Discovering the elixir of eternal youth to keep us forever young has been and will be one of the most desired goals of humanity. Although this is impossible, because no one is capable of stopping the passage of time, there are a series of guidelines and rules that, if we follow them with perseverance and determination, will allow our eyesight to reach old age in better conditions:
1. Take care of your diet. There is a saying that “we are what we eat”. And it is a very accurate statement. Maintaining a balanced and varied diet will help you a lot to be healthier, reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases and, by extension, you will also have less risk of suffering from other associated pathologies, many of which affect your eyesight (glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, etc. ). A balanced and healthy diet could be summarized in these precepts:
- High presence of fruits and vegetables, which provide us with vitamins and minerals.
- Low in carbohydrates, to prevent the excess of sugars they are converted into from being transformed into fat reserves.
- Eat fish that will provide us with all its fatty acids such as omega 3, which are very beneficial for our body.
- Make a moderate consumption of fats, red meats and sausages, since an excess of these foods can increase the risk of suffering from very dangerous diseases, including cancer.
- And above all, avoid consuming processed products as much as possible. This includes, first of all, all kinds of industrial pastries, which are very harmful to the body due to their high sugar content. And secondly, any type of packaged product (except preserves) such as pizzas, potato chips,… which contain many preservatives, dyes, stabilizers and flavor enhancers among their components that are not recommended at all.
2. Play sports. Activate our body. Making it work to burn not only fat but also toxins has infinite benefits for our body. A sedentary life is a life in which very harmful substances accumulate. On the other hand, playing sports keeps us healthy, improves our blood pressure, activates our metabolism… There are many benefits of sports as opposed to being sedentary. It doesn’t matter what kind of sport. We have to find the type of exercise that best suits our tastes and abilities.
Is not necessary to do a marathon every week or an Ironman, doing half an hour of moderate exercise about 4 or 5 days a week will be more than enough.
3. No Smoking. By now it is more than known that smoking does not provide absolutely any benefit, quite the opposite. Cigarette smoke includes hundreds of toxic substances that we are voluntarily introducing directly into our lungs and that, later, will pass into the bloodstream. If we think about it, we are poisoning ourselves voluntarily and continuously. The simple fact that it can cause countless different types of cancer should be enough to make us stop smoking. But it is also true that nicotine is a very addictive substance and that is why it is so difficult to quit. If we don’t have the willpower to quit on our own we should seek help. There are multiple solutions, from the well-known nicotine patches or gum to psychological help and even methods that use hypnosis to unhook us. It does not matter which method we choose but, if we are smokers, we must quit as soon as possible. And by the way, it’s not worth saying “I’m a social smoker and I only smoke one or two cigarettes when I go out”. A single cigarette harms us enormously. We must bear in mind that even passive smokers can develop tobacco-related diseases. So the less people smoke, the less passive smokers there will be as well.
4. Do not drink alcohol. Like tobacco, there is no benefit to consuming alcohol. It is a substance that, even in small amounts, can harm our body. Unfortunately, we live in a society in which alcohol consumption is not only accepted and normalized, but is often almost mandatory. Any celebration almost always involves the consumption of alcohol. The recommendation is to avoid any type of alcoholic beverage or at least reduce its consumption as much as possible and, in any case, always opt for low-proof beverages.
5. Always protect your eyes with good sunglasses. In this article we already commented on the importance of protecting our eyes with good sunglasses to prevent the development of diseases such as cataracts or others that affect our retina. In the end, our eyes are made up of transparent structures, from the cornea to the retina. This is what allows us to clearly see the outside world. The problem is that, just like the images, the sun’s UV rays also pass through all these structures, causing certain more or less serious pathologies depending on the exposure time. That is why the recommendation is always to protect our eyes with good filters such as sunglasses. Of course, they must always be approved with the CE mark and we must acquire them in official establishments.
6. Protect your eyes from possible impacts and irritations. Contact sports such as martial arts or others such as tennis, paddle tennis or squash can be dangerous for our eyes. An impact of the ball can cause severe injuries. It is always recommended to use protective glasses that act as a barrier against a possible impact. The same happens with other sports such as cycling or running, which although they are not impact sports, it is possible that a foreign body or insect could enter us and cause some type of injury. Likewise, water sports always require the use of protective glasses to prevent irritation that can lead to other more serious conditions such as conjunctivitis.
7. Avoid excessive use of screens. Exposing our eyes to the light of tablets, mobile phones and computers will make us notice tired eyesight and even a certain sensation of itching or irritation. This is due not only to the lighting itself, but also to the fact that when we fix our eyes on the screen, we forget to blink and our eyes dry out as they do not receive adequate hydration that blinks provide us. It is important to take breaks, at least every 30 minutes. It is also advisable to use artificial tear drops that will help us keep our eyes perfectly hydrated. Another recommendation is to have the rooms where we are using this type of device well lit, or if we are using them in dimly lit places, use the night mode in which the light from the screens is more suitable for our eyes.
8. Get outside and enjoy nature. Being in open spaces, walking in the countryside or on the beach makes us disconnect from our daily routines, it recharges us with energy and vitality. And not only that, the fact of being in open spaces makes us work with our eyes in a different way, focusing at farther distances than we can do in the city and especially in our jobs. This type of long-distance focus allows us to work on the mobility of the muscles responsible for focusing at different distances, which is a magnificent exercise to keep our eyes healthy and trained.
9. There is the option of performing visual exercises. If we do not have the time or the opportunity to go outside, there is always the possibility of training our eyesight with certain focus exercises to keep it in good condition. There are many different exercises that with just a few minutes a day will allow us to exercise our eyesight enough to keep it in shape.
10. And of course make at least one annual visit with your ophthalmologist. Prevention is always the best option since certain diseases do not manifest themselves until they have been developing for some time. If we are able to anticipate their appearance, we will be able to remedy them before the damage they may cause is too serious or even irreversible. With a simple routine control visit, many visual problems can be detected and given a quick and effective solution.
If you follow these ten tips, we cannot guarantee that you will reach 100 years of age, but we can say with certainty that your eyesight will remain much healthier and in better condition.
