Protecting Your Eyes and Eyesight Over Your Lifetime
People are more afraid of going blind than dying.
That may sound exaggerated, but it’s the conclusion reached by a survey of 2,044 people carried out by the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Almost half of those surveyed said they’d rather face a life-threatening condition such as AIDS, Alzheimer’s or cancer than go blind.
Yet, in many ways, that makes sense. Sight is so important to nearly everything we do in our lives; it’s difficult for those of us who have never experienced the world without it to fear life without it.
For those of us used to seeing, going completely blind would mean the death of our current lives.
Yet, amazingly, less than half those surveyed knew about all the most common conditions causing vision loss. One quarter didn’t know any eye conditions at all.
76% of respondents listed “sunlight” as a risk factor for vision loss. 58% said genetics.
Since we can’t choose our parents and nobody can or should or wants to totally avoid sunlight, that must make people feel helpless.
“Total” or 100% blindness is relatively uncommon. The technical term is “no light perception” or NLP. That affects 15% of the people with age-related vision problems.
However, the 85% who retain some visual function must still deal with many related problems and risks caused by their limitation.
The fear is based on reality. According to a study published in the journal American Family Physician, for people over age 70, vision loss is the third most common cause of problems maintaining their quality of life.
That makes sense in many ways. In most locations, people depend on cars to carry out even the simplest chores. That’s why many older people are so afraid of losing the legal right to drive.
People who are blind or visually impaired from birth or at an early age have learned how to cope. Elderly people who’ve just recently lost visual function find it more difficult to adapt.
According to the CDC, 7 million people are visually impaired. (Their website doesn’t define “impairment,” but obviously it must not include wearing glasses, which would be a much larger percentage of the population.) Around 1 million are blind.
As of 2012, 4.2 million Americans over age 40 have incorrectable vision impairment. Because our population is aging, the CDC expects this to double by 2050. They estimate the cost of this will be $373 billion per year.
93 million Americans are at high risk of serious vision impairment.
Americans experience around 2.5 million eye injuries every year – and 50,000 of those injuries result in some degree of permanent vision loss.
Yet most people have not visited an eye doctor in the past year even though early detection of eye problems can help delay or prevent them.
Although we’re less afraid of dying, most of us are dangerously ignorant when it comes to preventing, delaying and treating significant eye problems.
What’s “Legally Blind?”
The American Medical Association (AMA) defined this term in 1934.
That’s where:
1. Your vision cannot be improved more than 20/200 – even with correction (glasses or contacts) – as measured by your better eye.
OR
2. Your field of vision is no more than 20 degrees wide. (Normal eyes, measured individually, can see 130-160 degrees.)
The Good News
Although there’re no guarantees, all vision impairments are the result of some cause or causes.
Few of those causes cannot be fixed or delayed to some extent by being aware of the risk, of getting proper medical attention where helpful and by adopting healthy lifestyle practices that benefit your eyes.
Let’s start with your physical eyes – the most amazing organs of your body.
Much as We Enjoy and Value Sight, We Still Underestimate It
It’s a common saying that our eyes are windows into our soul.
Whether that’s true about our souls, I don’t know – our eyes are actually extensions of our brain.
In fact, the most miraculous part of “sight” is that it happens more inside our brains than our eyes.
Truthfully, we do NOT “see” the screens of our phones or laptops, or our desks, or the TV showing a movie – or anything else. Not “red” or “brightness” or anything else you could describe.
The area around you right now is filled with light – maybe direct light from a lamp – and reflections off the objects around you.
In reality, what our eyes actually detect is electromagnetic radiation within the range of visible light. (We’re also surrounded by other forms of electromagnetic radiation, but we can’t see it.)
It’s simply bouncing all around you, on and off the objects.
Your eyes capture this electromagnetic radiation, directing the pattern it forms (an “image”) to a point on your retina. Your optic nerve transmits these patterns to your brain.
Your brain somehow turns these complicated patterns into shapes and colors you consciously see.
For example: you look at a “red” ball. That means the surface of the ball is absorbing all frequencies of electromagnetic radiation EXCEPT a frequency between 620 and 750 nanometers on the electromagnetic radiation spectrum. That is how we define “red.”
