If your poor vision keeps you from traveling far from home, you’re not alone. According to a study performed at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, people who have poor vision due to age-related macular degeneration did not travel as far as people with better vision.
It’s a known fact that visual impairments make performing daily activities and being mobile much more difficult, so it’s understandable that you may want to stay closer to home if your vision is poor. There are many reasons why people decide not to travel as far when they suffer from any form of vision loss, such as being fearful, no longer being able to drive, being embarrassed, not feeling secure away from home, as well as many other reasons.
While poor vision may create limitations on some of the things you can do, it is still possible to remain active and do normal activities.
Adapting to Poor Vision
Poor vision can be caused by a number of different factors, such as glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, presbyopia and many other common conditions. While there are treatments for some of these issues to improve vision, some vision loss is still possible and can place limits on what you feel you can still do. However, with a little bit of adjustment and maybe a bit of assistance, you can still do the things you want to do.
If your poor vision keeps you from being able to drive, look into other ways to get around. You can get rides from family, friends, and neighbors, use public transportation, take a taxi cab, or look into whether or not the area you live has some kind of transportation options for people with poor vision. These options extend into vacation plans as well – there are always ways to get around without having to drive yourself.
You can also look into various visual aids and technologies that can help you remain independent and allow you to do things like work, travel, or simply run errands. Some of these aids might include magnifying lenses, special equipment that enlarges images or text, books and newspapers with large print, and even appliances designed for people with vision difficulties.
There are things like counseling, training programs, and rehabilitation programs that can give you the tools you need to manage your home, go shopping, cook meals, take care of your personal needs, work at your job, and various other aspects of your daily life. By utilizing programs like these, you can learn to adjust to your poor vision and gain more confidence in your actions and how you deal with it.
If you don’t feel comfortable going out on your own because of your poor vision, make plans with family or friends to run your errands or travel places with them if it makes you feel more secure. Many people skip this option because it makes them feel like they’re inconveniencing their family and friends, but as long as you make your plans ahead of time and they agree to take you, you shouldn’t feel bad about it. While they are taking you where you need to go, they can run their own errands and kill two birds with one stone.
Improve Your Eyesight
Depending on the reason why your vision is poor, it may be possible to improve it by taking vision-enhancing eye vitamin supplements and eating foods that are nutritious for the eyes. If your vision isn’t poor yet, but you fear that it may be at some point, you should also do eye exercises and eat better in order to keep your eyes as healthy and strong as possible for as long as possible.
Eye exercises and eye-nutritious foods have been reported to improve vision problems, sometimes to the point of not even needing corrective lenses anymore. As it was said before, however, it depends on what kind of vision problems you have. Vision problems due to glaucoma usually cannot be improved successfully, but age-related macular degeneration vision problems can be delayed or even prevented if you start taking precautions soon enough.
If you take a supplement, like the RYV Ocu-Plus Formula, and eat eye-healthy foods, you may find that your vision improves enough that you can feel comfortable traveling away from home to go shopping, go out with friends or family, or even go on a vacation. You don’t need to allow your vision problems to rule the way you live your life.
You might just have to get used to needing a little help and you will need some time initially to get used to the fact that life is different, but it’s not over and remaining as active as you can is the best option toward living a new kind of normal.