With aging comes noticeable changes in your vision. These changes include the inability to see up close, distinguishing similar colours, and adjusting to light changes. While these are common with age and can be easily corrected, there are some other conditions that can potentially develop with age. However, there are ways to protect your vision and reduce your risk of developing certain conditions that might affect your eyesight with age.
Ways to protect your vision
Eat a Healthy Diet Full of Nutrients
For good vision, and overall health, you want to make sure your diet contains lots of vitamins and minerals. Some of the most important nutrients that help to protect your vision and reduce conditions that might affect your vision include:
- Zinc
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin E
- Vitamin C
- Oemga-3 fatty acids
You can get these vitamins and nutrients from a wide range of foods, particularly with your fruits and vegetables. Some of the best foods to consume for vision health include carrots, spinach, strawberries, blueberries, sweet potato, oranges, broccoli, and red bell peppers. For omega-3 foods, add fatty fish, chia seeds, walnuts, and cod liver oil to your diet.
The diet is the fuel for the whole body. It can either help you or hurt you. Choose your foods wisely and aging well will come easily for you.
Don’t Smoke
According to research, smoking increases the risk of eye diseases that can lead to vision loss and blindness. These include cataracts and age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Blue Light Protection
Protect your eyes by wearing blue light blocking glasses. Blue light glasses protect your eyes from the damaging effects of emitted light from electronic devices.
Maintain Your Blood Pressure
Maintaining healthy blood pressure level is an important for reducing your risk of developing vision problems. These issues include hypertensive retinopathy or optic neuropathy are conditions that may can be hard to catch early on, which puts you at even greater risk of vision loss.
Eye Exercises
There are also some exercises that you can do with your eyes that help protect your vision and really boost your overall eye health.
- To start with, do a focus exercise where you hold an object at arm’s length that you can focus on. Using a pen or pencil is typically a good object to try this exercise with. Once your eyes focus on it, start moving the pen toward you slowly, and keep your eyes focused on the object.
- Another exercise is simply to roll your eyes every day. Do this gently in one direction about 10 times, then in the opposite direction about 10 times.
Protect Your Eyes in the Sun
You need to protect your eye health and vision from the sun’s harsh UV rays, even if you are avoiding looking at the sun. Your eyes can get sunburned and irritated from the bright sun. Try to keep a pair of sunglasses in your handbag and in your vehicle. The sun’s rays have damaging effects on the eyes as well as the skin around the eyes. Using sunglasses prevents the destruction of your vision and the damage to the thin skin around your eyes.
Schedule Routine Exams
If you have any chronic medical conditions that might affect your health, such as diabetes or high blood pressure, be consistent with routine check-ups. Underlying health problems can affect many parts of your body. Be sure you see an eye doctor regularly to look for common age-related vision issues. The most common age-related eye diseases are glaucoma, cataracts, and age-related macular degeneration. Keeping a running history of exams can help early diagnosis of certain issues while maintaining the health of your vision.
