Health
What Factors Affect Your Vision?
Even though most people don’t pay much attention to their eyes, having good eyesight is really something to be treasured. Have you ever felt bad for a friend or relative who needed glasses on a daily basis to function normally? Well, imagine that you two switched bodies. How much of a pain would it be to go from perfect vision to not being able to see straight every second of your life? It’s a huge hassle. Unfortunately, we can’t always prevent our vision from deteriorating. What we can do is arm ourselves with the knowledge to combat worsening vision. If you’re curious about what variables affect eyesight, the following are some of the biggest ones.
> Genetics
Our genes play a role in every aspect of our physical being. From height and hair color to muscular development potential and eyesight, the genes we inherited from our parents will always make a difference. Sadly, some of us receive “bad” genes from our mother and father that can cause or increase our likelihood of developing physical or mental problems such as poor vision. When it comes to genetics, there isn’t really anything that we can do about them. You can’t change your genes because you were born with them. The unlucky ones are in real danger of developing eye disorders such as glaucoma, cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, and macular degeneration sometime in their lifetimes. The only way to predict your chances of getting eye problems is to have your family’s medical history checked. The diseases that you have had or currently have may also increase your risk of losing eyesight partially or completely.
> Age
Age is another factor that affects many different aspects of the body. In general, everything worsens as we age after hitting adulthood. After reaching our mid-twenties, our organs begin to deteriorate over time causing disease and dysfunction. Declining eyesight is considered to be a normal process that occurs as time passes. Even if you had 20/20 vision as a teen, you can still end up being nearly blind by age 60. Good eyesight at one point in time is not indicative of vision quality in later life because there are simply too many variables that influence eyesight along the way. When we get into our 50s and 60s, proteins may start to clump together within the corneal lens, reducing our vision. These are known as cataracts. Other age-related problems may arise including loss of focus-ability, nearsightedness, and farsightedness.
> Stress
They say that stress causes all kinds of health problems in the body, and eyesight is no exception. There are a few major stressors that can cause temporary declines in a vision: tiredness, muscular tension, and boosts in adrenaline. Fatigue causes a decline in all bodily functions. Being too tired can make your eyes blurry. Tired eye muscles can cause a similar effect. Increases in adrenaline can create multiple types of vision distortions from simple blurriness to tunnel vision and even visual hallucinations.
> Diet
The things we eat are considered to be the number one determinant of overall health. Nothing has as big an effect on the quality of life than a diet. To maintain good health, we must obtain all of the necessary nutrients from our food. Without proper nutrition, the body fails to work properly because it doesn’t have the vitamins and minerals it needs to perform specific functions. This is how disease occurs. If you want to have good vision, consume foods high in beta carotene, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, zinc, omega-3 fatty acids, lutein, and antioxidants.
> Exercise
While exercise doesn’t directly affect vision, it does play a huge role in preventing diseases which could lead to declining eyesight or blindness. Diabetes is one of the diseases that can have completely destructive consequences on eyesight, and it’s usually linked to obesity. Exercising on a regular basis will keep you in a healthy weight range, maintain your overall health, and significantly decrease the chances of getting any diseases that might compromise eye health.
> Direct damage
Damaged eyesight or blindness can obviously result from direct damage, but there are more ways that we harm our eyes than we realize. It’s not just horrible accidents like physically poking an eye, getting some edged particle in it, or getting splashed with corrosive chemicals than can permanently ruin your vision. In fact, staying out in the sun too long without proper eye protection can cause you to lose your vision over a matter of several years. Overexposure to ultraviolet rays can lead to glaucoma, cataracts, and other disorders.
The bottom line is this: your eyes are fragile. Take care of them now before you lose your vision completely. Loss of sight is currently an irreversible process, so make an effort to keep them healthy while they’re still good. If your eyes are already damaged, LASIK surgery can repair much of your eyesight to bring back the clear view you once had.