5 Tips To Having Good Eye Health

Your eyes are quite literally your window to how you see the world, so why wouldn’t you want to make sure they are getting the best eye care possible? There are so many little things that you could be doing in your everyday life that could make a difference in your eyesight. Here, we have rounded up the main things to do to make sure your eyes stay healthy.

Keep your electronic device at a distance

Although many people may tell you that using a screen can damage your eyes, there is actually no evidence to prove this. Realistically, by being able to adjust the brightness and the size of the screen, it may be easier for you to see on a computer, than on paper. 

However, that’s not saying there aren’t directions you should be following while using a screen to ensure good eye health. You should always aim to have your device between 40 and 76cm from your eyes, while making sure the top is level with your eyes. You should also try to keep it tilted away from you at a 10-20 degree angle, while ensuring there are no distracting reflections. 

Keep doing this every time that you use a device to make sure you are helping your eyes.

Eat a healthy diet

Not only is eating a healthy diet beneficial for your overall health, it has a knock on effect of being good for your eye health.

The best diet for your eyes involves a balanced diet but do your best to eat as many vegetables as you can. It’s not true that carrots help you see in the dark but it is true that they help keep the back of the eyes healthy. The colours in vegetables help protect our eyes, think leafy greens, peppers, tomatoes, beetroot etc etc. 

Eating healthily and keeping active helps you maintain a healthy weight, which will help keep the eyes functioning well.

Practise safe DIY

Something that you may not have known is that DIY activities within your own property accounts for more than 20,000 eye injuries each year.

When completing DIY tasks, make sure you always wear protective eyewear in order to prevent anything from entering the eyes. You should also never touch your face until your hands have been washed to ensure that no dust particles enter your eyes.

Smoking

If you smoke, the best thing to do is try to stop. You can contact your pharmacist for advice and can get online help to assist you. 

Tobacco contains thousands of toxic chemicals that could seriously damage your eye. On top of this, smokers are four times more likely to develop age-related macular degeneration (AMD). This is the number one reason behind sight loss in the UK. 

Make the right makeup choices

Wearing makeup in your day to day life is completely normal. However, there are many ways that your makeup choices can be impacting your eye health.

Before applying any makeup, you should always check the expiry date. Out of date products like mascara could cause infections. Another way to get infections is through the glue from false eyelashes. This is actually very similar to the glue used in DIY products. A reaction from this can cause swelling within your eyes, which could impact how your contact lenses fit, thus affecting your vision.

Another key makeup tip is to make sure you are not sharing any products. If you did this, and the person you share with has any eye infections (which they may not know about) you have just gone and potentially gave them to yourself. 

Wearing eyeliner along ‘the waterline’ can reduce tear function leading to irritation and dry eyes. Best to keep this for special occasions or move your liner to below the lash line.

While this list of tips is not exhaustive, it is a good place to start in your eye care journey. Making these changes to your everyday routine will go a long way and benefit your eyes in the future.