10 Ways to Maintain Your Eye Health

1. Get an Annu­al Dilat­ed Eye Exam

Adults should have a year­ly dilat­ed eye exam to detect com­mon con­di­tions like cataracts, glau­co­ma or mac­u­lar degen­er­a­tion. These dis­eases could slow­ly be dam­ag­ing the eye and you would not be aware of the destruc­tion unless you have a dilat­ed eye exam. Be proac­tive and pre­vent blind­ness before its too late, sched­ule your annu­al eye exam (be sure to request dilation).

2. Eat Green Leafy Vegetables

Don’t dis­count the pow­er of the leafy greens, such as spinach, kale, and let­tuce. These have a pow­er­ful antiox­i­dant called lutein which can help pro­tect against mac­u­lar degeneration

3. Give Your Eyes a Break

If you work in front of a com­put­er screen all day, use the 20−20−20 rule to let your eyes rest: Every 20 min­utes, look 20 feet away or more for at least 20 sec­onds. This will help break the mus­cle spasms that can occur in the eye which can lead to eye­strain and headaches.

4. Stop Smoking

Smok­ing speeds up a process called oxi­da­tion in the eye, which increas­es your risk of devel­op­ing cataracts and mac­u­lar degeneration.

5. Stay Cool and Wear Shades

Just as you wear sun­block to pro­tect against sun­burn, you should always wear sun­glass­es when­ev­er you are out in sun. Sun­glass­es should pro­vide 99 – 100 per­cent pro­tec­tion from UVA and UVB radi­a­tion, and this will pro­tect you against cataracts, mac­u­lar degen­er­a­tion, and ocu­lar tumors. Check the label before you pur­chase your glass­es, be sure the pro­tec­tion is adequate.

6. Do Not Sleep in Your Con­tact Lenses

It does­n’t mat­ter what type of con­tacts you wear (month­ly, dai­ly or overnight lens­es) you should nev­er sleep in any type of con­tact lens­es. Sleep­ing in your con­tact lens­es will increase your risk of devel­op­ing a corneal ulcer, which can lead to rapid blind­ness. Take the extra minute each night to remove your con­tact lens­es and don’t gam­ble with your vision.

7. Stock your Home with Saline Eyewash 

We have many liq­uids in our house that can quick­ly dam­age the eye. By hav­ing saline solu­tion handy, you can swift­ly flush tox­ins out and pre­vent irre­versible scar­ring. Tim­ing is of the utmost impor­tance when chem­i­cals are involved.

8. Do Not Use Drops that say ​“Gets the Red Out”

Eye drops that claim ​“will get the red out” will also suf­fo­cate the eye by con­strict­ing the blood ves­sels that sup­ply it with oxy­gen and nutri­ents. Over time, your eye will become addict­ed to the drops, a con­di­tion referred to as rebound red­ness. If your eyes are chron­i­cal­ly red you should see an oph­thal­mol­o­gist for fur­ther eval­u­a­tion. It’s nev­er too late to break the eye drop addiction.

9. Do Not Ignore Warn­ing Signs

We under­stand it is nec­es­sary to see an eye doc­tor when our vision becomes blur­ry. How­ev­er, don’t dis­re­gard oth­er symp­toms such as floaters, flash­es of light, or wavi­ness of straight lines. These symp­toms could be an ear­ly indi­ca­tion to reti­nal dis­eases that can quick­ly lead to blindness. 

10. Blink and Blink Again

Fre­quent and gen­tle blink­ing is essen­tial to main­tain­ing healthy eyes and opti­mal vision because it allows your eye­lids to keep the sur­face of the eyes coat­ed with ben­e­fi­cial lay­ers of tears. It’s best to blink every two to four sec­onds or about fif­teen to thir­ty blinks per minute. Pay spe­cial atten­tion to this while work­ing on the com­put­er. Peo­ple tend to blink about half as much as need­ed while con­cen­trat­ing, which can lead to dry and blur­ry eyes, oth­er­wise known as com­put­er vision syn­drome (CVS).

To sched­ule your annu­al eye exam or dis­cuss any healthy con­cerns regard­ing your eyes, our Oph­thal­mol­o­gists are here to help. Sched­ule an oph­thal­mol­o­gy appoint­ment online.