Is Your Vision Diming? Steps on how to prevent it.

February 18, 2014

Focus-eye-testVision loss is not a only associated with aging.  The way we live and use our eyes can have a big impact on how well we see and focus on the things we need to see clearly. Changes to senses such as vision can be subtle and go largely unnoticed until it gets to a point where a diminished capacity to see may be irreversible. Here are some easy steps that will help prevent this.

Eat more carrots, but only if you’re short on vitamin A. Night blindness and other eye problems can be caused by a vitamin A deficiency. If you’re not getting enough vitamin A, then eating more sources of it (like carrots) can help. But if you’re already getting sufficient vitamin A in your diet, it won’t make any difference. In fact, getting too much of a specific type of vitamin A (retinoids, found in liver, fish oils containing liver, and butter) can be toxic, and might even cause cancer.

  • Make sure you’re getting enough zinc and iron, too.
  • Focus on eating carotenoids, which your body converts into vitamin A as needed: carrots, broccoli, sweet potato, and dark green leafy vegetables
  • Some sources of Vitamin A are:
  • liver (beef, pork, chicken, turkey, fish)
  • carrots
  • Broccoli leaves sweet potatoes
  • kale
  • butter
  • spinach
  • leafy vegetables
  • pumpkin
  • collard greens
  • cantaloupe melon
  • eggs
  • apricots
  • papaya
  • mango
  • peas broccoli winter squash

Play action video games. A scientific study published in 2007 showed that people who spent time playing action video games  had better visual abilities (specifically, spatial resolution) than those who didn’t. People improved their ability to identify letters in clutter (a common ophthalmological test) by 20 percent.

Spend more time outside. Research points to the possibility that children who spend more time outside (2-3 hours a day) have a lower likelihood of myopia (short-sightedness).

Avoid spending too much time in front of a computer screen or television. You may be enjoying it but your eyes don’t. This is because your eye lens become more permanently adjusted to this focal length, which makes it more difficult to focus on objects far away.

Eye Exercises It’s like any other muscles in your body, they all need exercise to stay in shape. Just when you get time (especially in the morning) sit down and do some exercise. Move your eyes from side to side, up and down, zig zag, circle, square, all for about 5 min. Do it every day.