Caring for Your Eyes

1. Caring for Your Eyes By: Irah P. 3

2. To Keep Your Eyes Healthy… • Main Point: It is important to protect your eyes from damage and to have regular eye exams. • Tip: To protect your eyes from damage, wear protective goggles when you work with harmful substances or around machinery. • Tip: Wear sunglasses that provide UV protection. • Tip: Have regular eye exams. They ca help you prevent of identify vision problems, eye diseases, and eye infections.

3. Detecting Vision Problems • Optometrist: a professional trained to provide eye and vision care. • There are 3 common vision problems which are nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism.

4. Detecting Vision Problems • Nearsightedness: People can see nearby objects clearly, but not faraway objects. It is caused by an elongated eyeball. • Farsightedness: People can see faraway objects clearly, but nearby objects appear blurry. • Astigmatism: People who have distorted vision. Images do not focus correctly on the retina caused by an uneven curvature in the cornea lens.

5. Detecting Vision Problems • Optometrists may also check for colorblindness and night blindness. • Colorblindness: the inability to detect one or more colors. • Occurs when a person is born with a deficiency in one or more sets of cones. • This disorder is usually inherited.

6. Detecting Vision Problems • Night blindness: is the inability to see well in dim light due to poorly functioning rods. • This condition also can be inherited • It can also be caused by a lack of vitamin A.

7. Treating Eye Diseases As a person ages, the eyes become susceptible to several diseases. • Glaucoma: Age and certain diseases, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, may slow the drainage of liquid form the eye. • The result leads to a buildup of pressure in the eye. • Glaucoma can damage the optic nerve and lead to sight problems. • Glaucoma often develops so slowly that a person may have severe vision damage before it is detected. • Regular eye exams can detect glaucoma before symptoms are noticed.

8. Treating Eye Diseases Cataracts • The clouding of the eye’s lens. • It is very common among older adults. • Treatment involves surgical replacement of the clouded lens with an artificial lens. • Wearing sunglasses with UV-ray protection and not smoking are two behaviors that may slow or prevent the development of cataracts.

9. Treating Eye Diseases Detached Retina • Aging or an injury to the eye can cause the retina to separate form the lining of the eye. • Surgery is the only effective treatment for a detached retina.

10. Treating Eye Diseases Macular Degeneration • It is the leading cause of eyesight problems in older adults. • It occurs when cells in the center of the retina break down. • Treatment for macular degeneration is limited and often depends on the extent of the damage

11. Treating Eye Infections 2 Common eye infections are Sties and Conjunctivitis. • Sty: is a painful swelling that occurs when an oil gland at the base of an eyelash becomes infected. • Allergic reactions or infections related to colds can lead to conjunctivitis, an inflammation of the outside layer of the eye. • The eye may ooze a yellowish fluid and become red and itchy. • Sties and conjunctivitis can be treated with prescription medications

12. More Information • Spending extended periods of time in front of a computer can lead to eyestrain. • Although it does not cause permanent damage, it can be uncomfortable and distracting. EYE CARE TIPS • Blink often when using a computer. (or any device) • Look away from a computer or television (or iPad, Tablet, Phone, etc.) every 30 min for about 10 seconds • Do not rub your eyes • If you wear contact lenses, follow your doctor’s instructions. • Eat foods rich in vitamin A such as carrots, red peppers, and cantaloupe. • When outdoors, wear sunglasses that provide 100% UV-ray protection.