7 sight-saving tips for older eyes

Protecting your eyesight should be one of your most important priorities to maintain your quality of life.

Usually a type of vision threatening eye problem is faced by every one in six adults from 45 years and up as the risk of losing your vision completely increases with age. One of the leading causes of blindness in the United States are age-related eye diseases such as macular degeneration, cataracts, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma which occur as you age.

Your genes usually affect how your eyes age but recent studies indicate that your nutrition and environment also affect how your eyes age and can reduce the rate of deterioration of your vision and eyesight.

1. Know Your Family’s Health History

Are you over the age of 65? Are you an African American over the age of 40? Find out if any of your family suffers from any eye diseases. You can comb through your family’s health history to find out. Knowing your family’s health history can reduce your chances of getting vision threatening eye diseases as you can take the appropriate counter measures well in advance.

2. Get Regular Eye Exams and Stay Alert for any Changes in Your Vision

Schedule regular eye checkups as leaving any conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure untreated and undetected can lead to loss of vision through diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration, glaucoma and eye strokes.

3. Eat Eye-Healthy Foods

Consuming antioxidants can reduce the risk of developing cataracts. You can get these antioxidants by consuming a diet made up of fruits and colorful green vegetables. Research indicates that eating fish in omega-3 fatty acids can reduce your chances of developing macular degeneration. You can also add some extra eye vitamins to your diet to keep your eyes healthy.

4. Exercise

Research indicates that regular exercise, even something as simple as walking can reduce the risk of age related macular degeneration by up to 70%.

5. Quit Smoking

There are many risks of smoking which we all know but smoking is also dangerous when it comes to your eye health. Smokers are much more likely to develop cataracts, age-related macular degeneration, uveitis and other eye problems.

6. Protecting Your Eyes from UV Rays

Don’t go outside and expose your eyes to the sun’s harsh UV rays without wearing any protection. You can opt to wear UV protected sunglasses to protect your eyes against 100% of the sun’s rays. Wearing UV protected sunglasses will reduce your risk of getting cataracts, pinguecela along with other eye problems.

7. Glasses Needed for Reading may be Different From the Ones for Using Your Computer

Most people usually select their glasses according to how clearly they can see. Unfortunately this can be a stronger prescription than they need which can encourage their loss of focus to go away faster.

Another fact is that the glasses that you wear regularly for reading may not suitable when using your computer. Wearing reading glasses when you read your computer screen may actually cause your eyes to weaken faster.

Any health issues that you may be experiencing can always be better controlled as an early diagnosis means a better prognosis. Making sure to visit your eye doctor at a minimum of once every 2 years then the chances of the problem being detected in its early stages is a lot higher. Your chances of dealing with a health problem successfully will be higher if it is detected early on.

What’s your eyesight like these days?