Eye Health

A recent showed that some dietary supplements may reduce the incidence of age-related macular degeneration.

This is when the lens inside the eye becomes cloudy. The treatment for this is surgery.

– Shade Your Eyes from the Sun

Ultraviolet light can hasten the formation of cataracts even in younger patients.

To reduce your exposure, wear a wide brimmed hat when spending time outdoors and always keep sunglasses.

– Visit Your Eye Doctor

Even if your vision is clear and healthy, make it a priority to schedule yearly eye exams. Routine visits allow your eye care professional to look for signs of cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration, and other vision disorders. This early detection just may save your sight!

Dry eyes can be due either to a problem with the quality of the tears or with the quantity of tears available. The differences may depend on age, diet, health, contact lens wear, atmosphere or occupation. Depending on the cause, the treatment may be hot compresses or just the use of tear supplements. Your practitioner will be able to advise after further investigation.

People who are diabetic may find that their sight becomes blurry so that they need a change in their spectacle prescription, or they may notice parts of their vision missing. They are also more prone to cataracts. If you get any of these symptoms you should consult your optometrist.

Providing a retinal detachment is caught early enough it can be treated by an operation. There are several different types of operation, but all aim to reattach the retina to the back of the eye.

Most people, particularly if they are shortsighted, have some floaters inside their eyes. These appear as little black spots or ‘flies’ which appear to float around in front of your sight. They move when you move your eyes and are normally more obvious when you are looking at a plain pale background (like a cloudless sky). They are normally quite innocent but if you get a shower of floaters, if you see lots of floaters after you have banged your head, if you see flashing lights in your eyes or a ‘curtain’ or ‘veil’ in front of your eyes, you should seek urgent medical attention.

Part of the reason for having an eye examination is to check the health of your eyes. An eye examination will include the tests for glaucoma. These involve looking at the back of your eye (ophthalmoscopy), which is done on everybody; measuring the pressure inside your eye (tonometry) and checking your visual fields. Tonometry and visual field tests are recommended as good practice if you are at risk of glaucoma. From the results of these tests, your optometrist will be able to tell whether or not you have glaucoma.

There is no evidence to suggest that wearing spectacles makes you more dependent on them. Most people need to wear spectacles more as they get older, particularly if they are longsighted, and wearing spectacles does not increase (or decrease) this dependence. If you become shortsighted when you are in your teens this is because your eyes are growing (shortsighted eyes are too big) and this also tends to get worse whether or not you wear your spectacles. People tend to find that when they get their first pair of spectacles their vision is so much clearer and more comfortable with the spectacles that they are reluctant to make the effort to see without them. They are then surprised when they take their spectacles off that their vision is apparently worse without them than they remember it being. In fact, their vision is not actually worse without specs than it was before they had the spectacles; they have simply become accustomed to seeing more comfortably with the spectacles.

There is no evidence that sitting close to the TV causes any harm to the eyes. Television should be watched with the lights on, rather than off, as this should be more comfortable because otherwise it is like looking at a (big) torch.