Eye care and nutrients for eye health

There are many factors that may affect one’s eyesight. Sunlight rays, long time on computer screen, excessive TV watching, environmental pollution and a poor diet can all cause damage to vision. The eye is one of the most precious organs of the body. Maintaining good eye health should be one of the most important tasks during daily life for every one. And there are many things that can be done to take good care of the eyes.

UV sunglasses enable the eyes to fight against harmful rays

During outdoor activities, UV protective eyewear is quite necessary. UV rays are powerful that they can penetrate clouds and reach any object on the world. Even a cloudy day is filled with certain ultraviolet rays and necessary eye protection should not be absent. What’s more, contact lenses with built-in UV protection ability are not enough. The reason is that these transparent lenses can not cover the whole part of the eye, not to say its surrounding area. Professional UV sunglasses are the most competent in fighting against UV rays.

Take periodic breaks and ease work-related eye tension

Eye strain is one of the main causes of common eye problems. Spending a couple of hours on computer on a daily basis can cause much eye stress and strain. The reason is that most people stare on the computer screen for several hours without a break. Delicate eyes are unable to tolerate such a tension work. Computer users are encouraged to remove their focus away from the monitor every twenty minutes and look at something 20 feet away for about 20 seconds. In this way, the eyes can get periodic relaxation and unnecessary tiredness and long-term damage can be avoided.

Do eye exercises and have enough sleep

Regular eye exercises are also believed to be beneficial to the eyes. After a long time of eye use, it is helpful to do certain eye exercises for eye muscle relaxation. Eye exercises can be quite helpful because the eyes always need proper rest. Enough sleep is also essential to prevent the eyes from tiredness. Tired eyes can never perform good visual tasks. Using tired eyes is a great danger to eyesight of some groups of people, especially students who regularly take inadequate sleep.

Some nutrients support eye health from an external perspective

In addition to those external factors, the eyes also need right nutrients. Vitamins and minerals are quite beneficial to and also indispensible for eye health. Well-known nutrients include vitamin A, C and E, zinc, selenium, folic acid and so forth. As a popular antioxidant, vitamin A supports the regeneration of rhodopsin. Vitamin C and E as antioxidants support healthy blood vessels.

The functions of some popular eye nutrients

As described above, the eyes need various nutrients including vitamins. Another commonly referred nutrient is beta carotene, which can be found in cabbage, carrots, papayas, green peas, spinach, lettuce, collard greens, turnips, broccolis and kale and other green leafy vegetables. In addition, nutrients from bilberry are particularly helpful in relieving eyestrain and fatigue. Another category of antioxidants is carotenoids, which fight against free radicals in the eye. Beta-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin are some of the common carotenoids.