June 2020
You only get two, but most of us take our eyes for granted. Are you doing enough to look after them?
TAKE A BREAK
If you work long hours in front of a screen in artificial light you increase your chances of becoming short sighted, according to some experts. So take regular short breaks away from the screen – to rest your eyes and exercise your thighs! One thing that will help is to have a proper lunch break away from your desk and computer entirely.
Like the rest of your body your eyes get tired. The 20-20-20 rule is the way to keep them in shape. Make sure you look up from your screen every 20 minutes, and focus on something else
20 feet away, for 20 seconds. By looking into the distance you are helping your focusing muscles to relax, helping to reduce fatigue.
KEEP YOUR FEET COLD AND BLINK!
If the weather gets hot make sure your fan/air conditioning is facing your feet
and not your eyes. Dry air from airconditioning sucks moisture out of your
eyes, which makes them vulnerable to infections and even ulcers.
If you do become too obsessed in the work you must remember to blink. Apparently, the normal person blinks between 12 and 18 times a minute.
Once we turn on our screens this plummets to six times a minute. Experts have suggested you start consciously blinking every minute you are reading online.
DIET HELPS
Eating oily fish also helps prevent dry eyes. There is even such a thing as dry eye syndrome, which is common in older people. If mackerel isn’t your thing then it’s ok to go for supplements.
SMOKING DOESN’T HELP
Macular degeneration of the eyes is on the list of things bad things that smoking does to you. Cigarette smokers are in fact four times more likely to be blinded by AMD compared to none smokers!
