At Noakes Habermehl & Kerr we know that your eyes play an important role in mobility, function, and your enjoyment of life. For this reason, it is important to maintain good ocular health.
There are simple corrective and preventive measures to maintain good vision and enjoy lifelong ocular health.
Visit your optometrist for regular check-ups and for any eye problems you experience.
Optometrists are trained specifically to determine and improve your vision with the prescription of spectacles, contact lenses, and eye exercises. You should visit your optometrist for an eye exam regularly and seek immediate advice if you experience eye infections or symptoms of disease such as loss of or blurred vision, light flashes, eye pain, redness, itching, swelling, and irritation around the eye or eyelid.
Disease of the eye is the number one cause of blindness. Most diseases that cause blindness, like glaucoma and diabetes, can be treated or their progression slowed down with the proper diagnosis and management. While there is no cure for some eye disorders, there have been major medical advances for age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma and cataracts.
By getting regular exams and discussing your family history, we will be able to anticipate, better prevent, and treat eye disease.
Not wearing your prescribed spectacles or contact lenses will not cause disease of the eye, but it can cause discomfort by eyestrain, headaches, or possibly even injury brought on by the lack of safe vision. If wearing prescriptive lenses is uncomfortable, ask us about alternatives, like switching from spectacles to contact lenses or exploring corrective surgery.
Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a form of light and is a part of the invisible part of the spectrum.
Sources of this damaging light include sunlight, a welder's flash, VDU's, fluorescent lighting, high intensity mercury vapour lamps (used for night sports and high-crime areas), and xenon arc lamps (used in laboratories).
Constant exposure to ultraviolet rays can result in eye damage. Eye diseases such as cataracts, macular degeneration, solar retinitis, and corneal dystrophies have all been linked to UV exposure.
Your eyes may be more sensitive to light if they are light in colour, if you are taking specific medications, or if you use artificial sweeteners. You can protect your eyes while out in the sun or indoors by wearing sunglasses or contact lenses treated for UV absorption and by using protective eyewear and VDU screen covers that have an ultraviolet absorbing coating.
Wearing safety glasses and protective goggles while playing sports or working with hazardous materials lowers your risk for eye injury, damage to vision, and complete loss of sight.
Everybody's heard of the old belief that eating carrots can help you see in the dark.
That may or may not be true, but a rapidly growing body of evidence indicates that eating certain foods can indeed help to safeguard your vision.
For example, a major US study has found that vitamins of the A-C-E complex plus zinc can slow down the development of age-related macular degeneration in existing and low-grade AMD patients. Vitamins C and E may also help to inhibit the development or progression of cataracts.
Lutein and zeaxanthin are deposited in the eyes and act as antioxidants, "mopping up", or neutralising, the free radicals, which can cause cell damage. There are also indications that one or both of these substances can act like natural sunglasses, physically helping to filter out harmful blue light and stopping it from reaching and damaging the back of the retina. They are often found together in many, usually dark-coloured, fruits and vegetables. They include:
Being actively involved in your eye health and working with your optometrist increases your chances for maintaining good eye health and eyesight.
For more information on maintaining healthy eye "Contact Us"
For further information on healthy eyes and nutrition go to www.healthyeyes.org.uk
copyright NH&K 2009