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See the Benefits of Making a New Year's Resolution


Not only can resolving to eat more healthily, take regular exercise, quit smoking or reduce your alcohol consumption help you look great and feel fitter it could also help you see better!

Simply making the right lifestyle choices can help preserve your vision and reduce your risk of developing a sight-threatening eye disease.

Eating a healthy diet can reduce your risk of suffering from many age-related eye conditions. Fruit and vegetables are packed full of vitamins and antioxidants, which can protect against conditions such as macular degeneration – the UK’s leading cause of blindness. Whilst, cold-water fish such as sardines, mackerel or tuna are all excellent sources of DHA and Omega-3 fatty acids, which can help in the treatment of dry eye and are also beneficial for general sight preservation.

Regular exercise can reduce your risk of degenerative eye conditions. Research* shows that people with an active lifestyle are 70 per cent less likely to develop age-related macular degeneration than those leading a sedentary lifestyle.

Aerobic exercise can also increase crucial oxygen supplies to the optic nerve. This can reduce intraocular ‘eye’ pressure and help control conditions such as glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy.

Drinking too much alcohol interferes with your liver functions, which in turn, can reduce your levels of glutathione – an efficient antioxidant that can help protect against common eye diseases.

You could also dramatically reduce your risk of age-related sight loss and poor eye health if your New Year’s Resolution is to quit smoking. Tobacco chemicals damage the blood vessels behind the eye, increasing your risk of developing age-related macular degeneration. Smoking is also associated with other eye diseases such as cataracts.

 

 

* British Journal of Ophthalmology, October 2006.

 

Published : 31 December 2020