October 10

5 Ways Optimal Health Starts From Good Eye Care

One of the five senses is your sense of sight. This means that despite its small size, the eyes are easily one of the most important parts of the body. If you want your body to have optimal health, it’s important not to neglect your eye health. 

The eyes go hand-in-hand with general health as if your eyes don’t function well, sure enough, you won’t be able to go through with your day-to-day obligations.

As you age, one of the parts of the body that gets affected is the eyes. When you suffer from eye diseases, your health can also fall on a downward spiral. The reason for this is that the body’s organs are interconnected.

This means that one potential ailment or deficiency in one area of your health also leads to others in your body.

Don’t take your eye health for granted. When you’re aiming for optimal health, you ought to know that it starts with good eye care and regular checks with an ophthalmologist at UCF. Here’s how it’s very important:

1. It Enables You To Avoid Certain Diseases

Avoid Disease with an Eye Exam

When a person ages, the risk factor of the onset of diseases increases. Among all the other diseases one can have, problems with the eyes are quite predominant. For starters, you’ll want to prevent cataracts and age-related macular degeneration.

In its early stage, the effect of eye diseases may be limited only to the eyes per se. But, once it starts to progress, it’s also not surprising that other body parts will start to suffer.

A good way to prevent this is to eat a diet rich in antioxidants. Some of the best antioxidants to prevent eye diseases are:

  • Zinc;
  • Lutein;
  • Vitamin E;
  • Omega-3 Fatty Acids;
  • Vitamin C.

As to children or younger-age individuals, one of the biggest problems is Myopia or nearsightedness. More children are now getting diagnosed with Myopia even at a very young age.

Unfortunately, when left untreated, even a simple eye concern like Myopia can lead to a greater risk of serious eye injury and health problems when they grow older. 

Together with Myopia, there’s also the more pressing eye disease known as Glaucoma. It’s a very sneaky eye disease as there may be very little to no early symptoms at all. Once it has already progressed, permanent vision may already happen.

Just imagine how life would be if you were to fall blind. It’s easy to digest how difficult blindness would be and how it can drastically affect the way you live your day-to-day life.

2. It Helps Kids Succeed In School

This section applies to young, school-age children. For parents, it’s important to know that taking good care of the eyes can also help your children increase their propensity to succeed in school.

The reason for this is that eye problems in children can lead to a lot of discomforts other than blurry and poor vision. One of these side effects is recurring headaches, migraines, and nausea.

For children who go to school, those discomforts can affect their ability to focus. Surely you wouldn’t want that for your kids. If they’re sick, you need them to rest. But, if the headaches and nausea keep recurring, you may also want to give their eyes a thorough examination.

3. It Enables You to Notice Early Signs of Vision Problems

Signs of Vision Problems

One of the reasons why vision problems progress to a greater extent is because the early signs are left unnoticed. When your body isn’t in optimal condition, it can’t function at its best.

This means its ability to detect any abnormality with your body’s senses is lower. When this happens, you may start to recognize your vision problems only when they’ve already progressed to a more serious state.

Along that line, here are some of the early signs of a pressing vision problem:

  • Watching TV with one eye shut;
  • Eyes and head pain when reading;
  • Squinting when driving or at times when you usually don’t squint;
  • Poor and blurry vision at a certain distance.

4. It Can Help Detect and Prevent Any Infection

Eye infection can also happen. The eyes are open, so as you go through your daily routine, it’s not impossible at all to have foreign objects invade the eyes.

When this happens and lingers in your eyes, unfortunately, an infection can happen. The early signs are headache, fever, pain in the eyes, or physical symptoms like red, sore eyes.

When given early attention, eye infection can stay contained only to the eye. Unfortunately, when the bacteria causing the infection may have already spread through other parts of the body, more serious problems can occur.

This is why it’s very important to take good care of your eyes. Even a simple eye discomfort shouldn’t be taken for granted. It’s only through a thorough examination of an eye doctor that a proper diagnosis can be made as to what foreign object invaded your eye or what kind of bacteria is causing your infection.

5. It May Detect Other Serious Health Concerns

Taking an Eye Exam

Did you know that one of the very first ways people can tell they have diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure is through a thorough eye exam? The eyes are the window of the body and indeed, they can help detect the possible onset of serious health issues. 

For instance, when you go through an eye exam, your eye doctor will evaluate the health and condition of your retina’s blood vessels. The same blood vessels are connected to the other blood vessels of the body.

Any abnormality or changes detected in those parts may be indicators of conditions like hypercholesterolemia, diabetes, and hypertension.

Conclusion

As you can understand now, being proactive about your eye health goes beyond just ensuring your vision doesn’t go blurry. It’s also an important stepping stone in ensuring your health stays in optimal condition.

Even if your eyes are only a small part of your body, it plays quite a significant role in ensuring your health stays in good condition. As you aim for optimal health, it’s a good move also to give close attention to your eyes.

This begins with an annual eye exam to safeguard your overall health and wellness.


Tags


You may also like

{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}