Everyone knows that taking care of their eye health is crucial at every stage of life. But knowing how to keep your eyes healthy is not as common, which is why we will be exploring ways to take care of your eye health in this blog. If you're wondering what skincare has to do with keeping the eyes healthy, some of these tips might surprise you! Without further ado, let’s get into it.
Eye Protection To Keep The Eyes Healthy
External factors, such as sun exposure, pollutants, trauma, or poor eye hygiene, can be responsible for deteriorating eye health. Taking effective measures to protect your eyes from these is another way to keep your eyes healthy.
1. UV Rays Cause Eye Damage
You must be used to applying sunscreen before stepping out to protect your skin from harmful sun exposure. But what about your eyes? The easiest way to protect your eyes from damaging UV rays and keep them healthy is to wear sunglasses that block these rays. Even if you wear contact lenses, it is still suggested that you wear sunglasses when you step outside.
2. Safety First
If you are involved in activities that could potentially damage your eyes, such as working with hazardous substances, welding, physical sports, etc., it is important to wear suitable protective gear to avoid any negative effects on your eye health. These may include goggles, helmets, masks, or other suitable methods of protection.
3. Regulate Screen Time
The cumulative hours of screen time spent on devices of varying screen sizes, during work and otherwise, can result in significant eye strain. If you find yourself staring at a screen continuously for long periods of time, it is recommended to follow the 20-20-20 rule to keep the eyes healthy. Every 20 minutes, focus on an object 20 feet away from you for 20 seconds. This helps greatly reduce the strain on your eyes and prevents issues like dry eyes, headaches, blurry vision, and so on.
Skincare Matters In Keeping Your Eyes Healthy
It's not just direct protection of your eyes that matters; the cosmetics you use around your eyes also have an impact on eye health. Let’s explore eye skincare and eye makeup tips to remember in order to keep your eyes healthy.
1. Use Eye-Friendly Skincare
Skincare products don’t get absorbed right into the skin in a straight line from where you applied them; they can seep through your skin up to a few millimetres, similar to an ink blot. Therefore, the skincare products you apply near your eyes could potentially migrate to your eyes. In addition, the skin around your eyes is naturally thin and dry, which needs gentle products.
When purchasing products like eye serum online, pay close attention to the ingredients. Ensure that it does not contain ingredients that further dry your skin, such as vitamin A derivatives (retinoids). It is best to avoid products with fragrance.
Also, products with opaque packaging that come with an in-built applicator are preferred. An opaque container prevents the product from reacting with light, and an in-built applicator ensures that the product does not get contaminated by repeated finger-dipping.
2. Throw Out Expired Products
Using out-of-date cosmetics, such as makeup and skincare, can result in issues like an infection from bacterial growth or negative effects from composition changes as a result of them degrading over time. These will also impact the overall health of your eyes. Studies have shown that a vast majority of women have used or are using expired cosmetics. To keep your eyes healthy, it is important to discard expired products without fail.
3. Apply & Remove Products Gently
The eye area should be handled gently and with care. Aggressive rubbing or tugging when you apply or remove cosmetics, such as rubbing in an eye serum or tugging at your lashes to remove mascara, can damage your eyes along with the skin around your eyes. Another tip: apply eye makeup in a well-lit area in order to avoid squinting, which can have negative effects like blurry or double vision.
4. Be Mindful Of Your Eye Makeup
Certain makeup products and other cosmetics, like glitter eyeshadows and mascara, can worsen dry eye or blepharitis. Be careful with false eyelashes as the length of the lashes can worsen dry eye. In addition, some people are allergic to the lash glue which can further aggravate the issue.
General Lifestyle Habits To Keep Your Eyes Healthy
There are a handful of lifestyle habits and practices that are commonly recommended to help maintain your overall health. Unsurprisingly, adopting these habits also has a significant impact on maintaining your eye health.
1. Eating Well Is Important
What you consume plays a great role in the state of your health. Meeting your nutrition requirements and following a well-balanced diet consistently can have a transformative effect on your health, both directly and indirectly.
Foods known to keep your eyes healthy include greens and leafy vegetables, sources of omega-3 fatty acids like fish, and those rich in vitamins, zinc, etc. A healthy diet also decreases the chances of obesity, which is one of the common causes of diabetes and subsequent vision problems.
2. Regular Exercise Can Help
Incorporating regular exercise into your routine is another way to lower the chances of obesity and its indirect vision-related consequences. That doesn’t mean you have to train like a professional athlete. Instead, finding something you actually enjoy doing that can easily fit into your schedule is the key to building a sustainable habit.
3. Stop Smoking
Smoking has a plethora of negative effects, one of which is causing damage to your vision. According to studies, smoking can double the chances of developing a condition called age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which has been found to be one of the leading causes of vision impairment in the UK. Smoking has also been linked to heightened chances of contracting a handful of other eye health issues, such as cataracts and optic nerve damage. Therefore, quitting smoking is another way to keep your eyes healthy.
4. Schedule Regular Doctor Visits
Scheduling regular doctor visits can help identify health issues in their early stages when they are easier to treat. This applies to your eye health as well. Consulting with a professional and checking your vision and eye health periodically is one of the best ways to keep an eye on your eye health.
Did You Learn How To Keep Eyes Healthy?
We hope you've learned something new from this blog post! To summarise, there are 3 major categories of methods you can use to keep your eyes healthy. First, protect your eyes from external factors that can cause your eye health to deteriorate. Second, pay attention to the skincare and makeup products you use around your eyes. Third, incorporate general healthy habits like a balanced diet and physical activity to improve your health.
Check out the rest of our blogs to discover more about eye skincare and health, with topics ranging from “Does Vitamin C Help With Hyperpigmentation?” to “What Are Hydrocolloid Patches?”.
