Our sense of sight enables us to understand, perceive and make sense of 80% of the world that surrounds us. So how does this fact affect our habits? What precautions do we take in our lives to protect our eyes? But how much can we sacrifice our comfort zone for our health?

In this article, I will offer suggestions about what you should do to protect your eye health.

1. You Must Eat Healthy for Your Eyes

The most basic thing you need to do for your eye health is to take care of a healthy diet. Foods containing zinc, vitamin C, vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids have very important roles in the fight against eye diseases such as macular degeneration and cataracts due to aging. Above all, a balanced diet is the key to staying healthy. The persistence of the increase in weight as a result of unbalanced nutrition can cause obesity. Obesity can also trigger the formation of type 2 diabetes, which is very closely related to eye health. For this reason, I recommend that you include fruits containing vitamins, animal foods such as eggs, nuts, lentils, and green leafy vegetables such as spinach, cabbage and celery, which contain vegetable protein.

2. Quit Smoking for Your Eye Health

Without mentioning the carcinogenic effect of the chemicals contained in cigarettes, I will only briefly talk about the potential risks for our eyes. In addition to all other diseases, smokers are at increased risk of developing cataracts, optic nerve damage and macular degeneration. Therefore, smoking should be stopped without losing time. Of course, this process is not easy, but it is well worth a try!

3. Don’t Ignore Wearing Sunglasses for Your Eye Health

Wearing sunglasses is one of the simplest measures you can take to prevent the potential damage of ultraviolet rays, which directly trigger eye diseases such as cataracts, macular degeneration (yellow spot disease) and pterygium. You should wear sunglasses that protect against ultraviolet rays not only in summer but also in winter when the sun is showing its generosity. Although you may not feel the need to wear sunglasses because some contact lenses protect against ultraviolet rays, this is not a correct thought. In any case, no harm will come from an additional measure.

4. Avoid Occupational Risks for Your Eye Health

Your job can pose a great threat to your eye health. If you are constantly exposed to wind, sun rays, dust, sand, smoke or chemicals due to your profession, you should take protective measures for your eye health. In this way, you can minimize the effects of factors that may irritate your eyes at first and cause more serious problems in case of continuous exposure.

5. Get Away From Computer and Cell Phone Screens for Your Eye Health

I accept that this proposal cannot be very realistic today, but I can still say that there are precautions you can take in this regard.

Looking at a computer or mobile phone screen for a long time can cause many different problems such as dry eyes, blurred vision, difficulty in focusing, eyestrain and headaches. If you have no choice but to sit in front of a screen for a long time, you can reduce the damage you can see by wearing protective glasses that reduce blue light, fixing the light on your computer screen to a level that does not disturb your eyes, adjusting your monitor to eye level, resting your eyes every 20 minutes, and blinking a little more often.

6. Get Regular Eye Examinations for Your Health

Don’t wait for a specific problem to have regular eye exams. When you have a regular eye examination, you can both get information about the current state of your eye health and make it possible to diagnose diseases that have not yet felt their effects. Our eye health can also create awareness about our general health. Many of our systemic diseases make us feel their early symptoms in our eyes. Therefore, I would like to remind you once again that you should not wait for a vision problem to have a routine eye examination.