Developing a Daily Eye Care Routine to Maintain Healthy Vision

It’s often said that life’s greatest and most worthwhile journeys begin with a single step. The same is true for creating a healthy lifestyle. The big changes we want to see don’t usually happen by doing something drastic overnight. Instead, it’s the little, everyday rituals that help us achieve our goals. The same goes for cultivating healthy vision. So, what should we include in a daily eye care routine? Are there some recommended vitamins to take daily? Keep reading to explore the small steps you can add to your routine to maintain healthy vision.

Regular Eye Exams

Scheduling regular eye exams is the first step to building a good routine for healthy vision. Now, you don’t need to do this every day, of course, but it’s good to get on a regular eye exam schedule. Regular eye exams are important for detecting any issues that may develop as soon as possible.

How often should you get regular eye exams? This depends on your age. Children should start visiting an eye doctor at six months old. You should schedule them again at age three and once more between the ages of five and six. After that point, children with healthy eyes should have eye exams every two years.

People ages 20 to 30 should have eye exams every two years. When you enter your 30s, you should have annual eye exams. This is when your vision often begins to change, and so it’s more likely for problems like cataracts and glaucoma to develop.

Eat Eye-Healthy Food

There are a lot of foods that contain nutrients that are very beneficial to your eye health. You should begin incorporating more of these foods into your everyday diet. Your mom may have told you when you were a kid that if you didn’t eat your carrots, you’d go blind. Well, she was right… to a degree anyway.

Carrots contain beta-carotene and vitamin A, which are great nutrients for your vision. A recent study actually found that vitamin A deficiency can lead to vision loss, so incorporating this nutrient into your daily diet can certainly help maintain your vision. It is one of the best vitamins for eye health.

Other foods like spinach, kale, avocados, red meats, poultry, and many, many others can also benefit your vision. If you eat well-balanced meals with lots of fruits and vegetables, chances are you’re eating all the right things and getting the right daily vitamins for your vision already.

Wear Sunglasses

You should protect your eyes from the sun’s harmful UV rays the same way you protect your skin from them. Doctors and dermatologists recommend that you put on sunscreen any time you are outside for an extended period, right? Well, the same goes for your eyes.

One of the best and easiest ways to take care of your eyes is to wear sunglasses whenever you’re outside, every day, even when it’s cloudy. This is because UV rays still make it through the clouds. UV rays can cause damage to your retinas – damage that can’t be reversed. UV rays can also cause cataracts. They can even cause less serious damage, like red and itchy eyes. While temporary, these less serious issues can be uncomfortable and are completely avoidable.

The American Optometric Association recommends that you wear sunglasses that block out both UVA and UVB radiation. They should have gray lenses to allow for proper color recognition and keep out at least 99-100 percent of both types of rays. Keep them in good condition, too, to ensure you can see clearly while wearing them.

Cut Back on Electronics Usage

Most people spend a good portion of their day staring at computer screens, cell phones, and tablets, whether they need to for work or they use them to relax after hours. Either way, screens can have a debilitating effect on your eyes. It can cause significant eye strain, blurred vision, and dry eye. And, eye strain can cause frequent headaches. Problems associated with digital eye strain are becoming more and more prevalent as we become more and more dependent on technology.

Additionally, screen use has been linked to more severe eye issues like myopia. A recent meta-analysis published in BMC Public Health found a statistically significant correlation between high screen use and myopia. Cutting back on electronics usage could quite literally save your vision!

What if it isn’t possible to cut back the amount of time you spend on electronics because it’s a part of your job? In this case, you must remember to rest your eyes frequently. Implementing the 20-20-20 rule, where you take a break by looking at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds every 20 minutes, is a great exercise to add to your eye care routine.

You can also take more precautions to decrease the impact on your eyes. Make sure your computer screen sits back about 20 inches from your eyes and position it below your eye level by about five inches. Use light bulbs with lower wattages and pull your curtains or drapes closed to reduce glare. It’s also a good idea to step away from your computer for at least 15 minutes every two hours.

Take Care of Your Contacts

Forty-five million Americans wear contacts to help them see better. But not everyone follows the hygiene recommendations, which can cause damage to the eyes. If you don’t take care of your contacts, you can experience red or irritated eyes, blurred vision, eye pain, or you can damage your corneas. Infections can develop in your eyes if your contacts are not changed properly or if they have dirt on them, which can scratch your eyes. With all the long-term risks associated with eye infections, it’s best to take this advice very seriously.

If you wear contacts, you should clean and soak them in fresh solution before wearing them, and always replace your contacts when advised. This means you don’t wear 30-day contacts for longer than 30 days and don’t wear daily contacts for more than one day.

Eye Exercises for Healthy Vision

One of the best and most natural options to add to your routine to maintain healthy vision is eye exercises. Eye exercises have been proven to alleviate the symptoms of computer vision syndrome. They have also been found to significantly improve vision for people suffering from convergence insufficiency.

Convergence insufficiency (CI) is a common eye condition where the eyes have difficulty turning inward, or converging, on close objects. It can cause blurred or double vision, eye strain, and headaches, especially when doing close work. Several studies support the idea that eye exercises can help treat convergence insufficiency by training the eye muscles to converge more easily. If you suffer from any of the above symptoms, adding eye exercises to your daily routine could vastly improve your quality of life. Check out our free eye exercises to get started.

The Best Vitamins to Take Care of Your Eyes Daily

Our eyes need vitamins and minerals to stay healthy, just as our bodies do. But with so many options on the market, you may be wondering, what vitamin is good for your eyes? And more specifically, what vitamins should I take?

Eye vitamin supplements, like the Ocu-Plus Formula, can significantly improve your eye health and vision. It includes many of the best vitamins to take daily. As you add supplements for eye health to your daily regimen, you will begin to notice a decrease in symptoms like blurred vision and eye strain that you may experience throughout the day.

By taking a few minutes out of your day to work on your eyes, you can ensure better, clearer, and stronger vision. In the morning, remember to wear your sunglasses on the way out. Eat a nutritious breakfast and take regular breaks from computer work. At lunch, do some eye exercises. Then, at night, take your multivitamin or supplement with dinner. Remember to wash your hands before taking your contacts out at the end of the day. And, of course, book your annual eye exam!