Your brain somehow takes that information, and you consciously experience the color “red.”
Therefore, to a larger degree than we appreciate, “seeing” takes place largely in our brains.
However, our brains our dependent on the quality of the physical image the eye transmits to it through the optic nerve.
That is, if your eye distorts the image/pattern of the electromagnetic radiation, you may experience the red ball as fuzzy or blurred – which nearsighted people are quite familiar with.
A Quick Refresher
You’ve probably seen a picture of how your eyes work, but, with 76% of the population believing sunlight is a major cause of vision loss, it’s worth a refresher.
(NOTE: While sunlight is both safe AND healthy for your eyes under normal circumstances, NEVER look directly at the sun. That indeed can damage your eyes. Fortunately, we have reflexes to avoid doing that except during extraordinary circumstances such as solar eclipses.)
You probably know the basics:
1. Light passes through a transparent, domed-shaped structure filled with a clear liquid. That’s your cornea.
The cornea is a vulnerable spot because it’s most exposed to the outside world – and must also protect your iris and pupil.
(The whites of your eyes are also exposed to the outside world, but can be stronger because their job is simply to hold the ball of vitreous humor together.)
2. Light enters a small hole in the iris of your eye – the pupil.
3. Next, it encounters the lens of your eye.
The lens focuses the image. The lens is attached to many ciliary muscles, which can change its shape.
This allows your lens to focus on seeing at different distances. Muscles adjust the lens if, for example, you switch from reading this on a screen to staring at a tree across the street.
Your eye lens is a vulnerable point because it’s exposed to all the light entering your pupil. Also, it changes shape to adapt to where you’re focusing your vision, and allows the light through.
4. The light passes through the clear, gel-like liquid which keeps your eyeball round.
This vitreous liquid is generally not an issue. I call it a point of minor vulnerability because light does have to pass through it, and many people experience pieces of it drifting around – “floaters.” They may be distracting, but generally aren’t dangerous.
Sometimes the vitreous darkens, primarily in response to an eye infection.
When your eye has so much vitreous liquid, the pressure is higher than healthy, that causes glaucome. See below.
5. The image lands on your retina – a membrane covering the back of your eye.
The retina does the hard work of taking incoming light, detecting and processing it, and transmitting signals to the brain through the optic nerve.
That makes it a major weak, or vulnerable, point in the system.
Your retina can become detached, especially in response to hard blows to your head. Nearsighted people are especially at risk of detached retinas.
The retina consists of two kinds of cells, cones and rods.
Cones detect color.
Rods detect black and white, requiring less light. Rods help us see in dim light and at night.
With age, these cones and rods can become less numerous and less effective.
Because of the energy and oxygen required to translate light into signals sent to your brain, the retina is the most energy-hungry tissue in your body, even more than your brain.
7. The center of your retina is the macula. That has most of the cones, and is the point of clearest vision.
Technically, it’s the macula lutea. “Macula” means “spot” and “lutea” means “yellow.” When an eye doctor looks into your eyes, they see the macula as a yellow spot.
The macula concentrate two yellow plant pigments – lutein and zeaxanthin. These antioxidants are extremely concentrated in your macula. Just a few millimeters to the side, they are a hundred times less concentrated. Lutein and zeaxanthin protect your eyesight by absorbing blue light.
You see most clearly whatever your eye is aiming your macula at. The rest of your retina still detects vision, but with lower detail. It’s your peripheral vision.
What’s fascinating is that you see most everything in front of you clearly because your eye’s muscles make many fast but tiny microadjustments, so the image of whatever you’re focused on falls on your macula. Yet, you do not see these movements.
Have you ever spoken to a nearsighted person and noticed their eyes seeming to be flicking back and forth – vibrating – a lot?
Truth is, because they’re so nearsighted, their eyes are SLOWER than average. Most people’s eyes move so quickly, you can’t see it. If you can detect their eye movements, it means they are too slow. It’s a symptom of their eye disfunction.
Because the macula performs most of the work processing what you’re seeing, it’s extremely energy-demanding. In fact, it’s the most energy-intensive area of your body. The cells forming the macula contain more cellular “power plants” – mitochondria – than any others.
