Healthy eyes and clear vision enhance our ability to live life to the fullest. That’s why it’s important to maintain habits that promote your overall eye health and comfortable vision, and to stay away from habits that may raise your risk of eye disease. Below are some of our Houston eye care team's top eye care tips.
Eat Right For Healthy Eyes
You may think of consuming a healthy diet as a good way to maintain your weight, promote heart health and help you stay in shape. But your diet can also help keep your eyes healthy. A diet rich in leafy green vegetables and colorful fruits will help you get essential vitamins and minerals, such as vitamins C and E, zinc, lutein, and omega-3 fatty acids. They promote healthy vision and can reduce your future risk of eye diseases like glaucoma and macular degeneration.
Be Aware of How Electronics Affect Your Eyes
Especially in an era where so much of our work and entertainment time is spent in front of digital screens, from televisions and computers to smartphones and tablets, it’s important to be aware of how your eyes are affected. Extended periods of time on these devices can cause your eyes to feel dry and gritty, and result in eye strain and headaches. Prevention includes making sure that your screen brightness is set to match your surroundings and that you’re viewing your screens from the recommended distance of roughly 20 inches from your eyes.
Blue light emitted from these devices has also been shown to cause difficulty sleeping as well as eye strain. You can lower the impact of blue light on your sleep patterns by turning off your screens at least 2 hours before bedtime, and wearing blue light-blocking glasses when on screens.
Keep Up With Yearly Eye Exams
Many eye diseases and conditions are hard to detect because symptoms either come on very slowly or don’t show up at all until serious damage has already been done to your eyes and vision. As part of your annual comprehensive eye exam, we’ll look for signs of poor visual function or damage to your eyes that may suggest visual skill deficiencies or disease. This helps to ensure early detection and treatment, decreasing your risk of serious complications such as vision loss or blindness.
Want to know more about how you can keep your eyes healthy and your vision clear? Contact our Houston eye doctors at Pupila Family Eye & Ear Care or give us a call at 346-258-5701 today.
Q&A
What is the 20-20-20 rule?
Looking at digital screens can be hard on your eyes. The 20-20-20 rule is an effective technique for giving your eyes a much-needed break. Every 20 minutes, look at an object at least 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds.
Can blue light do long-term damage to my eyes?
Research studies in mice suggest that high levels of blue light may raise the risk of developing eye diseases such as macular degeneration. Scientists are now trying to determine whether the amount of blue light emitted by digital screens can harm human eyes.
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