Dieting is the practice of regulating food intake with the goal of weight loss, improving physical condition or managing specific health conditions.
What you eat, how you eat? And when you eat have a major role in your eye health and your health in general.
There are specific vitamins and minerals our eyes require for optimum function, and there are regular food that contains such healthy nutrients.
Today we will be talking extensively on some common food sources and how they impact our eyes. We will place less emphasis on the specific vitamins and minerals inorder for this topic to sink in easily.
What are the common food sources that are required for healthy visual function?
1. EGGS: eggs are very rich in lots of minerals and vitamins. Consistent intake of eggs helps prevent conditions like age related macular degeneration, choroidal degeneration
2. ORANGES AND GRAPES: These sources of food are highly rich in antioxidants. Consuming these regularly helps in preventing cell death and reducing Glaucoma.
3. BEANS AND GBEGIRI: These food sources have high zinc content, hence they help in mental alertness, brain function and they also boost cornea health.
4. CARROT: carrots are very rich in vitamin A which is good for night vision, and also help reducing damages from the condition called retinitis pigmentosa.
5. FISH AND SEAFOOD: fishes and seafood are very rich in zinc and for this they help in brain function and ensuring a healthy cornea for the consumer. Fishes and seafood are also rich in vitamin A, leutin and zeanthin, so consuming fishes and seafood will go a long way for your visual health.
Other food sources that are necessary for healthy eyes are vegetables, palm oil, broccoli, kale, et.c
Lifestyle practices are daily life actions that we engage in daily.
Some lifestyle practices are good and are beneficial to the eyes and the reverse of these good practices poses serious threat to the eyes.
The following are some lifestyle practices and how they affect the eyes:
1. WEARING PROTECTIVE GOGGLES WHILE AT WORK: If you work in a production factory or a chemical laboratory/factory, wearing protective goggles will help protect your eyes from workspace accidents like flying objects getting into the eyes, chemicals and fumes entering the eyes and causing issues for your eyes.
If you are an outdoor worker, that spends Time outside under the sun, a pair of photo AR will go a long way in preventing issues like cataract, pterygium and Age related macular degeneration
If you spend time working on your computer, getting a pair of bluecut glasses will go a long way in protecting your eyes from blue light from your devices.
2. EXERCISING: By Exercising regularly, your body will be able to fight against diseases like diabetes, hypertension and obesity.
Once you are able to fight against these conditions your chances of coming down diseases like diabetic retinopathy and hypertensive retinopathy.
These conditions have been known to cause blindness.
3. SMOKING: smoking regularly can actually put you at a risk of cataracts and macula degeneration. Instead of smoking yourself to blindness and then start looking for help all around, why don’t you just avoid smoking altogether? Think about it.
4. SELF – MEDICATION: By using medications (eyedrops and tablets) without doctor’s recommendation, you will actually be putting your eyes and life at risk. The damages self – medication can cause are enormous and most times irreversible.
5. NOT CHECKING YOUR EYES REGULARLY: Not checking your eyes regularly or avoiding visiting the hospital altogether when you are have eye issues is a lifestyle practice that have caused so many their eyes eventually.
By not checking your eyes regularly, you tend to Miss certain conditions that could have been treated in their early stage until it’s impossible to treat.
Back in the days, our forefathers lived a more healthier life, They were stronger, had very good body built, and very healthy organs.
Our forefathers rarely fell sick. Conditions like cancer, Glaucoma, hepatitis, kidney problems, liver problems were strangers to them. But today conditions like the aforementioned are now next door neighbors to our generation. These days we have kids who are 10 years looking like they are 30 years already. The reason is not far fetched. Our diets are killing us.
Our fore fathers fed on natural food. their meals were very rich in fibres, protein and necessary vitamins and minerals. They ate their meal fresh and healthy. But today we consume meals that are processed and heavily ladened with chemical preservatives, even our cook wares are made with materials that are carcinogenic. Do you still Wonder why we are not healthy?.
Let us go back to the old ways, let’s eat healthy meals, let’s shun processed and genetically modified food. If we can, let’s grow most of our food in our homes.
Palm oil other wise known as red oil is gotten from processing palm fronds. It one of the major condiments for cooking most Nigerian dishes.
Palm oil is highly rich in healthy vitamins and minerals that benefits humans in more ways than one.
Some of the health benefits of Palm oil includes
It improves eye sight by virtue of it’s high beta carotene content.
It very rich in vitamin E, which aids in anti- aging.
It is rich in vitamin K which aids blood coagulation.
It prevents the hair from greying fast while maintaining it’s strength.
It boosts skin health.
By reducing bad cholesterol ( Low density lipoprotein) while increasing good cholesterol High density lipoprotein, it aids improved cardiovascular function.
Dry eye occurs when the eye doesn’t produce enough tears to keep the outer surface eyes moisturized.
When the eye doesn’t release much tears to retain the moisture of the eye, it causes irritation and discomforts in the eye.
Just like the skin looks whitish ,dry and cracked when it’s not moisturized, the eyes as well gets dry when it doesn’t release enough tears to wet the eye.
Causes of dry eye are , age , hormonal changes, insufficient tears, exposure to windy environment, staring at a screen for extended period.
Signs and symptoms of dry eyes are : • dry feeling in the eye • burning sensation • Teary eye • redness
You are experiencing amy of the symptoms of dry eye listed above ? Then you need to visit an eye clinic to get proper treatment for your eyes.
SubConjunctival Hemorrhage is simply conjunctival bleeding.
This SubConjunctival Hemorrhage usually present as severe redness on the white of the eye.
PATHOPHYSIOLOGY: When there’s trauma to the eye or an increase in intraocular pressure, The conjunctival blood vessels ruptures and leak blood underneath the conjunctiva.
SIGN: Visible blood underneath the conjunctiva.
TREATMENT: This condition is usually self limiting, meaning it resolves on its own.
However, it is best to apply topical antibiotics till It resolves, to avoid infection of the collected blood mass.
Diplopia occurs when an individual sees Double image of an object.
PATHOPHYSIOLOGY: Both the left and right eye sees objects differently and send their individual signals to the brain. Processing and fusion of the two images occur in the brain.
In cases of refractive Errors, strabismus, and most times, pathologies, both eyes send images of one object with different sizes to the brain, thereby making it difficult for the brain to fuse the images.
CAUSES:
Strabismus
Phoria
Refractive Errors
Anisometropia and antimetropia
Anisekonia
Pathologies
SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS: visualizing two images of an object side by side, diagonally or vertically placed, dizziness
TREATMENT: treating the underlying cause resolves the condition.