The Most Common Causes of Lost Vision
1. Cataracts
This is the most common age-related vision problem. Around forty-five to fifty, the lens of your eyes begin clouding. At some point, this yellowing becomes bad enough to affect vision.
These days, cataract surgery is common and relatively simple. Surgeons remove the clouded lens and replace it with an artificial lens made out of silicone or acrylic.
However, no surgery can completely return you to “same-as-before.” Only half of cataract surgical patients wind up with vision better than 40/20.
Around 33% to 78% suffer dysphotopsia. That’s streaks or flashes of light resulting from internal reflections within the implanted lenses.
Besides, most of us fear eye surgery nearly as much as going blind.
So . . . can we avoid cataract surgery by avoiding cataracts?
These lens of your eyes don’t start clouding up just because you’re aging. It’s the result of oxidative stress. All the light – especially the blue and ultraviolet radiation in sunlight or other high-energy sources including x-rays – passing through them creates free radicals which damage the normally clear lenses.
As we all know by now, the solution to free radical oxidative stress is antioxidants. That’s why your eye lenses contain fifty times more Vitamin C than your blood.
Studies show that those who eat diets higher in antioxidants have lower risk of developing cataracts. If you get the daily amount of Vitamin C found in just two oranges, you have around 40% lower risk of cataracts.
Eating an ounce or more a day of legumes (such as beans) reduces cataract risk by half.
RECOMMENDATION: Eat more antioxidant-rich foods. Green leafy vegetables come in first, but all colorful vegetables and fruits contain powerful phytonutrients.
2. Glaucoma
This is now the Number One cause of vision loss in the world. Around 40% of glaucoma patients go blind in at least one eye.
You may have been told glaucoma is extra pressure of the aqueous humor inside your eyeball. Actually, the disease is the not the pressure.
The disease is the wearing away of your optic nerve – caused by the excessive pressure.
Therefore, most treatments for glaucoma focus on lowering that pressure to a healthy figure.
Your body keeps producing new aqueous humor that fills the eyeball, and drains away the rest. To prevent excess pressure within the eyeball, this process must remain in balance.
That’s a job for the Nobel-winning molecule, nitric oxide (NO). Our most reliable source of NO is the consumption of nitrate-rich vegetables. That’s large beets and dark leafy greens.
Researchers found that people who consume two or more servings of kale or collard greens a month had less than half the risk of glaucoma – compared to those who ate only one serving per month.
Exercise helps too. Researchers studied 30,000 runners for glaucoma. The farther they ran, the lower their risk of glaucoma.
CAUTION: Avoid all activities that increase pressure to your head. This includes bungee jumping, boxing or martial arts, the inverted yoga postures and scuba diving. Those all increase pressure within your eyeballs.
Japanese researchers have shown that eating black currants slows down glaucoma-related loss of vision.
(If you try this, make sure you’re getting real black currants. Many “black currants” on the market are actually raisins.)
RECOMMENDATION: Eat plenty of dark green leafy vegetables and beets. Exercise regularly. Avoid activities that put pressure on your eyeballs.
3. Macular degeneration
This is the most common cause of blindness in the developed world.
Your retina is the most metabolically active part of your body, and – at its center – the macula bears the peak of the damage. It’s the most energy-intensive portion of the most energy-intense organ.
As we know, metabolic activity – your body using energy to do something – is never 100% efficient. Everything your cells – and your retina and macula especially – do produces oxidative stress. That is, free radicals that gradually wear away at your body. They also damage DNA, making repair of tissues more difficult.
Your macula suffers the brunt of this stress – and that’s what “degenerates” it as time passes.
In the spectrum of visible light, blue is most damaging to your eyes. The UV portion of sunshine is even more difficult for your eyes.
Therefore, it’s the two yellow plant pigments – lutein and zeaxanthin – which protect your macula from macula degeneration.
Where do you get lutein and zeaxanthin? Your diet.
Greens of almost any sort top the list: kale, spinach, collards, turnip greens, broccoli, peas and even romain lettuce. Bell peppers: green, red, yellow and orange.
Next comes corn, especially yellow corn. Whenever you have a choice between yellow and white corn, choose yellow. It has seventy times more lutein than white corn.
