5 Bad Habits That Are Prematurely Aging Your Eyes

Do you love your fast food? Staying up late? Smoking? We all have vices and many of us can laugh them off. However, some of our bad habits can affect our eyesight and leave us with poor vision or blindness much earlier in our life than expected.

The following are several bad habits that are aging our eyes:

Smoking

This shouldn’t be that much of a surprise since smoking can negatively affect many aspects of our health. Smoking cigarettes can your increase your risk for optic nerve damage, macular degeneration and developing cataracts. All of these conditions can cause eventual vision loss.

Poor Nutrition

Eating lots of junk food and fast food while not consuming enough fruits and vegetables can leave your body lacking the essential vitamins and minerals necessary for healthy eyes--not to mention lack of anti-oxidants. You need a well-balanced diet to obtain essential vitamins and minerals as well as anti-oxidants. You also need fatty acids that are in foods such as fish and olive oil for optimum eye health.

Soaking Up the Sun without Sunglasses

Sunglasses protect your eyes from UV light, any sunny day, any month of the year. They also protect your eyes from Blue light, which is important since long term exposure to the blue and violet lights of the solar spectrum can lead to macular degeneration.

Wear those shades: look good and feel good!

Not Being Hydrated

The American Medical Association recommends that you consume at least 8 glasses of water a day for optimum health. If you don’t keep adequately hydrated your eyes may not be able to produce the necessary tears to keep your eyes moist and properly nourished. Since your tears carry nutrients to the cells on the surface of the eye and carry antibodies to prevent infection, being properly hydrated is key to maintaining healthy eyes. So drink up!

Poor Sleeping Habits

Obviously not getting enough sleep can wreak havoc on the body and age you faster. For your eyes, not getting a good night’s rest can cause puffy, bloodshot, and dry eyes. The long term effects of not getting enough sleep can potentially damage your optic nerves and lead to impaired vision

If you engage in any, or several, of the bad habits discussed above, then eliminating them will go a long way in optimizing your eye (and overall) health. Keeping up with regular eye exams can go a long way too!

If you would like to set up an appointment to discuss optimizing your eye health or are due for an eye exam please give us a call today!