One of the first signs of aging that you could experience is the decline of your eyesight. While people of all ages can suffer from various challenges that affect eye health, it is particularly difficult for elderly individuals.

You could go from having great vision in your middle ages to a sharp decline over a couple of years, all as a result of your changing body.

Though there is no perfect recipe for stopping the loss of eyesight completely, there are methods that you can adopt now to give your eyes a better chance of retaining vision. 

Do not hesitate to get corrective lenses

When light rays hit your eyes and are deflected toward a focal point, you can see what is in front of you. However, when your eyes have issues reflecting those rays to the correct point, that is when things can become blurry. Nearsightedness and farsightedness are common issues, especially among the elderly.

Using corrective lenses such as glasses or contacts can help your eyes both now and in the future. If you go for a long time without corrective lenses, you will force your eyes to work harder to see well, and it can wear them out sooner.

Corrective lenses will allow your eyes to receive light rays in their natural state, reducing the amount of work they have to do and therefore prolonging their functionality. When your vision starts to fail, see an optometrist quickly to prevent unnecessary challenges to your eye health.

Eat your fruits and vegetables

Fruits and vegetables are natural solutions to maintaining your eyesight. Antioxidants are critical to eye health, and foods that contain high levels of these can put off the effects of aging on your vision.

Some of these foods include spinach, carrots, broccoli, oranges, grapefruit, red berries, and sweet potatoes. The vitamin and mineral concentration in these fruits and vegetables can prolong good vision and prevent deterioration on the surface of the eye itself. This is one of the easiest ways to care for your eyes and fight the effects of aging on their health.

Protect your eyes from screens

In today’s world, looking at screens all day is a part of life. We consume entertainment this way, we pass the time on social media, and many of our jobs require the constant use of a laptop or tablet.

These harmful lights can put a huge strain on our eyes, especially with continued exposure. If your lifestyle does not require the constant use of screens, find ways to cut back on it. If your job puts you in front of a computer for hours on end, try to take breaks if you can. At the very least, you should invest in blue light glasses.

The amount of blue light that enters our eyes from staring at a screen is harmful, and these glasses can help to dilute the intensity of that light and allow our eyes to focus on the screen with a little less work. Whatever you can do to reduce the negative effects of screens will help your eyes in the long run.

Use protective eyewear when necessary

The eyes are a very sensitive part of the body. Not only can it be excruciating if even the tiniest speck of dirt gets in them, but long-lasting damage can come from the simplest of circumstances. Having protective eyewear for the appropriate scenarios can protect the eyes from unnecessary risks.

When working outside, glasses or goggles can prevent debris from lodging in our eyes. Sometimes, we could have something there that we don’t even realize is scratching up the eye’s surface, but protection of some kind would have prevented it. If you are someone who loves to be outside enjoying the warm weather, sunglasses will guard against harmful UV rays that are dangerous for your eyes.

Maintaining vision goes a long way toward determining your quality of life as you age, and poor eyesight could mean you are dependent upon others and need to move into a nursing home, which comes with certain risks. Protect your eyes when you can to maintain your independence.

Exercise

It may seem unrelated, but regular exercise has been shown to help keep our eyesight in check. Engaging in physical activities increases blood flow throughout the body and keeps the muscles around the eyes strong. This can reduce strain on your vision and keep you from developing conditions like glaucoma or macular degeneration. Not only is regular exercise beneficial for your eyes, but it also helps with overall health and prevents cognitive decline. So get up, move around, and give your eyes a chance to stay healthy as you age! Invest in a baseball net to exercise your eye muscles and see the difference for yourself.

Care for your eyes before it is too late

A certain amount of decay is inevitable with our eyes, and since they are prone to deteriorate, it becomes so important to care for them as soon as you can. Obtaining corrective lenses when you need them, eating antioxidant-rich foods, decreasing screen exposure, and using protective eyewear are effective ways of investing in your eye health, though there are plenty of other ways to do so. 

Do what you can now to give yourself a better chance of maintaining good vision in the future by adopting these methods.