Some fruits such as tangerines, papayas and avocadoes contain respectable amounts of these nutrients.
Spinach has sixty times more lutein than yellow corn. But yellow corn beats even greens when it comes to zeaxanthin. Yet orange bell peppers contain eight times more zeaxanthin than corn.
But the most food richest in zeaxanthin is goji berries (also known as wolf berries and lycium berries). They’re small, red and sort of chewy – a lot like raisins, only not as sweet. They’re used in some Asian cooking. They’re also great as a substitute for raisins. Eat them by themselves as a snack or add them to any food where you could put raisins. Try making a goji trail mix. The fat in the nuts and seeds will help you absorb the antioxidants in the berries. You can find them in Asian food stores, health food stores and online.
Eating lutein-rich foods along with healthy fats (such as nuts, seeds and avocados) also helps you absorb more of the antioxidants. So does steaming the greens, chopping them up or blending them into a smoothie.
If you have blue or gray eyes, this is even more important, because you get significantly more light exposure than brown or black eyes.
The spice saffron helps improve mild or moderate age-related macular degeneration. You need only a small amount, 20 mg per day, but it’s quite expensive.
Your Retina Depends on Many Tiny Arteries to Bring Critical Nutrients
The network of tiny blood vessels that serves our retinas is called the choriocapillaris, and it’s massive. It may be the most concentrated blood flow in your body.
But that also means those blood vessels are weakened by anything that affects your blood circulation – namely, plaque.
In that sense, everything you do in general to keep your heart and blood vessels healthy and clear also helps keep your retinas functioning.
Plaque doesn’t coat just the insides of your coronary arteries – it gums up your entire circulatory system. If you have coronary plaque – and probably all Westerners over the age of 10 do – you have plaque in your retinal blood vessels.
Remember: although you don’t feel it, when your eyes are open, your retina is performing intensely. And it’s dependent on the oxygen and nutrients in your blood.
Macular degeneration is marked by the presence of drusen – bits of debris in the back of your eye. These drusen contain a lot of cholesterol, and are similar to athersclerotic plaque in arteries. A high percentage of the cholesterol in drusen is oxidized, making it toxic.
This oxidized cholesterol in drusen triggers a response from your immune system, increasing inflammation. It also drives the death of retinal cells.
That’s probably why people with high cholesterol have up to 60% higher risk of developing macular degeneration. Eating large amounts of saturated fat increases that risk to 80%.
What If Your Retina and Macula are Still Healthy?
By consistently and regularly consuming large amounts of lutein and zeaxanthin-rich foods, plus other antioxidants, you improve your eyesight in ways the standard Snellen chart doesn’t measure – even if you’re now 20/20.
Avoiding blindness is clearly important, but too many people are satisfied with mediocre visual function when they could be enjoying the world more with better eyesight.
Macular degeneration is just the diagnostic disease state. Before you reach that level of disfunction, there’s a broad range of potential vision loss.
People with retinas fortified by lutein and zeaxanthin can see distant mountain ranges farther than those with little macular pigmentation.
Having retinas rich with lutein and zeaxanthin, and with good circulation thanks to antioxidant-rich foods, allow you to:
* See detail more sharply
* Have increased contrast sensitivity
* Experience colors more vividly
* Recover more quickly after a bright flash of light
* See better in bright light
* Suffer less from glare sensitivity
* Have improved night vision
* See farther when looking into the distance outside (up to 27 miles from a mountain top)
* Feel fewer symptoms of eye strain and fatigue from long use of computer and phone screens
* Increase your learning capacity because your visual memory increases
* Keep your eyes better lubricated
RECOMMENDATIONS:
* Eat large amounts of green leafy vegetables, and mix in many other lutein+zeaxanthin-rich foods including orange bell peppers, corn (especially yellow), fruits and goji berries.
* Exercise on a regular basis
* Eat other antioxidant-rich foods. This includes cacao – dark chocolate with NO added sugar or milk. We know cacao increases blood flow to your head. Experiments have found that people consuming it have increased visual acuity and contrast sensitivity.
4. Diabetic retinopathy
People with diabetes have 25 times more vision loss than nondiabetics. That’s according to The American Academy of Ophthalmology.
