How Healthy and Active Lifestyles Help Maintain Eye Health

It’s common knowledge that exercise helps lower your risk for certain conditions. There have been several studies that examined the link between regular exercise and health conditions by surveying people who self-reported their exercise. However, a recent study that was published in 2020 took a more direct approach by how exercise directly affects your eyes.

The study found that regular exercise can prevent eye damage. The findings generally support previous studies’ claims that suggested exercise can help prevent serious eye conditions such as well as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy (all of which happen to be the leading causes of blindness for people aged over 60).

Downtown Eyes Crosstown, your trusted eye specialist, elaborates further on the study’s findings below:

How Did the Study Examine the Effects of Regular Exercise?

The study examined the effects of regular exercise on eye health by observing two groups of mice: one with access to an exercise wheel and one without access to it. After four weeks, the researchers exposed the mice’s eyes to a laser to simulate aging. Researchers noted that the mice who had access to an exercise wheel suffered up to 45% less eye damage than mice who didn’t.

How Can Regular Exercise Help Lower Your Risk For Certain Eye Diseases?

Exercise stimulates the endocrine system, which in turn releases hormones that regulate and facilitate bodily functions such as tissue growth and regeneration as well as antioxidants that fight free radicals. Free radicals are unstable atoms that can cause aging and increase your risk for eye conditions such as AMD and glaucoma. However, there’s still a lot that researchers don’t know about the link between exercise and vision conditions. Many are hoping that future studies will be able to shed light on this link and use it to develop new treatments for vision conditions.

How Often Should You Exercise?

Exercising for as little as three times a week can lower your risk of developing glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration by as much as 25% and 75% respectively. However, for optimal vision health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization, and American Heart Association all recommend engaging in 30 minutes of daily moderate aerobic exercise for five days every week.

How Regular Exercise Helps Patients Manage Their Eye Conditions

The benefits of regular exercise also extend to those with vision conditions. Several studies have shown that regular exercise can help patients manage their conditions. Glaucoma patients, for instance, can better manage their condition through regular exercise, which lowers their intraocular pressure (IOP). In addition to lowering a patient’s risk for glaucoma, lower IOP also helps slows down the progression of the disease.

What’s the Best Exercise For Maintaining Your Vision Health?

There are no hard-and-fast rules about which exercise is the best one for your health. However, experts recommend doing activities that you enjoy doing, as it’s your interest that will motivate you to stick to your exercise routine.

Important note: if you suffer from glaucoma or any vision condition, it’s best to consult an eye specialist before starting an exercise routine. That’s because certain physical activities can increase your IOP. For instance, it’s generally okay for glaucoma patients to do yoga. However, they should avoid doing headstands, which can increase their IOP twofold.

Why a Healthy Diet and Routine Eye Exams Are Essential to Maintaining Eye Health

Regular exercise helps lower your risk for certain eye conditions, but it alone isn’t enough. In addition to moderate exercise, it’s important to eat a healthy diet rich in eye-friendly nutrients and see your optometrist at the local eye clinic for a routine eye exam.

What Nutrients Should You Include In Your Diet?

Vitamin A – Vitamin A helps protect the cornea (the surface of your eye) and maintains the retina’s function, which is responsible for converting light into signals sent to the brain. Red and orange vegetables like carrots, tomatoes, pumpkins, and sweet potatoes are excellent sources of Vitamin A.

Here’s a tip: if you want to make sure you get your recommended daily amount of Vitamin A, you should incorporate sweet potatoes into your diet. A single baked sweet potato in its skin can provide 561% of a person’s daily Vitamin A requirement.

Zinc – Zinc helps transport vitamin A from the liver to the retina to produce melanin, a pigment that protects your eyes from ultraviolet rays. Nuts, seeds, red meat, oysters, and other kinds of shellfish are all excellent sources of zinc.
Lutein and zeaxanthin – Lutein and zeaxanthin are carotenoids (pigments found in vegetables) that form the pigment in the macula (the center of the retina) that protects your eyes’ photoreceptor cells. Studies have shown that people who incorporated food rich in lutein and zeaxanthin into their diet had a lower risk for developing cataracts. Brightly colored fruits and vegetables like tangerines and broccoli are excellent sources of lutein and zeaxanthin. The vegetables’ bright colors indicate high levels of carotenoids, which give them their color.
Vitamin E – Vitamin E protects your eyes against free radicals that damage healthy tissue. Avocados and sweet potatoes are excellent sources of Vitamin E.
Omega 3 fatty acids – In addition to lowering your risk for heart diseases and dementia, omega 3 fatty acids also help prevent AMD and glaucoma. A study by the National Eye Institute found that participants who consumed the highest level of omega-3 fatty acids in their diet were 30% less likely than other participants to develop macular degeneration.

What About Supplements?

Supplements help prevent nutritional deficiencies, but they’re not a substitute for a healthy diet. Some studies’ findings have also noted that nutrients derived from supplements are not as effective as naturally derived nutrients in lowering your risk for vision conditions. For instance, a 2013 study also published by the National Eye Institute showed that participants who took Omega 3 supplements over five years didn’t have a lower risk for macular degeneration.

How Often Should You See Your Eye Doctor?

Depending on your age, the number of times you need to undergo a contact eye exam may vary. In general, since the risk for developing eye conditions increases as people age, older patients need to undergo more frequent eye exams.

Here’s an overview of the different age groups and the number of times in a year they should see their eye doctor:

Infants and teens aged between six months and 20 years – If you have kids or teens, you should take them to the local eye clinic every two years. However, if they wear contacts or eyeglasses, they should undergo an eye exam every six months.
Adults aged 20 to 39 – Adults aged between 20 and 39 should see their eye doctor every two to three years.
Adults aged 40 to 64 – Changes in your vision start to become more noticeable once you turn 40. That’s why adults aged 40 to 64 should undergo a contact eye exam at least every two years.
Older adults aged 64 and above – Older patients should undergo an eye exam at least once a year.

Why Are Routine Eye Exams So Important?

In their early stages, eye conditions like AMD don’t usually produce any symptoms. Their symptoms usually appear in the later stages. But by then, treatment is more complicated. Through routine eye exams, your eye doctor can detect and treat eye conditions before they progress.

There’s also the fact that most patients don’t notice changes in their vision unless they are significant or abrupt. The brain automatically adapts to changes in your vision, which is why some patients think there’s nothing wrong with your vision even though it may have already deteriorated.

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Downtown Eyes Crosstown offers a wide range of professional eye care services. To schedule an appointment, call us at (612) 869-1333 or fill out this form.