Eye Health
Simple Ways to Protect Your Eyes
While it is important to get adequate dose of ‘sunshine vitamin’ for healthy bones, studies have linked ultraviolet-A and ultraviolet-B (UV-A and UV-B) radiation in sunlight to a number of eye disorders, such as cataracts. So when you are out enjoying the sun, remember to protect your eyes from harmful ultraviolet rays with a wide-brimmed hat and UV-A and UV-B blocking sunglasses.
If you are a handyman at home, it makes sense to invest in a safety wrap-around goggles whenever you are operating any heavy-duty machinery or equipment. You won’t want to learn the power of a blade of grass or a chip of wood that is flying 100mph at you the hard way.
Don’t let an exciting, endorphin-charged session of tennis turn into a painful, black eye experience. Wear protective eye wear during sports such as basketball, baseball, tennis, squash and hockey to keep your eyeballs intact. But if you have glaucoma, which is caused by increased pressure within the eyeball, avoid wearing goggles during an exercise as the eye wear will elevate your eye pressure even further.
Do your eyes often feel dry and itchy in an air-conditioned room? Then the low humidity of the environment may be drying out your eyes. Standby some artificial tears, also known as eye lubricants, to relieve your eye condition. Another option to consider is to use a humidifier to keep the relative humidity of your workplace or home between 30 and 50 percent. But be sure to get one with anti-fungus and anti-mold features to reduce the likelihood of mold and bacteria growth within the humidifier itself.
If your working or living environment constantly exposes you to dust, smoke or other air irritants, short of switching job or changing home, you can install an air purifying device that meets your needs to keep those air contaminants at bay.
Keep Your Eyesight with Regular Screening
Get an eye checkup every two years. Many eye diseases progress slowly with no symptoms at all, catching many people by surprise. When vision symptoms become obvious, some irreversible damage would have already been made. Regular tests will help to detect any eye problem early and slow down, or even stop, the progression of some diseases before any permanent harm occur.
If you are suffering from diabetes or high blood pressure, you should go for regular, frequent eye screening as advised by your physician, even when there are no symptoms of an eye condition. Because diabetic and high blood pressure patients are at a higher risk of contracting retinopathy, which can damage the retina and even lead to visual impairment.
If you are dark-skinned, suffering from severe myopia or has a family history of eye disorder such as AMD, consider getting regular eye examination with an optometrist even though you may not be forty yet. These factors put you at a higher risk of developing visual problems than the average population.
Here’s another good reason to quit smoking. Research has revealed that smoking harms the delicate tissues of the eyes and increases your chances of developing cataracts and AMD. Stub out today for your eyes’ sake.
Obesity has been linked to a number of eye conditions such as cataracts, glaucoma, and macular degeneration. It also increases your risk of developing diabetes, another potential eyesight destroying disease. So by keeping your weight under control you don’t just fit better into your old clothes, you also prevent the onset of ocular disease.
Eye Care for Computer Users
Cultivate the habit of taking an eye break for every forty minutes of working at the computer. Simply closing your eyes and doing some creative visualization for a couple of minutes will help you feeling more relaxed and refreshed. You can also do a brief breathing meditation by following your breaths. Alternatively, get up and walk over to the next cubicle for a friendly chat with your co-worker and chill out together, that is if he or she is also in the same mood as you.
Check your computer monitor for glare. If too much light is bouncing off your screen, re-position the monitor or install an anti-glare filter to cut down the misdirected light. Position your monitor about one arm’s length away from you and at or just below eye level, so that you don’t strain your neck to make out what’s on the screen.
The proliferation of laptops with high screen resolutions makes words appear like ants on 15″ and smaller screens. Learn how to pump up the system font size on your Windows XP and end your eye-popping days. For Mac users, you can’t change the system font size globally. You can either change the font size for individual application or use the Zoom function.
Many web sites are created with font size 8 or 9 point as the default. If you don’t want to mess with your system font size, you can adjust the browser font size via the web browser’s font size setting. On IE, look out for ‘Text Size’ under the View menu. If you are using Firefox, a ‘Zoom’ is also available under the same menu. But note that this may not work on all websites, as some have their font size setting locked.
Good Vision Habits
You’ve heard this since childhood: don’t read or work in dimly-lit areas. Insufficient light will strain your eyes and make them tired easily, causing your eyes to age faster. Get an adjustable desk lamp that allows you to focus light on where you need it most. Bear in mind that the finer the task, the more light you will need.
When a foreign object gets into your eye, the usual reaction is to rub it out. Don’t! You risk causing serious damage to your eyes by rubbing in the offending object. Instead, try flushing it out with lukewarm running water. If that doesn’t help, get professional medical help as soon as you can.
You share your food and even your clothes with your best roommate, but never ever share eye products, like eye drops, eyeliners and mascaras. You might just end up sharing germs that can cause nasty eye infections. And these products should also be discarded as soon as they past their shelf lives.
If you use contact lenses, follow the optician’s or manufacture’s instructions on how to clean the lenses, how long you should wear them each time (usually never more than twelve hours) , and when they should be replaced. Painful eye infections that required surgery and medication are not unheard of for those who did not treat their contact lenses with care.
Does your shampoo or body wash irritate your eyes? You may pass it off as a non-issue, but if you already suffering from some form of eye disease, one less irritation is another healing chance for your eyes. Switch to shampoo and body wash that do not contain harsh chemicals such as sodium laureth sulfate, a common foaming agent, that may cause skin and eyes irritation.