At higher levels, blood sugar is destructive. It’s corrosive to your blood vessels, including those serving your retinas.
That’s why people with long-term chronically high blood sugar – Type II diabetes – gradually lose their vision if they don’t control the disease.
RECOMMENDATION: Keep your blood sugar levels below 6.5% on the HbA1C test. Use diet, exercise and the medications your doctor prescribes.
RECOMMENDATION: Get regular moderate exercise. Eat more antioxidants from vegetables (yes, especially but not exclusively, the dark leafy greens) and fruits. Sleep 7-9 hours per night. Quit smoking. Keep your LDL cholesterol low.
Other Practices to Maintain High-Functioning Eye Health for the Rest of Your Life
1. Blinking
This may seem too simple and easy.
Yes – blink.
But don’t rely on your automatic reflex.
Just as we normally don’t think about breathing, but it’s occasionally useful to take time out to focus just on breathing and breathwork, it’s good for our eyes if you set a deliberate goal of consciously blinking more often.
Remember, your eyes’ most vulnerable spot is the cornea – with the rest of the outside (the whites) also exposed to whatever is in the air – dust, smoke, dirt, pollutants, pollen and more.
That’s why we need tear ducts.
And it’s the act of blinking that, generally – when we’re not watching a sad movie or personally in pain – keeps tears flowing to lubricate our eyes.
Blinking removes dead cells and dried tears from our eyes, keeping them clear of what’s now just debris.
It also spreads oxygen and nutrients around the outer parts of your eyes.
Most people blink at the rate of 14 to 17 times per minute – or once every three to four seconds. That seems like it should be enough, and often is.
But, surprise – people blink less often while staring at a screen. Only 5 times per minute. That’s an average of 12 seconds apart. That may not sound like much difference, but it’s long enough without lubrication to strain your eyes and cause them to feel dry – and, therefore, tired.
Closely related – when you spend extended periods of time staring at something – book or screen or coloring book or sewing work – turn your face up every so often, and look at something in the distance for at least 20 seconds.
That gives your eyes relief from the strain of too much constant close-work.
Anytime your eyes feel strained, tired or dry, or letters start to blur – especially while you’re concentrating on close work – blink as much you like, to relax and clear your sight.
2. Getting more red light and less blue light
Thanks to the ultraviolet radiation in sunlight and tanning beds causing skin cancer, sunshine as a whole has become somewhat unfairly villainized. That may be why so many people think it’s dangerous, even causing blindness.
The truth is, excessive sunlight is bad for your skin and, over time, for your eyes. However, we simply need to use common sense.
And remember the POSITIVE aspect of sunlight – on the other side of the visible spectrum is red light.
And, under normal circumstances, red light is good for you in many ways, including your eyes.
Blue and UV light is stressful on your eyes, especially the retina. Blue light coming into your eye is what increases free radical damage to your retina. In mice, we know it kills photoreceptors in their retinas.
Blue light affects our vision. That’s why mail order guru Joe Sugarman made a fortune selling the first blue blocker sunglasses. Millions of customers prefer seeing less blue in the world.
RECOMMENDATION: Make sure any sunglasses you wear incorporate blue light blocking technology – and that should be all sold within the United States, but I don’t know about regulations in other countries or what you may buy online.
Wear those sunglasses when you’re out in the sun during the middle of the day – 10 AM to 2 PM. Especially during the warmer months when sunlight at its most intense.
Blue light is why you want to eat as many as possible foods rich in the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin, to protect your retina.
But red light actually BOOSTS the energy in your retina cells.
Your cells get energy from the tiny organelles within them called mitochondria.
Blue light degrades your mitochondria.
But red light IMPROVES your mitochondria.
All the red light frequencies increase the production of energy (ATP) in your mitochondria by increasing the efficiency of the electron transport system.
Another thing that increases production of ATP is nitric oxide (NO) – and red light increases that.
What organ of your body has more mitochondria in its cells than any other, including your heart?
You remember: your retina.
Red light literally feeds the cells of your retina the energy they need.
Thus, red light literally energizes our maculas and retinas.
That not only helps us see better, it makes us feel better.
That’s why we speak of being optimistic as seeing the world through “rose-colored glasses.”
