The ability to see and hear make up a great part of how everyone sees their world. Without sight and hearing, living is limited. Yet few people ever see the need to care for their eyes. They're often neglected until cataracts and glaucoma begins to limit vision.
Today's technology creates conditions that assault the senses. Headphones and ear buds regularly blast high decibel music directly into the eardrums, while city noises irritate the sensitive hairs of the cochlea. Millions around the globe sit before the bright screens of televisions and computer monitors while electro-pollution steadily increases eye strain and vision loss.
Natural eye care should be an important part of everyone's life and there are ways to keep the eyes healthy and sharp.
An Eye Healthy Diet
Eye health starts with the foods that improve eyesight. a diet of fresh fruit and vegetables. Dark green leafy vegetables like spinach, collard greens and kale come loaded with lutein and zeaxanthin, carotenoids that help the eyes filter out harmful radiation. Carrots are a good source of beta-carotene that has protective effects on the eyes. Lycopene, boiflavonoids, proanthocyanidins, quercitin and polyphenols are found in many brightly colored fruits and vegetables, including green tea.
Antioxidants are effective in protecting the eyes from free-radical damage. Considering that most foods lack enough essential vitamins and minerals, supplementation with vitamins A, C, E, beta-carotenes and zinc can promote eye health. Bilberry, ginkgo biloba and taurine help to improve night vision, enhance circulation to the eyes and support collagen production.
The Importance of Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Eye Health
Ancient cultures ate a diet that consisted of equal quantities of omega-3 and omega-6. Today's diet leans heavily toward omega-6. While both are important, omega-3 is found in foods that are the least consumed. Fish such as sardines, salmon, herring, mackerel, trout and tuna are the best sources of omega-3 fatty acids. Flaxseed also provides essential omega-3 oils, but is versatile as it can be incorporated in most any dish.
The Importance of Exercise
Eye muscles are constantly at work, but they experience a great deal of strain and fatigue when used through repetitive movements that come from reading, watching television, driving long distances and working with computer screens. Eye exercises can help improve the elasticity of the eye muscles.
Keeping Blood Sugar in Balance
High levels of glucose and insulin levels in the bloodstream is not only a recipe for diabetes, but they adversely affect eye health, particularly the small vessels that supply the eyes with the oxygen and nutrients the cells need to function properly. Keeping your blood sugar stable means eating fiber foods and less refined, high calorie foods that raise blood sugar levels. While drugs help control blood sugar, they do not prevent the complications of blindness and neuropathy that affect so many diabetics Much of the problem is due to the lack of nutrients such as chromium, gymnema sylvestre, vanadyl sulfate and banaba leaf that can protect the eyes. Many diabetics do not have adequate levels of many vitamins and minerals that help enhance eye health.
Keeping healthy eyes and maintaining sharp eyesight is not as difficult as it may seem. Good eating habits, reducing eye strain and keeping blood sugar in control will insure that eyesight remains sharp without the macular deterioration that so many experience today.
Sources:
eyedoctorguide.com; "Tips for Improving Your Vision naturally" (accessed Feb. 11, 2011)
diseaseproof.com: "Omega 3 May Save Your Eyesight" (accessed Feb. 11, 2011)
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