Tips for Maintaining Vision with Age
March is recognized as “Save Your Vision Month;” however ocular health is important not just on one day or one month, but all year round. Fellowship Square offers optometrist-approved tips for maintaining vision and eye health with age.
Healthy Life, Healthy Eyes — A healthy lifestyle leads to a healthy body, including those all-important eyes! Good nutrition can help people maintain eyesight and good eye health as they age. This includes maintaining a diet rich in fruits and vegetables such as dark leafy greens (spinach and kale, for example). It is also believed that the omega-3 fatty acids found in salmon, tuna and halibut have components crucial for healthy eyes.
Protect those Peepers — To avoid eye injury, it’s essential to wear the proper protective eyewear, such as goggles or safety shields during sports or when doing activities or hobbies that could put the eyes at risk (working with chemicals or working in an area that might have excess dust or flying particles). To avoid eye damage from the sun’s UV rays, sunglasses are a must.
Don’t Smoke — The negative effects of smoking are nearly never ending, and that includes the damage smoking can have on ocular health. Smoking can increase the risk of macular degeneration that is natural with age, cataracts, nerve damage in the eye and even loss of vision.
Replace Contacts (and Their Cases) Regularly — It’s natural to clean eyeglasses when they get dirty or replace the lenses if they get scratched, but somehow “dirty” contacts can go undetected. It’s important to change them as directed (whether they are dailies, weeklies, monthlies, etc.) and cleanse them properly as well as cleanse and replace their cases on a regular basis to keep bacteria at bay.
Get Routine Check-ups — It’s important to maintain routine check-ups with professionals because they do so much more than just check the eyes for a proper prescription. If vision is getting a bit blurry, optometrists can check the entire eye and screen for other potential age-related vision issues and general ocular health.
Fellowship Square reminds residents and a senior that anytime there is a change in vision, or any peculiar or new symptoms such as eye pain/pressure, tearing up, redness, blurriness, “halos” or double vision, or regular headaches, it’s a good idea to talk to an eye doctor about these changes as soon as possible. These could be early signals or red flags for more serious ocular conditions that are best managed when detected and treated at the onset.
