Healthy Lifestyle and Your Vision

It is widely known that a healthy lifestyle is good for you. There are many benefits to leading a healthy lifestyle. Did you know, that a lot of healthy lifestyle choices can also affect your vision and longevity of your eyesight.

When considering a healthy lifestyle there are a number of things to think about. Below are a few things that are part of a healthy lifestyle that can also benefit your vision health.

A Balanced Diet

It may seem to be common sense that a healthy diet is important. The big point here is that it is important to also make sure your diet has wide variety of different foods to get you all the benefits possible. Some foods that are known to help improve or preserve vision are:

• Raw Red Peppers – they have the most vitamin C per calorie, which is good for the blood vessels in your eyes. When heated some of that vitamin C is broken down, so its best to eat it raw for the eye benefits.
• Sunflower seeds and nuts – seeds or almonds have a large amount of Vitamin E, which together with other nutrients have been found to help slow aged-related macular degeneration.
• Dark Leafy Greens – this includes kale, spinach and collard greens. They are rich in vitamins C, E and A. The plant based vitamin A found in these foods lower your risk of long term eye diseases.
• Salmon – The omega-3 fatty acids found in salmon are needed by your retinas. There is also some evidence these omega-3’s seem to protect your eyes from glaucoma.
• Sweet Potatoes -these are high in beta-carotene, which is a form of vitamin A that help with night vision.
• Squash – this vegetable has lutein and zeaxanthin, which are two nutrients your body can’t make. It is also high in vitamin C and zinc.

Regular Exercise Routine

Recent studies have found that there could be a link between regular exercise and eye health. While of course regular exercise is important for your overall health, it could also help with slowing eye damage or even preventing it. The recommended amount of exercise from the CDC is about 30 minutes a day, five days a week.

Getting Enough Sleep

Sleep is so important for your eye health. As with the rest of your body, your eyes are replenishing themselves while you sleep at night. Your eyes need at least five hours of sleep a night in order to replenish themselves. If you don’t get enough sleep it can lead to dry eyes, itchy eyes or bloodshot eyes.

Taking a Break From Screens

We have talked about this habit a lot. The blue light from computer, tablet, phone or television screens does have a negative affect on your eyesight. If you have to work on a computer every day, it is recommended that you wear blue light blocking glasses.

If you are able to take a break from screens all together that is best. In our current society this may be pretty difficult. If you are working on or using screens it is recommended that every 20 minutes, you look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. This is known as the 20x20x20 rule.

Keeping Your Vision Healthy

At the end of the day, it is possible to ward off, or reverse some eye diseases with healthy lifestyle choices. It may not always been the answer, but if you have any questions about your eyes make sure to bring it up at your next appointment with us!