JonDPreserve Your Eyesight Naturally
May 19th 2008 06:22
We are all well aware that our body is our temple and the mirror of our lives. It’s drummed in to our heads all day every day by magazines, radio and television that disrespecting our body by drinking to much alcohol, smoking, eating to much fatty food and lack of exercise is detrimental to our all round health. If we continue down these paths of excess our bodies will deteriate becoming riddled with disease and will finally pack it in well before its expiry date. While all these mediums are helpful in getting across this important message, they always seem to miss out one important part of the body which needs just as much care and attention as the rest of us, our eyes. We all just accept that eye disease and wearing glasses or contact lenses is going to be a natural part of life, as we get older. But what most people don’t realise is that, wearing glasses will improve your sight short term but long term they are actually making your eyes worse, which is why stronger and stronger prescriptions are often required. Our eyes as with the rest of our bodies need constant exercise and the right vitamins to stave off disease and general ware and tare. While no one is guaranteed perfect vision forever, it is now thought that just 10 mins of eye exercises a day, and a diet high in vitamin A and vitamin B2 can not only reduce your chances of disease but also reduce the need for glasses or contact lenses.
Vitamin A
Can you ever remember your mother ever telling you to eat all your carrots because they will help you see in the dark? Well guess what? The old cheese was right. Carrots happen to be very high in vitamin A, which is needed to help keep your eyes in optimum condition. Vitamin A, also known as retinol, keeps the skin healthy and helps to produce mucous secretions to build resistance to infection. Dr Marc Price says “Not consuming enough vitamin A can lead to a condition known as ‘Nyctalopia’ or night blindness” This literally means that your ability to see in the dark or faint light becomes diminished. Xerophthalmia (Greek for dry eyes) is another disease caused by the decreased absorption or intake of vitamin A. This leads to a malfunction in the tear glands, which makes the eyes become very dry, the corneas soft and can then lead to severe cases of nigh blindness. This, of course, is in very extreme cases that are not often seen in industrialised countries but xerophthalmia remains the leading cause of childhood blindness in the third world. Vitamin A can be found in cabbage, lettuce, liver, milk and of course carrots but the highest concentration of vitamin A can actually be found in sweet potatoes.
Vitamin B2
Vitamin B2 is an important antioxidant in the eye. Having a vitamin B2 deficiency can lead to the eyes producing cataracts. In a Chinese trial Older people taking 3 mg of vitamin B2 per day were partly protected against cataracts. Most researchers though do not believe that higher amounts would be helpful, and it remains unclear whether these vitamins would help protect people in societies that eat higher levels of the B2 vitamin than the Chinese, whose intake appears to be low. Vitamin B2 is found in green vegetables, poultry, fish, liver and cheese.
Eye Exercises
Doing eye exercises is not a new concept, but for many years they were thought to have little or no effect at all. It is only recently that doctors are finding that doing regular eye exercises, while it wont improve your eye sight, can actually stop eye strain and reduce the need for glasses in later life. A recent study showed that 75% of all accountants were being prescribed glasses or contact lenses while only 20% of farmers were suffering from the same affliction. This is thought to be because farmers are constantly exercising their eyes by using their full range.
“If you are stuck in front of a computer screen all day you should follow this simple rule. For every 20 minuets of computer work you should try to focus on something at least 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds” says Dr Price. But there are lots of other simple exercises that can help keep your eyes in tip top condition.
Pencil Push ups
1. Hold a pencil 10 inches away from your face. Slowly bring it back to your nose and stop before it appears double.
2. Pretend there is a tic-tac-toe board in front of you. Then bring the pencil in to your nose from each box keep focused on the pencil moving only your eyes.
This will strengthen all of the muscles around the eyes, which will help prevent eyestrain and double vision.
Focus Rock
1. Hold an article to your eyes as possible so you can still see it clearly.
2. Then focus on something 10 feet away
3. Re-focus on the article then back to the far target
Doing this for up to 5 minuets a day will help build stamina and increase focus ability. This can help reduce the need for reading glasses.
Eye stretch
Look up at your eyebrow and make just your eyeball roll around in a very big circle looking as far as your can in each direction.
So just remember if you look after your eyes by taking just ten minuets out of you day to do some of these simple exercise, your eyes will look after you well in to your old age.
Vitamin A
Can you ever remember your mother ever telling you to eat all your carrots because they will help you see in the dark? Well guess what? The old cheese was right. Carrots happen to be very high in vitamin A, which is needed to help keep your eyes in optimum condition. Vitamin A, also known as retinol, keeps the skin healthy and helps to produce mucous secretions to build resistance to infection. Dr Marc Price says “Not consuming enough vitamin A can lead to a condition known as ‘Nyctalopia’ or night blindness” This literally means that your ability to see in the dark or faint light becomes diminished. Xerophthalmia (Greek for dry eyes) is another disease caused by the decreased absorption or intake of vitamin A. This leads to a malfunction in the tear glands, which makes the eyes become very dry, the corneas soft and can then lead to severe cases of nigh blindness. This, of course, is in very extreme cases that are not often seen in industrialised countries but xerophthalmia remains the leading cause of childhood blindness in the third world. Vitamin A can be found in cabbage, lettuce, liver, milk and of course carrots but the highest concentration of vitamin A can actually be found in sweet potatoes.
Vitamin B2
Vitamin B2 is an important antioxidant in the eye. Having a vitamin B2 deficiency can lead to the eyes producing cataracts. In a Chinese trial Older people taking 3 mg of vitamin B2 per day were partly protected against cataracts. Most researchers though do not believe that higher amounts would be helpful, and it remains unclear whether these vitamins would help protect people in societies that eat higher levels of the B2 vitamin than the Chinese, whose intake appears to be low. Vitamin B2 is found in green vegetables, poultry, fish, liver and cheese.
Eye Exercises
Doing eye exercises is not a new concept, but for many years they were thought to have little or no effect at all. It is only recently that doctors are finding that doing regular eye exercises, while it wont improve your eye sight, can actually stop eye strain and reduce the need for glasses in later life. A recent study showed that 75% of all accountants were being prescribed glasses or contact lenses while only 20% of farmers were suffering from the same affliction. This is thought to be because farmers are constantly exercising their eyes by using their full range.
“If you are stuck in front of a computer screen all day you should follow this simple rule. For every 20 minuets of computer work you should try to focus on something at least 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds” says Dr Price. But there are lots of other simple exercises that can help keep your eyes in tip top condition.
Pencil Push ups
1. Hold a pencil 10 inches away from your face. Slowly bring it back to your nose and stop before it appears double.
2. Pretend there is a tic-tac-toe board in front of you. Then bring the pencil in to your nose from each box keep focused on the pencil moving only your eyes.
This will strengthen all of the muscles around the eyes, which will help prevent eyestrain and double vision.
Focus Rock
1. Hold an article to your eyes as possible so you can still see it clearly.
2. Then focus on something 10 feet away
3. Re-focus on the article then back to the far target
Doing this for up to 5 minuets a day will help build stamina and increase focus ability. This can help reduce the need for reading glasses.
Eye stretch
Look up at your eyebrow and make just your eyeball roll around in a very big circle looking as far as your can in each direction.
So just remember if you look after your eyes by taking just ten minuets out of you day to do some of these simple exercise, your eyes will look after you well in to your old age.
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