Are you completely dependent on your spectacles, rendered an invalid if they're broken or lost? Are your worried that your will soon have to sport those dreaded frames, since both your parents wear glasses? Are you regularly suffering from soreness in and around your eyes and headaches? It's time to sit up and think carefully about your eyesight, which you have hitherto taken for granted. While it is true that genetic factors and increasing age predisposes you to poor eyesight, greater percentages of people need glasses or lenses because of poor vision resulting from poor eye care, owing to their own negligence. A few simple measures of care will not only help to eliminate genetic and age-related factors, they will also improve your eye-sight in general. Let us explore these options.



As with any other external organ of your body, good hygienic practices go a long way in preventing poor eyesight. Here are some useful tips:

- Wash your eyes with cold water regularly to flush out all the dust particles.

- Wear shades whenever you go out in the sun. This will create a protective screen for your eyes, reducing the amount of smoke and dust particles that enter your eyes. More importantly, it will protect your eyes from harmful effects of ultra violet rays that are emanated by the sun.

- If you work at the computer for long hours, then wear glasses or lenses that provide additional protection from the harmful rays emanated by the computer screen. These glasses ad lenses cost more than ordinary glasses, but go a long way in protecting your eyes from excessive strain.

- Women who love to apply eye-make-up should regularly remove it at the day's end. This not only prevents wrinkles in the sensitive area surrounding your eyes, it also prevents the chemical substances from causing irritation or infections in your eye.

- When you watch television, sit at least six feet away from the screen. Don't allow your children to play video games for long stretches of time. If your child is a bookworm, ensure that he or she reads while sitting in an upright position, and takes short breaks while reading. If he reads e-books on the computer, make sure he doesn't glue his nose to the screen, hour after hour.

- Nowadays, the city air is heavy with chemical pollutants and smoke particles which are emitted from factories and vehicles. Any of these chemicals can trigger off an allergic reaction in your eyes, causing you to experience soreness, irritation and watering. In order to prevent this, wash your eyes as often as possible. You may also use some eye drops which have cleansing properties, and also soothe tired eyes.

Another important factor in eye care is nutrition. A balanced diet helps your eyesight more than you can imagine. So if you want to feast your eyes on beautiful panoramic scenery for many years to come, then it is important to feed your eyes the right nutrients. Adequate quantities of three vitamins in your diet contribute invaluably towards improving your faltering vision. Let's take a quick look at their sources and functions:

- Vitamin A, or Retinol, is found in carrots, tomatoes, mangoes, cabbages and lettuce. Animal sources of the same vitamin are liver, fish liver oils, egg yolk and dairy products. The physiological functions of this vitamin are

a) the synthesis of visual pigments in the retina, and

b) and sensation of vision.

Deficiency of this vitamin in the body may lead to night blindness, and a condition called Xerophthalmia, which causes the conjunctiva to dry up. It also leads to Keratomalacia, which is the ulceration and softening of the cornea, ultimately causing blindness.

- Vitamin C, or Ascorbic Acid, is found in rich quantities in citrus fruits and fresh vegetables. They act as anti-oxidants, which keep the tissues and capillaries around your eyes healthy and supple. Not only will these foods improve your vision, they will help in the formation of collagen and intercellular cementing materials, making your skin look younger by preventing wrinkles. So that extra orange a day could actually save you the future trips to the cosmetic surgeon you are considering.

- Vitamin E or Tocopherol is mainly found in vegetable oils, leaves, and lettuce. It also acts as an anti-oxidant, and prevents the dystrophy of skeletal muscles.

So a nutritious diet rich in these three vitamins will not only improve your vision by marked degrees, it is sure to make you look younger by preventing wrinkles on your skin and keeping your muscles well-toned and agile. You can supplement a healthy diet with exercise, which will strengthen your eye muscles.

- Take a pencil in your hand and outstretch you arm to a distance of about one foot from your eyes. Concentrate on the tip of the pencil with one eye while you keep the other eye closed. Alternate with the other eye.

- When you observe scenery or a wide panorama, try to take in as much of it with your eyes as you can. This simple visualizing tactic prevents the onset of tunnel vision, which entails a loss of peripheral vision.

- You could also splash your eyes with cold water twenty times, or blink continuously twenty five times. Both actions strengthen your eye muscles.

In final analysis, good hygienic practices, adequate amounts of rest and exercise, and the presence of specific nutrients in your diet can save you from donning those nerdy glasses. And if you're already wearing them, these practices will prevent your condition from worsening. So work your way to perfect vision.