our eyes may not get enough nutrition through diet alone.

Does smoking affect the eyes too?

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

Exercise

Exercise is important because it improves blood circulation, increases oxygen levels and helps to remove toxins from around the body. This increased oxygen level and removal of toxins from the eyes 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.

At the Computer

After two hours of staring at a computer screen, you can end up with the same kind of repetitive stress in your eye muscles that a keyboard causes in your wrists. Here are a few tips to help reduce the impact of computer eyestrain:

• 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
• Adjust lighting to minimize glare on the screen
• 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

Eye Injuries

If your eye is injured, you should always get immediate, professional medical attention. It’s simply the best way to safeguard your vision.  Here are some symptoms that may signal a serious eye injury:

• Obvious 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 embedded in the eye
• Something under the eyelid that cannot be easily removed