The French have a similar expression. When they’re happy, they see the world “en rose.” That’s literally “in pink,” but it has the same meaning as English rose-colored glasses.
Sunlight is a Mix of All the Full-Spectrum Colors, but That Changes During the Day
During the morning and evening, sunlight is more slanted. That emphasizes the effect of the red light, and minimizes the effect of the blue/UV rays. (Which is why it’s hard to tan in early morning and late evening sunlight.)
During the middle of the day, sunlight is direct. That de-emphasizes the red end of the spectrum, and emphasizes the effect of the blue/UV rays. (Which is why it’s so easy to get a tan, and burn, when your skin is exposed during the middle of the day.)
Our eyes are also exposed to energy-replenishing red light when we are in incandescent light and ordinary fire light.
In the modern world, however, incandescent bulbs have been replaced by more “energy-efficient” (which means only they emit more white light instead of red) LED bulbs.
And exposure to fire light is not safe or convenient for most of us, most of the time.
How to Increase Your Exposure to Red Light
a. Get at least ten minutes of sunlight outside early in the morning and/or late in the evening.
b. Use incandescent or full-spectrum light bulbs in your lamps at home, if possible.
c. Enjoy the outdoors, especially around trees, bushes, flowers and other greenery.
Enjoy your own yard. Or a nearby park. Or whatever you’ve got in your area.
Green leaves reflect more red light back to your eyes. This may be at least one reason why spending time in a natural environment is relaxing and healthy.
RECOMMENDATION: Wear blue blocking sunglasses when you’re outside in direct, midday sun. If it’s the kind of direct sunlight your exposed skin would need sun blocker for protection, wear those sunglasses.
Let your eyes get red light from early AM and/or late PM sunlight.
Glass blocks UV light, so if you’re in a modern building, try to get sunlight at any time from any available window.
3. Palming
Decades ago, Dr. William Bates came out with a book claiming – against standard medical opinion then and now – nearsightedness consisted of eyeballs lengthened by chronic tension in eye muscles squeezing the eyeballs.
I have no comment to make on his claims to cure nearsightedness, but it did lead to Bates recommending an eye health practice called “palming.”
Palming feels wonderful because it almost totally relaxes your eyes. Therefore, it relieves tired and dry eyes.
If you spend much time using your eyes – especially for close work such as reading anything printed on paper, reading screens or just staring at one spot – palming relieves eye stress and tension headaches.
Plus, giving your eyes a complete break increases lubrication.
Sometimes you have to stop reading something to think about the material, letting it absorb into your brain. Palming makes it easier to concentrate and remember what you just read.
Sometimes when you’re writing you have to stop to decide what comes next. Palm while you think. It keeps your mental focus turned inward, on whatever you’re composing.
Whenever your eyes need a break:
a. Lean back, resting in your chair.
b. Set your elbows on your desk or other supportive surface.
c. Close your eyes.
d. Place your palms over your eyes. Cup them so your actual eyeballs feel no pressure, but the meat of your palms are along your eye sockets. Keeping fingers together, cross them in the center of your forehead.
The warmth of your hands help relax your eyes, improving circulation.
As much as possible, cut off all light to your eyes.
e. Just relax. Let your eyes enjoy the darkness. Or visualize pleasant scenes or memories.
f. Doing it throughout your day for a few minutes at a time when you feel your eyes strain or your vision blur.
g. For the full effect, do it lying down while relaxing completely, as with yoga nidra or the savasana yoga posture.
If you lie on your back, rest your elbows on cushions so your arms don’t feel a strain while holding your palms over your eyes. Or simply wear an effective eye mask instead, but then you lose the warmth of your palms over your eyes.
At the same time, carry out resonance breathing. (That’s inhaling 5-6 seconds through your nose – mouth closed – then exhaling 5-6 seconds through your nose.)
At the same time, if you wish, engage in whatever meditative or mindfulness technique you practice.
RECOMMENDATION: Twenty minutes of palming every day will make you feel like you’re waking up after a good night’s sleep. Palming for brief periods while reading and writing will relieve tension in your eyes and nervous system.
