Eyes are the window to the soul, but also to our health. The eyes play an important role in letting us perform our daily activities without trouble.

Many people live with eye disease, poor vision, and blindness. If you’re one of the lucky folks who have healthy eyes, we have some tips for eye care to help protect your eye health for years to come.

What are the best tips for maintaining eye health? Read on to find out.

1. Eat Right

Believe it or not, what you eat greatly impacts your eye health and vision. One of our top tips for eye care is to eat right.

What are the best foods for eye health? Fatty fish like salmon or tuna, eggs, nuts, beans, citrus, and leafy vegetables.

These foods are packed with nutrients like vitamin C, omega-3 fatty acids, and zinc which can benefit your eyes. A diet rich with these foods can help protect your eyes against common age-related eye problems like cataracts.

2. Reduce Screen Time

Between work and our personal lives, we stare at screens all day long. Whatever the device, cell phones, computers, or televisions, most of us have prolonged exposure.

Why does this matter? Well, too much time staring at a screen can seriously affect your eye health.

Some eye problems you can get from too much screen time are eyestrain, focus issues, blurry vision, and dry and itchy eyes.

How can we reduce the impact of screen health?

For one, you need to eat right and consume enough lutein, which is a nutrient that helps filter the screen’s blue light.

Take protective measures like making sure your glasses prescription is up to date, blink frequently, and keep your computer screen around two feet from your eyes. A handy trick is to look away every 20 minutes at an object 20 feet away for 20 seconds, it is called the 20-20-20 rule!

3. Visit The Eye Doctor

For those of us that have contacts and/or glasses, we’re familiar with the importance of regular eye exams. We need to see!

But, yearly eye exams are critical, even for those who don’t wear glasses or contacts. The eyes can give a lot of information regarding your health.

Changes in your eye health can indicate problems such as diabetes, retinal detachment, blood disorders, and more. The only way to detect these problems is to go to the eye doctor.

4. Use Protective Eyewear

It is really important to protect our eyes from any potential hazards.

If you work a job where you are supposed to wear protective eyewear, do it. Thousands of people are unnecessarily blinded each year because they weren’t wearing appropriate protective gear at work.

It’s not just those who work with chemicals or building materials that need to be cautious and protect their eyes.

We all need to protect our eyes from a great hazard to eye health, the sun. Wear sunglasses when outside and don’t stare directly into the sun.

5. Don’t Smoke

One of the biggest tops for eye care from medical professionals is to not smoke. Research shows that smokers are 3 to 4 times as likely to develop age-related macular degeneration and cataracts when compared to nonsmokers.

So, is it your eyesight or a cigarette?

6. Get Your Sleep

You need your 8 hours of sleep for many reasons, but who knew that a full night’s rest can benefit your eyes?

Getting enough sleep reduces eye strain and just makes sure that your eyes are well rested to be at their best.

7. Wash Your Hands

It can be hard not to rub our eyes, especially during allergy season when eyes can be itchy and dry. It is essential that if you’re going to be touching your eyes at all, that you wash your hands.

While washing your hands is a fantastic idea for a multitude of reasons, it benefits your eyes by avoiding getting an infection or foreign objects in their by touching them.

8. Take Care of Your Contacts

For those who have contacts, it is essential that you listen to the trusted medical professional in your life. Your eye doctor will tell you what you can and can’t do with your contacts. It is different for everyone but you should follow a few basic rules.

The contact solution should be changed every day. You should wash your hands before putting in your contacts. If you can help it, you should not leave your contacts in for too long, it can cause a strain on your eyes as well as making them dry and itchy.

9. Think Twice About Eye Makeup

You should be cautious about what you’re putting around your eye.

Make sure that any makeup you’re using is up to par, clean, and doesn’t stay in your makeup bag for more than 3 months. Your mascara tube is a wonderful place for bacteria to live, and they thrive in the environment.

It is also essential that you don’t share eye makeup. As we said, bacteria can fester on eyeliner, eyeshadow, and mascara, and you don’t want to invite that into your eyes.

10. Stay Hydrated

Dehydration can lead to dry eyes. One of our top tips for eye care is to drink your full 64 ounces of water a day.

Staying hydrated is important for many aspects of our health, but your eyes especially will thank you.

Are You Following these Tips for Eye Care?

Has it been a while since your last eye exam?

As we’ve said, regular visits to the eye doctor are an essential aspect of keeping your eyes healthy.

Follow these tips for eye care, see your optometrist, and keep your eyes in good health.