Keep Your Peepers Perfect With These Little Known Tips
You may not often think about the health of your eyes, but it’s important to maintain healthy habits so that your vision stays strong, even as you age. While making sure you get an annual eye care examination is crucial in that effort, there are other things you can do on your own throughout the day to improve and maintain the health of your eyes. Check out these simple tricks for keeping your eyes happy and healthy, well into your older years.
1) Know Your Family (Eye) History
Knowing your family eye history can be helpful in avoiding and diagnosing problems related to your own eyes. For example, you could be at higher risk for developing an eye disease or condition based on your family history, so make sure you give your eye doctor the complete picture of that history when visiting for an eye examination.
2) Maintain a Healthy Diet for Your Eyes, Too
You’ve probably heard about how eating carrots is good for the health of your eyes, but there are other foods that work to keep your eyes healthy. These include dark leafy greens like kale and spinach, and more foods that may surprise you.
3) Wear Sunglasses
This one can seem obvious, but sometimes we forget that sunglasses do more than just add an element of style to our outfits. For starters, sunglasses protect your eyes from the sun’s ultraviolet rays. Make sure you purchase a pair that blocks out both UV-A and UV-B radiation.
4) Look Away From the Screen Every Now and Again
You may not realize it, but staring at a computer screen all day can be really harsh on your eyes. Give your eyes a break by looking up from the screen every 20 minutes, for about 20 seconds; you should be looking about 20 feet in front of you. This is called the 20-20-20 rule, and it’s a simple trick to let your eyes rest a little bit during the long work day.
5) Avoid Cigarette Smoke
It’s no secret that cigarette smoke has a negative effect on your health, but many people don’t realize that cigarettes are also bad for your eyes. Research has linked smoke with cataracts, optic nerve damage, and other eye issues that could lead to blindness.
6) Wash Your Hands
You may be thinking, “What do my hands have to do with my eyes?” But you probably touch your face and the skin around our eyes a lot more than you may think. When you touch your eyes or remove your contacts with unclean hands, you risk infections in your eyes, so always wash your hands as often as possible, and especially before touching your eyes.
7) Commit to Getting Regular Eye Exams
You should get your eyes checked out just about as regularly as you go to the dentist. Getting a dilated eye exam could help you treat glaucoma and other eye diseases even before they start showing symptoms.
8) Use Eye Protection When Needed
Similar to the way that sunglasses protect your eyes from the sun, safety glasses and goggles protect your eyes from debris, chemicals in the air, and other uncontrollable variables in the work place, but also in the yard, on the field, and in the gym.
9) Throw Away Old Makeup
Your old makeup could be cultivating bacteria, so it’s important to replace your makeup products about every three months, and to avoid sharing makeup products with friends and others. Make sure you remove your makeup from your face every night before going to bed and wash your face regularly.
10) Maintain a Healthy Weight
Because diabetes and other complications are typically symptoms of obesity, it is healthy for your eyes that you maintain a healthy body weight. Diabetes and other illnesses can result in glaucoma and diabetic eye disease.
Treat Your Eyes Right
It’s pretty easy to keep up good habits that will benefit your eyes. Follow these tips to ensure that your eyes stay happy and healthy so that you can focus more closely on life’s adventures. And if it’s time for your annual eye exam, or it’s been a while since you had your eyes checked out, be sure to get in touch with us at Beaumont Vision in Portland. We’re here to provide solutions to all your eye care needs!