9 Must Know Eye Care Tips For Everyone

Among all our senses, sight is one of, if not the most important. Yet, despite the loss of eyesight being dreaded by everyone, we hardly take care of our eyes. You’d see more people talking about health in terms of going to the gym or maintaining a diet, rather than taking steps to ensure that their eyesight remains perfect. Lenspick tells you how to go against this convention. We think that your eyes should be given far more importance, and taken care of better. So here’s a couple of must know eye care tips that everyone should follow!

1. See your doctor regularly: One of the easiest ways to check whether your eyesight is perfect is going to the eye doctor. Visual imperfections aren’t usually immediately apparent and you might miss its gradual onset. So before things get worse, it’s always better to get your problems rectified. We’ve also detailed how often you should get your eyes checked, and doing so would keep not only eye problems, but also a few other health problems at bay because the signs of a couple of health problems are often seen in eye checkups.
2. Use sunglasses: UV rays from the sun are harmful, there’s no two ways about it. They can increase your risk of macular degeneration and cataracts, which can eventually cause blindness. Even though protection from UV rays is simple, a lot of us ignore the fact that we need sunglasses. To ensure a long and healthy life of your eyes, get yourself a pair of high quality branded sunglasses with UV protection, the investment is well worth it.
3. Follow a healthy diet: Just as eating a couple of foods helps us build immunity and improve overall health, there are foods that specifically help maintain good eye health. Including them in our daily diet offers a wealth of long term benefits, and also help with keeping other parts of our bodies healthy. Ensure that your diet includes:
   1. Leafy green vegetables
   2. Citrus fruits
   3. Broccoli
   4. Eggs
   5. Nuts and beans
   6. Cold water fish
   7. Sweet potatoes
4. Quit Smoking: Yep, other than leading to a host of other health problems like cancer, smoking also increases your chances of macular degeneration and cataracts. It causes optic nerve damage as well. All of these problems can lead to the loss of eyesight, so quitting smoking is far more important than you think.
5. Use the 20-20-20 Rule: Nowadays, a huge percentage of the working force uses a computer day in and day out. Staring at the screen continuously can cause headaches, blurry vision and lead to eye problems down the line. If you’re also in the same situation, simply follow the 20-20-20 rule. After every 20 minutes, stare out 20 feet into the distance for 20 seconds to relax your eyes. Regular breaks such as these reduce eye strain a lot.
6. Wear safety glasses when required: Often confused with just wearing sunglasses, wearing safety glasses is absolutely necessary in some professions and situations. Construction workers, for example, have to work in an environment filled with thousands of hazards, floating chemicals and whatnot, which can seriously damage the yes. Similarly, sportspersons have to deal with fast moving objects that can easily injure the eyes. In such cases, wearing a pair of full size wraparound safety glasses is absolutely necessary to prevent eye injury. You have to also make sure that the eyeglasses are actually durable and can sustain a lot of wear and tear.
7. Maintain your body well: By this, we mean that you should take care of your body in general too. There’s no point of following all these steps if you can seem to control your weight. Being overweight also increases the risk of diabetes and similar systemic conditions, which in turn can lead to eye problems like glaucoma. Overall health matters too!
8. Cleanliness is the best policy: A number of eye problems are caused by bacteria and viruses. If you don’t wash your hands regularly and touch your eyes, there’s a high risk of harmful germs entering them and causing problems. The last thing you want after keeping a check on your eyes and diet is to be affected by a germ based infection.
9. Keep a check on your family’s eye history: If bad eyesight runs in your family, it’s very likely that you’re at a higher risk of it as well, regardless of how well you maintain your eyes. In these cases, it’s very important to get your eyes checked regularly to fight problems as soon as they appear.

Taking care of your eyes is actually pretty simple, you don’t have to go much out of your way to ensure that your eyes stay healthy. Yet, eye health is largely ignored around the world. If you look at all the tips mentioned above, they aren’t all that difficult to do and can be easily implemented in pretty much every lifestyle. All we can say is, take care of your eyes, they’re your windows to the world!