All senses are essential, but sight is a special sense that allows us to know the outside world in all its dimensions. Thanks to the vision, you can see the shades of trees, and the colours of flowers or you can read your favourite books. Therefore, we must take care of our visual health.
But not only that. The eyes are important sensory organs for survival because they allow us to communicate with everything around us. Within them, there are extremely sensitive neurological components full of pigments that, upon receiving light stimuli from the outside, travel to the brain and are transformed into images.
Not protecting them adequately and in a timely manner can result in loss of visual acuity, dry eyes, visual fatigue, or other more serious diseases that actually compromise sight.
In ophthalmology, visual hygiene takes into account all the factors that deteriorate the eyes and provides recommendations to prevent eye diseases, increase visual performance and avoid visual fatigue.
Eye doctors dedicate themselves every day to improving your visual health and your quality of life. Therefore, following these tips from JL Rohatgi Hospital specialists will help you take care of your vision and slow down ocular deterioration.
The first step to good eye health is to eat well
Eating a balanced diet to take care of your eyes, rich in vitamins A, C, B6, D and omega 3 fatty acids, is key. Vitamin A belongs to the carotenoid family and is a vital ingredient for eye health.
Vitamin A, as well as other antioxidants, protects against night blindness and thinning of the cornea, which can lead to corneal perforation and permanent blindness. On the other hand, vitamins C, B6, D and omega 3 play an important role in health, and their deficiency may be related to alterations of the optic nerve and the development of age-related macular degeneration.
Rest at night to take care of your visual health
Sleeping little or not sleeping peacefully at night can prevent the eyes from recovering from the accumulated damage of the day. We recommend avoiding screens at least an hour before going to sleep, this will help you both gain sleep and rest your eyes.
Limit screen time
Not resting your eyes after looking at a screen is possibly the most common cause of eye strain, headaches, eye-stinging, and eye damage.
In ophthalmology, the 20-20-20 rule is a very simple and easy technique to put eye rest into practice. This rule recommends that every 20 minutes you take your eyes off the screen for 20 seconds and focus on something about 20 feet (6 meters) away. In this way, sustained accommodation in close vision is relaxed, blinking and refreshing the eyes and is an effective way to reduce visual stress.
Have good lighting
Adequate lighting both in the work environment and at home helps the eyes see correctly. This way, when you read a book, or a recipe or look into the distance, your eyes won’t have to work hard to focus on the object.
Ideal lighting should not emit reflections and should not directly affect the eyes. It is advisable to work with natural light whenever possible. The lack of light or very dim lighting causes you to have to strain your eyes, generating eye fatigue, headaches stinging eyes and myopia in children.
Use artificial tears when you feel eyestrain
Just as we need to drink several glasses of water daily to stay hydrated, the eyes also need a watery liquid to increase their humidity. Artificial tears are a pharmaceutical product that emulates human tears, helping the eyes stay hydrated and preventing dry eye disease.
If you work in front of computers or spend a lot of time on your cell phone, it is advisable to use artificial tears every 2-4 hours. One or two drops in each eye will be enough to retain moisture. Visit the ophthalmologist to evaluate your visual health and diagnose if you suffer from this disease.
Maintain an appropriate distance from the objects you are looking at
Sometimes, without realizing it, we are very close to the screens or the book we are reading. Maintaining a safe distance will help you maintain good visual health.
It is recommended that the reading distance should be equal to the distance between the elbow and the knuckles with a closed fist, approximately 40 cm, to avoid bringing the reading material closer and straining your vision.
When watching TV, keep in mind that the distance must be greater, approximately 2 meters.
Go to the ophthalmologist regularly for good visual health
In the first ophthalmological consultation, the specialist carries out a detailed examination of the eyes and their annexes (eyelids, eyelashes, eyebrows, glands and tear ducts) to reach an accurate diagnosis. Once this is established, the doctor develops a treatment plan and provides the necessary recommendations to improve visual health both at work and at home.
