Tips for healthy eyes

It’s May and you’ve booked your haircut appointment, your dentist appointment, your physical check appointment…. but have you booked your annual eye examination appointment? For the majority of the population, an eye exam doesn’t become important until their eyesight starts blurring or there are sudden symptoms such as floaters or eye strain. Just like the rest of your body, your eyes need to be taken care of, as you only have one pair of eyes in a lifetime. We encourage everyone to come in every year or every second year for a dilated eye exam where we will check your eye pressure, do imaging of the retina using state of the art technology to help check the health of the eye. The doctor will also check the prescription of your eyes and our staff are trained in helping you pick out the best frames to suit your face shape and lenses for the best vision possible.

Here are some tips for taking care of your eyes:

Eat well; green vegetables may not always be something you crave but they definitely help boost your system and keep you healthy. If you are a fan of salads, eating spinach and kale should be no problem for you. However there are other options such as salmon, a good tasting fish that is high in omega 3 fatty acids which may help reduce eye dryness. Strawberries and oranges make for a great dessert packed with Vitamin C. If you love nuts you are in luck! Nuts are an excellent source of Vitamin E and zinc both of which may help protect your eyes against macular degeneration.

Quit smoking or if you’ve never smoked, don’t start! It is a well known fact that smoking can cause lung cancer but did you know it can affect your eyes as well? Smoking significantly increases your chance of getting cataracts, so much that studies show it DOUBLES your chances. Smoking can also lead to macular degeneration, the good news with this one is that since smoking is the biggest controllable risk factor associated with macular degeneration, if you stop now, it can immediately start decreasing your risk. It is never too late to decide to quit smoking, it will be hard and it takes lots of work but quitting smoking will lead to a healthier lifestyle and will reduce your risk of developing several eyesight threatening diseases.

This one may be obvious to some but if you do have a prescription, make sure to wear your glasses! We often hear about patients knowing they have a prescription and need glasses but neglect to wear the proper glasses to see. This can be due to several things: They no longer are happy with the frames that they bought and the prescription lenses in their frames may have changed. In which case it will cause blurry vision or headaches. All these complications can be resolved by coming in for an eye exam, getting a new prescription, and getting a new pair of glasses. At View Optometry we have a number of frames to choose from that will fit any face shape and our staff will be more than happy to assist you. We do not recommend buying glasses online as there are certain measurements that are better taken in an optometry clinic that need to be taken to achieve 100% comfort with your glasses.

It is easy for us to take our eyes for granted, unfortunately, good vision is not a guarantee for everyone. There is no better way to protect your eyes than going in for a dilated eye exam on a regular basis and it is an easy precaution to take. Wearing sunglasses when it’s sunny out is also a given however there are still many of us out there that do not wear them and put ourselves at risk for cataracts, macular degeneration and eyelid skin cancer. Give your eyes a rest and avoid the excessive usage of computers, tablets or phones. If you do have to use it often, make sure to include a blue filter coating in your eyeglasses to relieve some of your eye strain. Always be aware of how your eyes are working and if there are any doubts, make an appointment with your optometrist. It is always better to be safe than sorry!