How Changing Lifestyle Is Affecting Eye Health

Lifestyle induced illnesses are on the rise. It would not be inaccurate to say that it not just affects commonly known health ailments like diabetes or infertility but in a big way affects our eyes. Eye health is a major victim of our ever evolving current lifestyle. Longer screen time, exposure to more technological devices and the ever growing pollution due to increase in private and public transport is gradually deteriorating our eye health. 

Relentless long working hours, especially in front of the computers gradually start affecting the eyes. The extreme exposure to blue rays in the form of the fourth screen – Phones, iPads, tablets causes serious damage to the eyes. Our dependence on technology to keep with the fast pace of life is affecting our health and we don’t even realize it. A change in our dietary pattern with erratic eating hours and consumption of junk food affects our eyesight too. Add to it the woes drinking and smoking brings to our eye health. 

Human eyes are sensitive making it prone to allergies, chemicals, and pollutants in the air. Additionally, the air quality in the city has reached an alarming stage in the last few weeks with government bodies advising against exposure to outdoors at certain peak pollution hours. Some people may notice that their eyes getting itchy and red on the days when air pollutants are high. People living in areas with high pollutants are more likely to develop an eye condition called dry eye syndrome. Dry eye syndrome occurs when there are insufficient tears to lubricate the eye. Pollutants in the air may also cause chemical conjunctivitis. Conjunctivitis is an inflammation of the conjunctiva, the thin transparent layer of tissue that lines the inner surface of the eyelid and covers the white part of the eye.

What is worse is that we don’t tend to acknowledge the impact our lifestyle is having on eye health. People are still hesitant to go for eye check-ups. Early treatment and check- ups can help prevent or at least slow down the blurring process.

Let’s look at some of the healthy tips to protect eyes:

1. Blink more: While doing office work, regularly blink your eyes. This will help in lubricating them. Take regular breaks from your screen every 30-40 minutes. In order to reduce eyestrain, try the 20-20-20 rule: After every 20 minutes, look away about 20 feet away and blink voluntarily for 20 seconds.
2. Avoid drinking and quit smoking: Heavy drinking can have adverse effects on the eyesight it not only weakens the muscles in the eye, but alcohol can also cause permanently blurred or even double vision.  Smoking can be staggeringly harming to the eyes and furthermore pairs the danger of creating age-related macular degeneration. It can likewise cause or worsen eye conditions, for example, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy as well as cataract.
3. Exercise: Much like the brain, the eyes too needs oxygen to maintain an optimal level of performance. Exercising regularly is a great way to keep them sharp. Moreover, regular exercise is proven to increase the oxygen supply to the optic nerve as well as reduce the pressure in the eye. It is also a very good to keep the body fit externally and internally as a whole. Exercising regularly strengthens eye muscles, prevents eye strain, reduces heaviness and pain due to prolonged work. 
4. Diet:  Eating healthy is something we should all accomplish more often to get the best nourishments to execute into the eating regimen, yet in general, a fair balanced diet can enormously improve the chances of maintaining healthy eyesight throughout life.

Living a healthy balanced lifestyle is very important in today’s world. Proper physical activity, communicating with someone sitting next to you instead of sending a mail, having a meal with the family instead of front of the television, a good rich diet, balanced drinking and avoiding smoking are some of the things one can begin with. It’s best if we don’t lose sight of our eye health with changing lifestyles!