It’s important to have healthy vision both at daytime and nighttime to ensure safety and to see the beauty of the world and what life has to offer. However, many people are not fully aware of how to take good care of the eyes.

Prevent vision problems by learning how to take care of your eyes with the tips shared below before it’s too late.

Seek Preventive Eye Care and Consultation

All family members should see an eye doctor at least once a year to check for eye and vision problems. Eye screening and examination should be conducted regularly to assess your eye health. During a checkup, your children can undergo vision screening in an eye doctor’s office or in school. Also, you can get your vision screened during your checkup and undergo a comprehensive dilated eye examination.

A comprehensive eye examination is composed of several tests. It’s important to undergo these tests because some eye diseases don’t have early warning signs. Detecting eye diseases in the early stage will be easier to treat and avoid serious complications. Learn more about expert eye care by clicking here.

Here are the several tests included in a comprehensive eye examination:

• Visual field test: It measures your peripheral or side vision. A loss of peripheral vision is an indicative sign of glaucoma.
• Visual acuity test: In this test, you’ll be asked to read an eye chart at a distance of 20 feet to assess how well your eyes see at different distances.
• Tonometry: It measures the interior pressure of the eyes and helps detect glaucoma.
• Dilation: It involves applying eye drops to widen or dilate the pupils so more light enters the eye and a special magnifying lens is used to view important eye tissues, like the retina, optic nerve, and macula.

Take Advantage of Advanced Technology

Modern and state-of-the-art eye centers use Digital Fundas Camera, which is an equipment that takes a picture of the back of the eye or retina without dilation eye drops. Also, it can be used to take pictures of eyelashes, eyelids, and to detect subconjunctival hemorrhages, acting as a wide-angled anterior (front) segment camera. Digital Fundas Camera is now used in routine eye exams to detect diabetic retinopathy, hypertension glaucoma, and other retinal diseases among high-risk patients.

Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle

Healthy living is important to the eyes and overall health. A healthy lifestyle includes eating nutritious food and a balanced diet. Good eye health includes eating foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins C and E, lutein, and zinc, to help prevent age-related vision problems, such as cataracts and macular degeneration. You can get these nutrients in citrus fruits, eggs, and other non-meat protein sources, oysters, and fish, like tuna and salmon.

Here are the other lifestyle tips to keep your eyes healthy:

• Maintaining a healthy weight would avoid obesity which increases the risk of developing type II diabetes. Diabetes mellitus could lead to glaucoma or diabetic retinopathy, which is a serious eye problem. Diabetic retinopathy is today’s world’s leading cause of preventable vision loss or blindness for people aged 20 to 75 years old.
• Get regular exercise: Diabetes can be prevented and controlled with regular exercise. It will also help regulate blood pressure and maintain normal levels of cholesterol, reducing your risk of developing vision and eye problems.
• Quit Smoking: Smoking can increase your risk of getting cataracts. The nicotine and other toxic chemicals present in cigarette smoke can also damage your optic nerve. Also, smoking can lead to macular degeneration and other medical problems.

Practice Healthy Eye and Vision Care

Like any other organ or part of the body, your eyes also need to rest. You’ve probably experienced headaches or teary eyes because of staring at your smartphone or computer for prolonged periods of time. So, how do you practice healthy eye and vision care?

Check out these tips:

• Wear Eye Protective Appliance: The eyes can be damaged due to prolonged sun exposure. If you’re planning to head to the beach this summer or your work would entail being on the field under the heat of the sun, make sure to wear protective eyeglasses. Choose sunglasses that can block up to 100 percent of UV radiation.
• Avoid Eye Injury: Wear protective eyewear to avoid injuries to the eyes when doing home improvement repairs, or you’re engaged in construction or factory work.
• Rest Your Eyes: Eyestrain is often caused by using gadgets and computer devices for too long, which could result in eyestrain, dry eyes, frequent headaches, blurry vision, and back, neck, and shoulder pain. It’s important to rest your eyes by looking 20 feet away for about 20 seconds every 2 minutes and take a break from your computer tasks every two hours for 15 minutes.
• Use Computer Glasses: Wear computer glasses intended to be used when you need to stare or work in front of a computer for a prolonged period to avoid glare and radiation or damaging blue light from causing eye and vision problems.

Conclusion

Most often than not, early signs and symptoms of eye problems are not detected until they become worse. That’s why it’s important to apply the tips mentioned above to take care of your eyes and avoid major problems in the future. Eat a balanced diet, rest your eyes, exercise regularly, maintain a healthy lifestyle, and see an eye doctor regularly.