So many of us these days have vision problems are need to wear glasses or corrective lenses. A recent study revealed that as much as half of the population of the US is short sighted. I’m sure I certainly see a lot more children wearing glasses at school nowadays than there were when I was growing up. Given all of this it is becoming more and more important to look after your eyes properly and make sure your lifestyle isn’t making your vision worse. So I thought I’d share my top 5 tips for healthier eyes:

Get your eyesight checked regularly.

It is advisable to schedule a visit to your optician at least once every year as some vision problems can often go completely unnoticed until it is too late. Getting regular eye tests can prevent the need for costly corrective treatments in the future so make sure you always follow your optician’s advice - if they say you need prescription glasses, start wearing them straight away.

If you need glasses, always wear them!

It doesn’t matter whether you think they look good or not, if your optician has said you need glasses then you need them. Not wearing them can damage your eyes further and will usually only lead to you needing an even stronger prescription later. If you don’t like the way they look then shop around, there are hundreds of different frames available and there is sure to be something that will suit you.

Maintain a healthy diet for your eyes

Research has shown that certain vitamins and nutrients are beneficial to your eyesight, so making sure you eat a diet rich in vitamins A, C and E, folic acid, selenium and zinc could help prevent future vision problems. If your glasses prescription is very low (-0.25) it’s possible that your sight could even be corrected by changing to a diet rich in these nutrients.

Always protect your eyes fron the sun

It may sound obvious to say that UV rays can cause severe damage to your vision, yet hundreds of people still allow this to happen every year. Sunglasses are an absolute must when going out in the sun, whether you have eyesight problems or not. With an endless range of designer sunglasses on the market, it’s easy to find a pair that you like and that will give you the all-important protection you need.

Give them a break!

If you spend a lot of time at your computer, it’s important that you give your eyes regular breaks from looking at the screen. Just closing your eyes or focusing on a distant object for 10 seconds at least once an hour can make a really big difference and helps to prevent headaches and vision problems associated with prolonged use of a screen. Don’t forget these problems don’t just happen at work, the same applies to watching TV and playing video games too!

Technorati Tags: designer sunglasses, eyesight, glasses, prescription glasses, vision

It may sound like science fiction but more and more people are opting to bin their reading glasses in favour of having artificial plastic lens implants inserted into their eyes instead. The procedure is becoming increasingly popular, particularly amongst middle aged people wanting to avoid the possible onset of presbyopia, or the deterioration of sight related to age. It almost sounds too good to be true, surely if it really works it could be the end to all our worries about our eyesight?

The idea of having your natural lenses removed from your eyes and replaced with a small piece of plastic might not be one for the squeamish, but in fact the procedure does work surprisingly well. The number of patients opting for the surgery has doubled since 2004, with most people reporting that the implants have made a huge difference to their sight, often meaning they no longer need to wear their prescription glasses at all.

So how does it work? Well, the natural lenses in the eye can stiffen with age, losing their ability to bend and focus. The lens implant procedure removes the natural lens from the eye and replaces it with an Intraocular lens, which uses the muscles of the eye to mimic the natural lens movements and enhance the eye’s optical power. The procedure takes less than half an hour – the patient is given a local anaesthetic then a small incision is made to remove the old lens and insert the new one.

Lens implants as a preventative measure are not currently available on the NHS and the private procedure is not exactly cheap, usually costing somewhere between £2,500 and £3,000 per eye. But when you think about it, being able to see both near and far without being dependant on glasses, escape from the discomfort of wearing them, or even being able to wear stylish designer sunglasses without having to worry about buying prescription lenses could actually be worth it!

Technorati Tags: designer sunglasses, eyesight, glasses, prescription glasses, vision

After years of being told that video games are bad for your health and especially your eyes, a new study has proved that in fact playing some games may actually help improve your vision, and could even prevent you from needing glasses in the future. The study, conducted by the University of Rochester, demonstrates that regularly playing certain games can improve a person’s contrast sensitivity function, or their ability to be able to distinguish between different shades of grey. But can that really mean your eyesight has improved?

Shades of grey might not sound particularly ground-breaking, but contrast sensitivity is one of the most easily damaged functions of the eye. People who suffer from low contrast sensitivity find it harder to see at night or to pick out small details like spots on clothing, and often the only way to treat the problem is with increasing strength prescription glasses or eye surgery. It’s now believed that computer games could be used to train the eyes to develop these skills, and that it’s possible the same method could even be used to treat people who suffer from Amblyopia or ‘lazy eye’, a condition that affects the brain’s ability to correctly register signals from one eye.

But not all video games are thought to be beneficial in this way. The study compared different types of computer games by testing young adults who did not usually play games before and after a period of playing them regularly. The results of the tests revealed that subjects who played first-person shooter or action games like Call of Duty showed a 43 per cent improvement on average, whereas those who played non-action games such as The Sims 2 showed hardly any.

So if gaming could help us avoid eye problems should we all be rushing out to buy an XBOX with as many action games as we can find to ensure that our designer sunglasses will remain our only visual aids far into our future? Well, unfortunately no. For a start the study makes a point that not all action games will work like this, in other words, the majority of them probably won’t. Not to mention the fact that although these games may help develop some areas of your eyesight, it’s still not advisable to be sitting in front of a screen for long periods of time, or to allow computer games to replace other activities necessary to staying fit and healthy. In theory it’s a nice idea, but it’s important to remember that it’s just as possible that video games could well be harmful in other ways.

Technorati Tags: designer sunglasses, eyesight, glasses, prescription glasses, vision