March is Save Your Vision Month: 10 top tips to protect your eyes
How can you protect your eye health?
Our sight is perhaps the most important of all our senses and doing what we can to ensure its health is absolutely crucial. March is Save Your Vision Month, so when better than now to discuss the ways in which we can look after our eyes? There are a number of choices you can make, including lifestyle changes, which all contribute towards better eye health, and we’re going to share our top 10 tips for achieving this.
1. Attend regular eye tests
First and foremost, attending regular eye tests is the best thing you can do to monitor your eye health. You should aim to visit your optician every two years or more often if you have a family history of inherited eye conditions, for example glaucoma. At an eye test, your optician can check for a number of things which may put your eye health at risk or affect your sight, including; eye pressure, presence of cataracts, retinal damage, prescription changes and more.
2. Eat a healthy, balanced diet
We’ve all heard the saying ‘you are what you eat’, and this rings especially true for your eye health. What you consume plays a huge part in your overall eye health, including the right foods reducing your likelihood of developing cataracts and age-related macular degeneration, as well as improving your night vision. A number of foods such as grapes, leafy greens and fish are especially good for your eye health, and you can discover more about which foods promote healthy vision here on our blog.
3. Stay well hydrated
Ensuring you drink enough water goes a long way to preventing dry eyes. Symptoms of dry eyes can include a burning sensation in the eye, red eyes, light sensitivity, or even blurry vision. You should drink two litres of water a day in order to keep these symptoms at bay and to keep the composition of your eye’s tear film well balanced. Your eye’s tear film has a mucus layer, an oily layer and an aqueous layer, and drinking water is essential for keeping your aqueous layer balanced within the tear film makeup. Discover more in our dedicated blog post on this topic.
4. Wear sunglasses
We all know that your skin can be sunburned from too much exposure to UV rays, but did you know that your eyes can also be burned by the sun? This is a condition called photokeratitis, resulting in red and watery eyes and blurry vision. Too much sun can also increase your risk of cataracts and macular degeneration, as well as other eye conditions such as pinguecula and pterygium. Wearing sunglasses helps to protect your eyes from the sun, thereby reducing your risk of these. Learn more about the sun’s impact on our eyes.
5. Quit smoking
Over 6 million people in the UK are smokers and, thankfully, this number is decreasing all the time. When we consider the negative health implications of smoking, we usually think of its impacts on our lungs, but the ways it affects your eye health are also significant. In fact, you are four times more likely to lose your vision if you smoke, and this number only increases if you’re a heavy smoker. Smoking causes damaged blood vessels in your eyes, optic neuropathy, and thyroid eye disease, to name just a few of the conditions.
6. Reduce your alcohol intake
If we think about alcohol’s effects on particular organs, the liver usually springs to mind but alcohol’s impacts on your eyes are also important to consider. Short term effects of alcohol on your eyes include eyelid twitching and weakened eye muscle coordination, while long term effects include decreased peripheral vision, dry eye disease and an increased risk of cataracts and AMD. For the sake of your eye health, try not to regularly drink in excess, and learn more about how alcohol can affect your eyes here.
7. Minimise hand-eye contact
Touching your eyes brings them into contact with any bacteria that happens to be on your hands. Commonly-occurring eye infections include conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye. It results in unpleasant symptoms like swollen eyes, discharge and crusting, and incredibly itchy and uncomfortable eyes. Avoiding touching your eyes at all, or only doing so after washing your hands, will reduce your risk of developing eye infections.
8. Reduce your screen time
The average British person’s daily screen time is more than 13 hours. The effects this has on our eyes are huge, especially when it comes to eye strain, blurred vision and increased light sensitivity. There are a number of steps you can take to reduce these symptoms when it comes to your screen use, as well as simply trying to minimise time spent looking at screens. Try to pick up a book on your commute instead of mindlessly scrolling, and you may notice some visual benefits too!
9. Sleep well (and enough!)
As much as we might all aim for 8 hours of sleep per night, most people tend to be around the 6.5-7 hour mark instead. Common side effects of not sleeping enough include eye spasms, light sensitivity and blurry vision. Over a long period, consistent lack of sleep can even increase your risk of glaucoma, as well as chronic eye strain. Quality sleep of 7-9 hours per night should help your eyes to feel refreshed. Try to have a regular sleep schedule and avoid screens in the hour before bed to improve the quality of your sleep.
10. Exercise regularly
Keeping physically active and making sure you exercise at least three times a week has been proven to boost your eye health and lower your risk of developing sight-threatening eye conditions. Some of these diseases or illnesses include glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, cataracts, and wet age-related macular degeneration. Exercising regularly also keeps your blood pressure low, which is great for your overall eye health.
Follow these top 10 tips to protect your eyes during this Save Your Vision Month and beyond. If you have questions about improving your vision, give us a call on 0800 093 1110 or send us an email to enquiry@optimax.co.uk. Don’t let poor sight hold you back anymore – start your journey to clear, natural vision today.
