I am quite often asked by my patients about what they can do to keep eyes healthy and vision good. The answer is surprisingly simple:
It’s all about the blood vessels. Keeping the blood vessels healthy can help keep eyes healthy and vision clear as we get older.
When we show you the back of your own eye with the Optomap and OCT images, you can see the blood vessels which feed the retina and keep it healthy. It’s like a window into all the blood vessels of the body. The macula is the centre of the retina where the image is formed of whatever you are looking directly at and it can be affected by AMD (age-related macular degeneration), diabetic retinopathy and other blood vessel diseases which can cause vision loss. So how do we keep those retinal blood vessels healthy?
The big 5 for eye health are:
- Don’t smoke
- Stay active
- Eat a healthy diet (lots of veggies- especially green leafy veggies and whole foods with fiber)
- Keep blood pressure under control
- Keep blood glucose (blood sugar) under control
Small Changes Matter
I personally know how hard it can be to keep up a good diet and exercise routine, and just know that I’m doing my best as well. So let’s all try to be kind to ourselves, but never give up trying to get a bit more movement in our days and a few more veggies in our diets. Some good mantras are: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants” – Michael Pollan and ParticipACTION “Let’s make room to move”. And when family doctors recommend medication to get blood pressure, cholesterol and blood glucose levels under control, they are trying to protect your blood vessels which in turn helps prevent vision loss as well as helping prevent problems like diabetes and heart disease. We can’t always do it with diet and exercise alone.
So let’s all be kind to ourselves, but let’s try to stay moving and eating as healthily as we can manage. Just a nice walk every day and a few more veggies can make a big difference! I have been enjoying an online workout program out of Montreal called Essentrics (Aging Backwards) and I am reading the latest book from Canadian nephrologist Jason Fung MD called “The Hunger Code” which I am finding helpful. If you can find a way to add more movement to your day that you ENJOY then that’s the right thing for you! I take inspiration from one of my patients Richard who did his WWII army exercises every day for the rest of his 91 years. What an amazing guy!
Whatever extra vegetables and whole foods with fiber you can get into you will help too. It turns out that carrots are good for your eyes but nothing to do with prescription, just keeping eyes healthy! I should add that Omega 3 is good to help dry eyes and Lutein can help prevent macular degeneration if you are ok with supplements.
I know none of this is revolutionary, but I hope this is helpful and remember- never give up, be kind to yourself and let’s hope better weather gets here soon. Some warm sunshine will help us all to get moving more! We hope to see you soon at Pierce Family Vision.
