Whenever we go out of the house or even if we stay inside, we take care of what we wear. Our clothe and our shoes are aesthetically pleasing as well as functional. We also pay attention to our skin, our weight, and everything else. The one thing that most of us take for granted is our eyes. And let’s face it, it is pretty easy not to pay attention to our eye. They don’t bother us that much. But if we don’t add some habits into our daily routines that take care of our eyes, we might end up with a host of problems down the road that can affect our quality of life.
What everyone needs to do is to visit their ophthalmologist and optometrist regularly. That goes without saying. You need to make sure that your doctor takes an important exam of your eye so that they can detect any problem early on and handle it before it creates more questions for you. But there are other things that you can do as well that can help you avoid these problems. You must have heard the age-old saying, “Prevention is better than cure.” The same is true for your eyes. Getting your eyes checked and taking care of them in between can save you from diseases and ailments like diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, and others. It should be at the top of your list, just like your routine checkup, or like going to the dentist.
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What can happen to our Eyes?
If we don’t protect our eyes and make sure that they are in the best of health, we might have to suffer one of the following symptoms:
- Red eyes pain
- Partial or total vision loss
- Double vision
- Seeing blind spots
- Seeing halos around lights
- Areas where your vision is distorted
- It looks like a curtain or a film has been drawn across your eyes
- Injuries to your eyes or the area around your eyes
- Trouble identifying objects that are in your peripheral vision
- Trouble with reading
- Objects appear to be blurry
- Trouble seeing or identifying things at night
- Not able to identify different colors
- Itching in your eyes
- Continuous release of fluids from your eyes
If you are suffering from any of these symptoms, even if the effects are temporary, you should immediately make an appointment with your ophthalmologist or optometrist.
Tips to Take Care of Your Eyes
Although we do go to our doctors on a regular basis, that doesn’t mean that we can rest assured that everything is okay. We have to make sure that we adopt the following habits so that we can take care of our eye ourselves.
Here’s how you can do that:
Include Healthy Foods in Your Diet
Just like we eat various healthy foods to take care of our weight, calories, metabolism, and everything else, we should also include elements that are good for our eyesight. These include things like zinc, vitamin E, vitamin C, and omega-three fatty acids, among others, so that they can protect our eyes from problems like cataracts and other age-related issues. Make sure that you include as many green vegetables in your meals as you can. Other foods that you can take help from are salmon, eggs, broccoli, carrots, beans, collards, spinach, oranges, as well as citrus fruits. This will serve a double purpose. Not only will you be able to protect your eyes, but you will also stay in shape and take care of the rest of your body. These foods will also help you in keeping away from serious diseases like diabetes and CVD.
Eye Checkup at Regular Interval
Although we have discussed this point earlier, it cannot be emphasized enough. That is because we use our sense of sight more than we use any other sense. And especially since the dawn of smartphones, more and more of our lives are being spent in front of the screen. That and many more reasons compel us to get our eyes checked out every 3 or 4 months. Make sure that your ophthalmologist or your optometrist gives you a complete eye checkup. If you have any queries or if you are facing a problem, you can easily discuss it with them, and they will guide you towards the best solutions. Do this even if you don’t think you have an eyesight problem.
Wear UV Protective Sunglasses
Sunglasses are not only there to enhance your beauty and appeal, but they also perform an important function as well. That function is to protect your eyes from the UV rays that come with the sunlight. If your eyes are exposed to these UV rays, that can create many problems for you, including but not limited to macular degeneration. A lot of us wear sunglasses, but they are more concerned about the brand that they are wearing or the style of sunglasses. What you should be worried about is that your sunglasses should be able to block 99 percent of the harmful UV rays. Lenses are another option that you can opt for, but UV protective sunglasses are better. Whether you are wearing your lenses or your sunglasses, make sure that you never stare directly at the sun. if your eyes are exposed to the sun for a long time, the harmful UV rays can damage portions of your retina.
Use the right kind of eye make-up
We are very fond of putting on make-up, whether it’s for our face or our eyes. Just make sure that you choose the brand that works well with your eyes. If you find a brand or color that you really want to use, but you get an allergic reaction to it, dispose of it quickly. Looking good is not worth sacrificing your eyes. You can look for the same color in some other brand that doesn’t hurt your eyes.
Remove Eye Make-Up to Take Care of Your Eyes
One of the things that really hurt our eyes is not taking off the make-up once we are home and ready to go to bed. You know that you are exhausted from the event and can’t wait to get into bed that is looking extremely inviting right now. You also have to wake up early the next morning for the office and don’t want to be late. All these are compelling factors that make us fall asleep without properly removing our eye make-up. But it’s not worth the long term harmful effects that can haunt us. When we sleep with mascara or other eye make-up, it can get into our eyes. That causes soreness and painfulness in the eyes. If the make-up gets into the pores that exist around our eyes, it can cause eye styes by clogging those pores. This can cause severe infection in your eyes.
Exercise Your Eyes to Take Care
A little exercise goes a long way. We exercise so that we can develop muscles and get fitter and smarter, so why not for the eyes as well? There are a number of exercises that you can do to make sure that your eyes stay in shape and fit for a long time. One exercise that you can easily do is to lie down on a flat surface and close your eyes for 15 seconds, then open them for 15 seconds. Repeat this process at least ten times.
Get Adequate Sleep to Take Care of Your Eyes
A lot of us keep awake late at night and watch movies, surf the internet, and engage in social media platforms or something else. Staying awake late can cause your eyes to fall prey to fatigue, and you might have problems focusing on objects, irritation in the eyes, extreme dryness or tears, sensitivity to light, or you could feel pain in your neck, shoulders, or your back. Make sure that you go to bed at a decent hour and stop using the screen at least 2 hours before going to bed so you can wake up refreshed and not have to deal with any of these problems.
Limit Your Screen Time to Take Care of Your Eyes
Most of us spend most of our days looking at screens. Whether it’s for office work, personal work, or socialization, we do it all the time. And our screen time is only increasing. Staring at the screen for a long time can cause dryness in your eyes and put a strain on your eyes. The light that is emitted by the screens causes muscle fatigue and make your eyes sore. Limit your screen time to make sure that it doesn’t affect your eyes. If you can’t limit the screen time, then make sure that you follow the 20-20-20 rule. It means that for every 20 minutes that you spend looking at a screen, look away from your computer at something that is 20 feet away and look at it for 20 seconds. You can also blink your eyes fast multiple times to prevent dryness.
Conclusion
Our eyes are as important as any other organ in the body. In all our senses, we use our eyes the most. So make sure that you take care of them and stay healthy for a long time.
