12 Boosters To Boost Your Eye Health

12 Boosters To Boost Your Eye Health

Maintaining healthy habits, like good nutrition, is very important for your eyes, they boost up your eye health.Don't take your eyes for granted. Protect your sight with these 10 tips: 

1. Avoid Rubbing Your EyesToo Much: The skin around your eyes is one of the first areas on your face to show signs of aging. Rubbing your eyes can break tiny blood vessels under the skin's surface and cause dark circles and puffy eyes, as well as premature crow's feet and drooping eyelids. So refrain from pulling and tugging at the skin around your eyes.

2. Never Forget Your Sunglasses : Be cool and wear your shades Exposing your eyes to the sun's harmful UV and high-energy visible (HEV) rays is a surefire way to prematurely age and damage your eyes and eyelids. Extended sun exposure leads to: sunburn; cataracts; macular degeneration; pinguecula and pterygium (unsightly growths on the eye); and even cancer of the eyelid. Wear sunglasses that block 100 percent of UV rays and the most damaging HEV rays — even on overcast days!

3. Quit smoking or never start: Smoking is as bad for your eyes as it is for the rest of your body. Research has linked smoking to an increased risk of developing age-related macular degeneration, cataract, and optic nerve damage, all of which can lead to blindness in fact, smokers are up to four times more likely to go blind, compared with non-smokers. The good news is that quitting smoking, no matter what your age, can reduce your risk of developing a serious eye condition.

4. Get Beauty Sleep : Getting Enough Quality Shut-Eye It's called beauty sleep for a reason: Getting enough sleep is essential for eye health. Sleep allows your eyes to fully rest, repair, and recover. Insufficient sleep may accelerate aging, and your eyes may be the first to suffer! Lack of sleep causes red, bloodshot eyes, dark circles under the eyes, eye twitching, dry eyes and blurry vision, so shoot for 8 hours of sound sleep a night.

5. Drinking Enough Water: Not getting the recommended eight glasses of water a day and eating a high-sodium diet can cause your body to dehydrate and in turn not produce enough tears to keep your eyes moist and properly nourished. Eye-related symptoms of dehydration include dryness, redness and puffy eyelids.

6. Seeing Your Eye Doctor Regularly: Everyone, even young children, should get their eyes examined regularly. It helps you protect your sight and see your best. can also find some eye diseases, such as , that have no symptoms. It's important to find these diseases early on, when they're easier to treat. Depending on your eye health needs, you can see either an optometrist or an ophthalmologist for an . If you don't already, start scheduling regular eye exams for you and your family. Proper eye examination glaucoma Proper eye examination

7. Wear Protective Eyewear: You may wear goggles to protect your eyes from chlorine in the swimming pool, but what about other occasions when your eyes may be at risk? If splinters, dust, and other small particles get into your eye, there is a risk of corneal abrasions that could threaten your vision. The American Academy of Ophthalmology estimates that 90 percent of eye injuries could be avoided by wearing protective eyewear. Be sure to safeguard your eyes while cycling, doing DIY jobs (particularly sanding and sawing) and even gardening (bamboo canes, twigs, and thorns can pose a serious hazard to your eyes).Protective eyewear includes safety glasses and goggles, safety shields, and eye guards specially designed to provide the correct protection for a certain activity. Most protective eyewear lenses are made of polycarbonate, which is 10 times stronger than other plastics. Many eye care providers sell protective eyewear, as do some sporting goods stores.

8. Make Your Working Environment Comfortable: Employees are required to provide a safe work environment. When protective eyewear is required as a part of your job, make a habit of wearing the appropriate type at all times and encourage your coworkers to do the same. Use proper lighting when working. Keep the room you are in softly lit. When reading, try to keep your light source located behind you and keep the light directed on the paper or the task you are working on.At work, or at a desk, use a shaded light source positioned on the desk in front of you. Again, keep the light directed towards your work and the shade will protect your eyes from direct light from the source. Avoid watching television or working on the computer in the dark. Make sure that your light is not too bright or low when working. Lower intensity bulbs and fluorescent lights are ideal to use as lighting condition for your work area.

9. Make Over Your Makeup Routine: You have probably never thought about bacteria lurking in your mascara and other eye cosmetics, but germs love these products and can end up causing eye infections. Bacteria can thrive in mascara, so toss the tube after three months. Also, sharpen liner pencils regularly. Its okay, of course, to line the base of your lashes, but “putting liner inside the lash line can block the oil glands, which protect your eyes’ surface,” says Ruth D. Williams, M.D., a former president of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. If you balk at throwing away unfinished (and often pricey) cosmetics four times a year, try the sniff test: Simply smell them before use, suggests the Mayo Clinic. Mascara will smell just as bad as fish does when it’s not fresh.

10. Send Your Children Outside: An indoor lifestyle could have a negative effect on children’s eyesight, leading to an increased risk of myopia (nearsightedness). Scientists at Cambridge University found that children spend too little time outside, where the light is natural and the horizons are further away. Studies show that every hour children regularly spend outside reduces their risk of near-sightedness by 2 percent.

11.Exercise Your Eyes: Some simple exercises will help you relax your eyes.Perform these exercises first thing in the morning, before bedtime, or any time your eyes feel fatigued.

• Warm your eyes: Rub your palms together to create heat, and then place them against your eyes for five seconds. Repeat this three times.
• Roll your eyes: Start by looking up and then slowly circle 10 times clockwise and 10 times counterclockwise.
• Focus: Hold a pen at arm's length, focus your eyes on it, and slowly bring the pen closer until it's about 6 inches away from your nose. Then slowly move it back, keeping your eyes focused on the pen, 10 times in all.
• Massage your temples: Using your thumb knuckles, massage your temples in small circles, 20 times in one direction and 20 in the other. Repeat the same actions above the midpoint of the eyebrows at the forehead, then below the eyes on both sides of the bridge of the nose.
• Take a mini-nap: Put your head back, close your eyes, and relax for 3 minutes.

12. Give Your Eyes a Break from the Digital Screen: In today’s era most of our work is done on Computers, tablets, e-readers, smartphones and other electronic devices with visual displays which all can cause tired eyes, digital eye strain and computer vision syndrome. It is a type of eye fatigue that strains the eyes. You can reduce your risk of suffering from dry eyes while working at a computer simply by positioning the screen just below eye level. This will mean that your eyes will naturally close slightly when you’re viewing the screen, which minimizes fluid evaporation. In addition, adjust your computer’s brightness, text size and contrast that properly suit your vision and make you feel comfortable.

Ms. Najwa Mansuri (M.Optom)
Lecturer (Optometry)