Our eyes may not keep us alive in the same way the heart or brain do, but they give us something just as precious—the ability to see and interpret the world around us. Eyesight connects us to our surroundings, keeps us safe, and allows us to experience emotions in a way few other senses can. With some of the sharpest vision in the animal kingdom, our eyes are a defining part of what makes us human.
Maintaining the health of our eyes can be approached similarly to the health of other bodily systems and organs – after all, the eyes are an organ. Everything is centered around lifestyle. As a result, many common eye issues and conditions can be dampened or mitigated completely by practicing healthy habits with consistency.
In this article, we’re highlighting some of the 9 healthy habits you can incorporate into your lifestyle in order to keep your eyes healthy and preserve your vision.
1. Watch Your Diet
A big part of maintaining healthy eyes and an overall healthy lifestyle is minding what you fuel your body with. Food is the best place to start. A diet filled with saturated fats, fried and processed foods can cause plaque to build up in the blood vessels and even block them over time. In the eyes, this is known as hypertensive retinopathy, and can lead to blurred vision or complete vision loss.
To retain strong eyesight, your diet needs to be filled with foods that pack nutrients and vitamins.
- Vitamin A. Orange produce like sweet potatoes, apricots, squash, carrots and cantaloupe, plus leafy green vegetables like spinach and kale.
- Lutein and Zeaxanthin. These antioxidants are abundant in leafy green vegetables.
- Zinc. This mineral may have special powers for preventing age-related macular degeneration, found in red meat, poultry and beans.
- Vitamin C. Found in citrus, peppers, kiwis, and leafy greens, this vitamin could defend against cataracts.
- Vitamin E. Nuts, seeds and avocado.
2. Hydration
Hydration is key for nearly every single bodily function. When it comes to the health of our eyes, proper hydration is especially important because it ensures normal levels of tear production. This is vital because healthy tears mean good lubrication, the ability to remove debris, and protection against infection by flushing toxins and debris. If you suffer from dry eye symptoms like burning, itching and a gritty sensation, drinking enough water has the power to alleviate symptoms.
3. Reduce Alcohol Intake
As we’ve learned by now, there are zero redeeming qualities in alcohol – no alcohol is better than some alcohol in every scenario. While it may be unrealistic to remove alcohol completely from your lifestyle, it doesn’t hurt to be aware of the risks.
Overconsuming alcohol can have an impact on our eyesight in the short term, making the eyes sensitive to light, dry, and even bloodshot. But the long-term effects are more serious. Cataracts, age-related macular degeneration, and weakened peripheral and nighttime vision are all linked to excessive alcohol consumption over a lifetime.
4. Quit Smoking
Smoking is indisputably bad for the health of our eyes, along with pretty much every part of the body. If you were to focus on one thing for the health of your eyes, quitting smoking immediately is probably the best thing you could do.
Smoking brings significant risk of developing a number of eye conditions that could eventually lead to vision loss or even complete blindness. Optic nerve damage, cataracts, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and dry eye syndrome all have ties to smoking.
5. Mind the Screen Time
These days, more and more people fill their working days and leisure time with screens. That’s how life is lived for most people, jumping from one screen to another for the majority of their waking hours.
What we know now is that excessive screen time can cause digital eye strain and dry eyes, and could even contribute to more serious issues like myopia, known more commonly as nearsightedness.
While there may be nothing you can do about your screen time hours, there are protections you can employ. To start, ensure you’re blinking regularly, turn your brightness down, and make sure you’re sitting a good distance away. The golden 20-20-20 rule is a great best practice too, which means taking a look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds every 20 minutes.
6. Protect Against UV
Our skin isn’t the only thing at risk when exposed to the sun’s UV rays. It turns out the sun can do serious damage to our eyesight too, and can even burn the corneas. A sunburn in the eye is about as painful as it sounds. In addition, UV damage presents risks of long-term damage like cataracts, macular degeneration, and eye growths like Pterygium and Pinguecula.
The good news is that protecting your eyes against UV is easy. All you have to do is make sure you’ve got a good pair of sunglasses on you during the warmer months and peak sunshine hours. Watch for sunglasses with polarized or polycarbonate lenses that indicate UV protection (ideally 400 nanometers).
7. Sleep
If you suffer from dry eyes, blurry vision, light sensitivity or eye spasms on a regular basis, it could be because you aren’t getting enough sleep. Sleep is vitally important for allowing the eyes to rest and recover from the day’s activity. With proper sleep, your eyes will rehydrate and relubricate themselves while the muscles will finally get time to relax. Sleep deprivation robs your eyes of this crucial recovery opportunity.
8. Practice Good Hygiene
One of the main reasons people contract bacteria and infections like conjunctivitis (pink eye) is poor hygiene. We touch our eyes way too much. And most of the time when we do, our hands are not clean. Regular handwashing is the best way to avoid bacteria and infections, but you can also clean underneath the eyelids to unclog glands and prevent styes.
9. Regular Eye Exams
The final healthy habit for the eyes is ensuring you’re making regular trips to the optometrist. One visit every two years is frequent enough for the eye doctor to spot eye issues in the making while mitigating future risks.
Book an eye exam at one of Inner Harbour Optometry’s two downtown Victoria locations today and get your eye health back on track.