4. Quit smoking/vaping & avoid tobacco smoke
If you’re one of the one in ten Americans who still smokes tobacco – or one of the many who’re still often exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke – I do not have good news for you when it comes to your eyes.
Smoking cigarettes doubles or triples your odds of developing cataracts.
And it makes you up to four times as likely to develop age-related macular degeneration.
Smoking increases your risk of dry eye.
RECOMMENDATION: Quit smoking and/or vaping. Avoid tobacco smoke.
Stay Eye-Safe at Work and at Home and at Play
American workers suffer around 2,000 job-related eye injuries requiring medical treatment – every day.
That’s according to NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health). However, according to safety experts, 90% of those could be prevented.
RECOMMENDATION: Follow all safety procedures in your workplace. See your union representative or management rep for questions.
But your eyes are not safe at home, either – unless you take proper precautions.
According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Eye Injury Snapshot and the American Society of Ocular Trauma (ASOT), about half of all 2.5 million eye injuries now happen at home.
Your lawn, kitchen, garden, garage and bathroom are common sites of eye injuries.
Caustic cleaning chemicals can easily splash into your eye. Frying bacon can do the same with hot grease. Mowing the lawn can throw small rocks straight into your face.
More than 40% of eye injuries happen during common chores and everyday activities.
By the time you feel the pain, it’s too late to protect yourself.
Yet, according to Dr. Laurel Quinn of the Winona Health Eye Care Center: “Ninety percent of all eye injuries can be prevented by simply wearing protective eyewear.”
RECOMMENDATION: Keep at least one pair of ANSI-approved protective eyewear available in your home – and wear them when doing anything potentially dangerous.
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
You can find many safety glasses manufactured to meet ANSI standards. Look for “Z87” on them. They’re available online and in many hardware stores.
Exercise is a vital component of every healthy lifestyle, but many sports come with eye-injury risks – especially high-impact sports such as tennis, basketball, baseball, handball, raquetball and soccer. Really, any sport where objects fly through the air to maybe strike your eye.
This includes fists, making boxing and the martial arts especially dangerous.
Americans get treated for around 30,000 sports-related eye injuries every year.
Many of these could be prevented by all players wearing polycarbonate goggles. They’re lightweight and shatterproof. Choose glasses tested to meet the standards of the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) F803. They should also have cushioned padding and impact resistance.
What about your usual glasses, assuming you wear them? Because they can shatter when hit, they can make an injury even worse by cutting your eye.
RECOMMENDATION: When playing potentially eye-dangerous sports, always wear ASTM F803 protective goggles.
CONCLUSIONS
1. Physically protect your eyes from injury, at work, at home and during sports.
2. Wear blue blocking sunglasses when out in peak, direct sunlight.
3. Blink more often and practice palming.
4. Get more red light.
5. Eat many more foods containing high amounts of lutein and zeaxanthin:
* Dark leafy greens
* Bell peppers – all colors
* Corn, especially yellow corn
* Goji berries
If you’re even half as scared of going blind as of dying, resolve now to incorporate these lifestyle changes into your daily routine.
They’ll not only reduce your risk of vision loss, they’ll also improve your health in many other ways – reducing your risk of dying. That’s a double win.
Resources:
https://www.theeyeassociates.com/blindness-a-major-fear/
https://www.insightnews.com.au/blindness-the-ailment-people-fear-most/
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/legally-blind
https://www.cdc.gov/vision-health/data-research/vision-loss-facts/index.html
https://www.winonahealth.org/2016/07/07/nearly-half-of-all-eye-injuries-now-happening-in-the-home/
https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/injuries-sports
https://www.aao.org/eye-health/anatomy/parts-of-eye
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279248/
https://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Age-Scientific-Healthier-ebook/dp/B09NJV5VCM/
https://www.aao.org/eye-health/glasses-contacts/fabulous-foods-your-eyes
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/dietary-prevention-of-age-related-macular-degeneration/
https://www.fda.gov/tobacco-products/health-effects-tobacco-use/how-smoking-can-contribute-vision-loss-and-blindness
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/22694-retina-eye
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11084323/
https://body-works.ca/physio-video/relief-for-tired-eyes-try-palming/
https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/smokers
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/diseases/vision-loss-blindness.html
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/blinking