In this Article i'm going to share with you three eye health tips. these are just three tips that you can incorporate into your lifestyle. and hopefully they can keep your eyes seeing better and feeling better.



1. Eating more fruits and vegetables. 


A huge part of eye health is the fact that the retina in the back of the eye. that gives you your eyesight is one of the most highly metabolic tissues in your entire body. that means that nutrition plays a huge role in how that retina is able to function. 


Now i do hope to share more detailed articles going over nutrition and which specific vitamins and minerals work the best for parts of the eye In different eye diseases. but the easiest thing that i tell with most patients is to eat more green leafy vegetables. and i'm not just talking about iceberg lettuce , i mean the dark leafy greens. i mean spinach ,kale ,arugula just anything with the bitter with the dirt taste.  


It seems like i know everybody thinks that carrots is like the super food for the eyes. but in fact recent science has shown that green leafy vegetables is better because of something called lutein. 


lutein is an antioxidant .that's found in very high concentrations in the center part of the back of the eyeball called the macula. which is the center part of your vision.


That gives you things like your sharp reading ability , your color perception all of that and not only is lutein. one of the key ingredients in most eye vitamin supplements for diseases like macular degeneration. but has even been found now to be helpful in patients. 


Who have diabetic retinopathy and overall having higher amounts of lutein is , correlated with a higher amount of macular pigment optical density or just higher amounts of protective pigment in the back of the eye from high oxidative stress from sunlight exposure and things like that.

 

Again eat your leafy greens and don't worry if you're not a salad person like myself. i personally don't like to eat salad instead. just make a green smoothie or a shake or something like that. there's a lot of great recipes for these things. 


And yes , i try to drink or eat these as often as i can yum now. there are also vision and eye supplements that contain lutein and some people may choose to go that route. I personally think it's better to try to eat healthy foods and incorporate that into your lifestyle. because it's going to help fuel your whole body. rather than rely on supplements. 



2. Specific studies that give a really good review of lutein and benefits for the eye. 

 

Now outside of eating really healthy a common thing that many eye doctors will tell you is to wear sunglasses when you're outside. and i don't just say sunglasses. but also wide brim hats and just to add some uv light protection to your eyes.


As well as your eyelids. because uv light from the sun over the course of your lifetime can contribute to development of different eye diseases. things like cataracts , pterygium and pinguecula.


Which can contribute to dark circles and eye bags. and you certainly don't have to reach for high-end expensive sunglasses. there's many affordable brands of sun wear out there that offer a hundred percent uv light protection. 


Just make sure that you look on the sides of your sunglasses and that you're looking for something that says 100 uv or maybe 400 uv and that's because 400 nanometers is kind of the cutoff of where uv light ends and then your normal eyesight kind of begins. 



3 . Cleaning eyelashes and eyelids on a daily basis.


And that's because your eyelashes are meant to do what to block out dust , sweat and oils from dripping into your eyes. kind of like that brush on the bottom of a vacuum. you know how it spins and picks up stuff and eventually gets clogged up nasty hairs and whatnot your eyelashes end up kind of looking like that under a microscope and unfortunately if it's not tended to on a regular basis ,your eyelids can become red and inflamed.


Something we call blepharitis which can be a significant contributing factor for redness , irritation ,dry eye lots of other issues with ocular surface disease. now there's many different options out there for cleaning the eyelids and eyelashes. no matter which way of cleaning the lashes you find is best for you.


It's still just good to be doing it on a regular basis. so that you're cleaning all that gunk away. now of course and as always these are three things that i typically just try to share with most of my patients. we have to kind of focus on taking care of those things first. 


But i think overall if people are to adapt these kind of three tips to start eating healthier ,taking care of their eyes. protecting them cleaning things out their eyes are going to feel better. and you're going to likely have better vision and at least have healthier eyes going forward.