It may sound obvious to you, but the eyes really are the windows to the rest of the body. When you look through the pupils, you get a glimpse of the retina, the optic nerve, the macula and the blood vessels at the back of the eye. So looking at the retina and optic nerve can give clues as to the condition of the rest of the body. I have discovered problems that patients had no idea they had simply through a regular eye examination. In some cases, I have been able to diagnose diabetes and hypertension even before the patient was aware of it. Of course, diseases like macular degeneration and eye cancers are no exception to the rule.
Here are three top tips to have a healthy eye lifestyle.
- EAT THE RAINBOW: I like to say eat the rainbow. Eating a rainbow would be more about eating a variety of different coloured fruits and vegetables every day. Especially those high in antioxidants. If you look at it that way, you can never go wrong. The greens could be for spinach, broccoli and all the other things that you know are green, callaloo etc. Orange would be more for carrots, pawpaw’s, pumpkin and all the other orange items that you know of. The red would be also for the berries, the beetroots, the apples and it goes on and on with the other colors too. So remember, eat a rainbow.
- BLINK MORE: The second thing would be to blink a lot more because we do not blink enough. Especially when we are watching TV or reading. Our blink rate is less and our eyes can dry out, especially if we are in an air-conditioned environment. The eyes dry out even more. So remember to take time out to rest your eyes. Do the 20:20 rule. Which is for 20 minutes, take a break for 20 seconds and look at something 20 feet away. Also close your eyes to lubricate them and because you are looking at something in the distance, you are relaxing the eye muscles.
- THE SELF TEST: Do this simple self-test to know whether you need an eye check up or not.
It is not exactly science, but one thing you could do is if you are driving or in a vehicle and you cannot see the number plate of a car 20 meters away (even with your glasses on), or you cannot read comfortably for over half an hour, then it is time for an eye checkup. Of course, if you have high blood pressure, diabetes, cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration or you use long-term steroids because of asthma or something like that, and then you need an eye checkup even more regularly.
“REMEMBER TO KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR EYES”
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