How To See Better…At Any Age
Keeping Your Eyes Healthy
When it comes to taking care of your eyes, here are the basic 4 rules to halt and reverse vision loss, at any age:
- Get them checked regularly.
- Incorporate healthy eye-food into your daily diet.
- Give your eyes rest.
- Exercise regularly:
- Men can lower their risk of cataracts by running and engaging in other cardio-respiratory fitness activities, according to a 7 year study.
- Chinese massage incorporates several poses that increase blood circulation to your eyes and strengthen the eye muscles. Also, several techniques reduce stress levels through the body and increase breathing power, so your entire body, including your eyes feels refreshed.
Every geek, gamer, and programmer needs to know about the following eye exercises. These eye exercises take 5 minutes and will improve your vision by strengthening your eye muscles. Take a look and watch Paul McCartney demonstrate some eye exercises he learned in India. Your eyes will definitely feel more relaxed.
Got Weak Eyes?
When you begin to age your body begins to protest. Everything seems to be slowly becoming more difficult just a little at a time. One thing that happens to just about everyone is the inability to see like you used to. Even those with 20/20 vision begin to experience a need to don eyeglasses when reading close work or when driving, for example. Working on the computer becomes more of a challenge and that fine print on vitamin labels is almost impossible to read.
Some of the common age-related eye disorders set in for the following reasons:
- Because of a diet lacking nutrients that improve vision or prevent vision from deteriorating
- Due to loss of tissue tightness around the eye socket, leading to droopy or puffy eyelids
- Weakening of the retinal muscles leading to lower closer-range vision and so on
Incidentally, smoking reduces blood circulation to the eyes. And in the study cited above, being overweight can increase your chances of developing cataracts.
Conditions such as cataracts, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and dry eyes are so very common these days, what with the way we stare at the computer, walk around without sunglasses on sunny days and stay awake for longer than our eyes can stand.
Cataracts are clumps of protein molecules that cloud up your lens making it difficult to see clearly, whereas a build up of pressure on the optic nerve causes glaucoma. This happens when the watery liquid flowing between the lens and the cornea is blocked.
Healthier Eyes At Any Age
There are plenty of ways in which we can work to stay vision fit and combat eyesight deterioration. If your dentist tells you to brush your teeth to keep them healthy, then you need to keep your eyes healthy with the following vision correction methods:
- While at work make sure that the source of light is behind you, and not shining directly at you. Overhead lights are fine as long as they do not throw off the glare at you from the computer screen you are looking at. If you can manage: position the light source over your left shoulder, if you are right-handed, and over your right shoulder if you are left-handed.
- A straight back will keep work at eye level or slightly lower so that you are looking down. Reclining will take us away from reading at “eye level” and we land up looking upwards.
- To relax stressed eyes, close your eyes as much as you can. (If you’re doing it correctly it should feel like you’re scrunching your face together.) Hold the pose for a few seconds and quickly open your eyes. Blink and repeat five times.
- Blink. Blink. Blink. Fifteen-twenty times a minute.
- To strengthen eye muscles, close your eyes and roll your eyeballs around for one minute.
- Every now and again, rub your palms together and place them over your eyes. Count to 20. Do this regularly. If you can, sit on the floor with your knees raised to your chest. While your palms are over your eyes, rest your elbows on your knees and breathe deeply.
- Don’t let cigarette smoke, or any kind of smoke get into your eyes. It can cause the formation of free radicals in the eye, which can cause macular (retina muscle) degeneration.
- Most of the time we are only reading or interacting with things indoor, but our eyes aren’t made just for this! Going outdoors helps the eye stay true to its nature. And when outdoors, try to focus on things at a distance to exercise the eye muscles.
- Prevent your chances of getting eye infections by washing your hands often, especially if you are in a public space. Do not share face towels or eye cosmetics. And do not rub your eyes too vigorously.
- Avoid reading while ill, because this puts extra strain on the eyes.
Super Eye Foods
The eyes are the light of the body. So it is important to eat healthy foods that contain the right nutrients to allow different part of the body to function very well, especially the eyes. There are some things you can do to maintain the eyesight as we age and to sharpen the focus. Most of these solutions include what is contained in your daily diet. Antioxidants and anti-inflammatory foods and nutrients can maintain eyesight and improve vision.
- Bilberry extracts. This herb has been shown to slow the development of cataracts. It increases the blood supply to the eyes.
- Red, orange, yellow fruits and green vegetables are particularly good for the eyes. They are loaded with antioxidants such as beta carotene, vitamins A, C, E.
- Omega-3 oils found aplenty in cold water fish such as salmon, tuna, cod and sardines are healthy for the eyes.
- A tea made from eyebright, Echinacea, clover, burdock and licorice boosts your immune system… helping you resist eye infections.
Chinese Eye Massage Techniques and Exercises
As a bonus, here are some Chinese eye exercises to help you relax and see, beneficial by relieving, firming and healing the eye. Eye massage can increase blood circulation inside the eye, and thus many eye problems can be relieved by self-healing. Your eye muscles, like any other parts of your body, want to be exercised for optimal health. Some of the valuable Chinese eye massages are in the below video:
If eyes are the window to your soul, strengthen the eye muscles and help improve vision, eye health, body…and soul. You’ll see better….for longer.