To maintain good eyesight, there are many lifestyle habits one must adopt. On the other side, regular checkups can help catch issues at an early stage. Caring for and keeping good eye health is essential as our quality of life is greatly impacted by our vision. By adopting to below lifestyle habits one can ensure better eye health.
Quit Tobacco Products
Smoking can damage your eyes slowly, and it leaves you prone to getting early cataracts. Similarly, it can also affect your optic nerve in the long run. People often quit many times and then start again, but this is a sign that with a little more effort you can say a permanent goodbye to smoking.
Avoid Excessive Screen Times
If you have a lifestyle with excessive on-screen times then you must follow a plan to take breaks and avoid eyestrain. Too much screen time can arise many problems like blurry vision, headaches, dry eyes, neck & shoulder pain, and loss of focus at long distances.
Use Sunglasses
A good pair of sunglasses can protect your eyes from UV rays. Although some cheap or even free sunglasses are available in the market. But they are most often not designed to block UVA and UVB rays coming from the sun. Too much exposure to sunlight can cause macular degeneration or cataracts.
To protect your eyes, select a pair that can block 99% to 100% of UV rays coming from the sun. Polarized sunglasses also help to reduce glares but not all block UVA and UVB rays.
Eat Healthy Food
With age, the macula deteriorates and this condition is known as macular degeneration. If you take a healthy diet containing Zinc, antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins A, C, and E this will help to slow up or even maintain your eyesight. Below are some foods to include in your diet to manage a proper nutrient chart.
- Fish Oil
Fish oil is quite popular for overall body health. It contains omega-3 fatty acids along with many other nutrients. Some popular breed names with plenty of oil include; tuna, trout, salmon, sardines, and mackerel.
- Seeds
Seeds also offer a higher quantity of omega-3s, along with many other essential nutrients including vitamins. Some seeds names which are good for your eye health include chia, hemp, and flax seeds. One should keep these seeds in a regular diet plan so that your body can get enough nutrients according to requirements.
- Green Vegetables
Your body can get vitamin C from leafy green vegetables which are quite good for healthy eyes. Moreover, green vegetables are also good to maintain your general health, as they have many other minerals and antioxidants. Popular green leafy veggies include spinach, collards, and kale.
- Eggs
Another great source for lutein and zeaxanthin, which helps to prevent age-related macular degeneration. You can also get plenty of vitamin C, E, and zinc from eggs.
- Carrots
Carrots are rich in beta-carotene which helps our body to generate vitamin A. Besides that, carrots are also a good source of vitamin A. According to studies, vitamin A is an essential component of rhodopsin. Rhodopsin makes our retina able to absorb light and thus makes our eye create the image.
- Beef
A good source of zinc, which ensures our eye health and resist macular degeneration. Moreover, zinc also reduces the speed of eye-sight loss due to increasing age. Other meat including chicken also contains zinc, but the quantity is much less comparatively.
5 Things to adopt for Eye Protection
- Always take breaks at reasonable intervals. Like taking a short 3-5 minutes after every half hour.
- Look out of the window at far objects after every 20 minutes of screen time to refresh your vision.
- Use an anti-glare screen and set-up proper lighting in your office space
- Position the top of your screen according to your eye level, to avoid eye fatigue
- Don’t forget to blink your eyes. This helps to keep your eyes moist and avoid dryness.
Last Words
Even if you are following a good diet plan, still you need to visit an optometrist regularly to catch any eye problem in the early stage such as refractive error or other possible eye diseases. At an early stage, it's easier to handle and be referred to a doctor earlier.