Save your sight with checkups, healthy diet
While it can be common knowledge to have annual wellness exams and six-month dentist visits, eye and vision checkups should never be overlooked. The American Optometric Association campaigns every year to raise public awareness about eye health and protecting your vision.
There are a number of factors when it comes to healthy vision and saving your vision. Dr. James Lusk with Lusk Eye Specialists in Shreveport champions this public awareness cause by offering services to detect disease.
“Lusk Eye Specialists focuses on detecting undiagnosed eye disease with annual screenings,” he said. “Forty million Americans have a chronic disease such as glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy or macular degeneration, but these diseases primarily affect those 40 and older.”
Scheduling that eye exam is the first step in taking a proactive approach to maintaining good eye health.
Simply having good vision doesn’t always ensure that one will always have good vision health, and in many cases some eye diseases present no early warning signs. These comprehensive eye exams look for more than just the need for glasses or contacts, though that is a typical outcome as well.
“Twelve million Americans have untreated refractive errors that can be corrected with glasses and women are twice as likely to have untreated refractive problems,” Lusk said. “Eye diseases are best detected and followed by a dilated eye exam.”
The National Eye Institute maintains that the comprehensive eye exam that includes dilation of the eyes gives eye health professionals a chance to look for common vision problems or diseases, and to make sure the patient is seeing their best. The dilation widens the pupils so that your doctor is able to use a medical magnifying lens to look into the retina for any signs of damage or disease. Finding things such as optic nerve damage is what occurs when the person has glaucoma. These routine eye exams are the key in maintaining vision and treating diseases.
“Already in 2014 we have screened free of charge 282 individuals over 55 for eye disease or damage, primarily looking for glaucoma, cataracts and diabetic eye damage,” Lusk said. “Individuals can promote healthy eyes and good longterm vision by first seeing an eye-care professional for routine dilated exams.”
According to the NEI, another component in those routine comprehensive eye exams is knowing your family history of eye disease and health. Because many diseases can be hereditary, informing your doctor on your family’s history of eye disease can be crucial.
Lusk said the second tip and approach in saving healthy vision is focusing on a diet rich in carotenoids found in vegetables such as kale and spinach. He suggested a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids such as a fish-based diet rather than meats.
The AOA expands on how a healthy diet can lead to a healthy life and healthy vision. Leafy greens contain nutrients that have shown to reduce the risk of certain eye diseases such as macular degeneration and cataracts. They also stress the need for vitamin C, E and zinc to protect cells and reduce risk.
A major tip in protecting vision is blocking ultraviolet rays and wearing sunglasses.
They’re more than just a fashion statement, the AOA reports UV-A and UV-B radiation can have short or longterm adverse effects to eyesight. Long-term exposure can cause cataract and damage to the retina.
They suggest to wear a wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses or even certain contacts that can help with UV protection when going outdoors. For sunglasses in particular, the AOA suggests they need to block at least 99 or 100 percent of UV-A and UV-B rays, screen out 75-90 percent of visible light, be matched in color and free of distortion and imperfection and have lenses that are gray for proper color recognition.
Lusk said a significant tip to eye health as well as complete body health is to avoid smoking.
The oxidative stress of smoke was found to be a leading cause of macular degeneration and cataracts.
For other tips such as protecting your eyes at work and giving them a break from digital devices, visit the American Optometric Association website at www. aoa.org.
