7 strategies to protect your eyes
1. Stop smoking: Any smoke that gets into your body, including exhaust, introduces trillions of free radicals, aggressive molecules that are capable
of damaging or destroying your cells. Your retina and your macula are particularly sensitive to free radicals because their high exposure to light already means that their cells experience permanent wear. Don’t add cigarette smoke to the mix!
2. Watch your blood pressure: Your eye is lined with microscopic blood vessels, capillaries that supply blood to the cells that keep your eyes functioning. If your blood pressure is too high (and remember that you have no way of knowing this, unless you have it regularly measured), your capillaries will be damaged.
3. Watch your blood sugar: Excessive levels of glucose in your blood will greatly damage the capillaries. This is why people with diabetes are at risk of becoming blind.
4. Eat plenty of green vegetables, especially curly kale, spinach and broccoli: Studies have shown that these vegetables help improve eyesight. They are rich in carotenoids, especially lutein.
5. Increase your intake of omega-3 by eating more oily fish or by taking omega-3 supplements: A study published in August 2001 in the journal Archives of Ophthalmology showed that a well-balanced diet with omega-3 can improve eyesight.
6. Eat more berries: Dark-coloured fruit like blackcurrants, blueberries and blackberries are rich in anthocyanins, pigments that act as sunscreen for cells, protecting them from damage by absorbing blue-green and ultraviolet rays.
7. Eat egg yolks every day: Egg yolk is the most important food source of zeaxanthin, an antioxidant that protects the macula from external aggressors. Researchers advise eating 2 whole eggs every day to protect your eyes (1, 2).
Bonus tip!
It can be complicated to get everything you need in your everyday diet.
Supplements like EyeMax can help give your body and your eyes everything they need to be at their best.
Applying these seven tips is a good foundational strategy to protect and maintain your eye health.
The article was originally published by Dr. Guy S.Duchemin, Gymnoculaire on The New Nutrition letter of March 11, 2016
Translation by DrPatch.com
Sources
[1] Nolan JM, Meagher K, Kashani S, Beatty S. What is meso-zeaxathin, and where does it come from? Eye 2013;27:899-905.
Vishwanathan R, Goodrow-Kotyla EF, Wooten BR, Wilson TA, Nicolosi RJ. Consumption of 2 and 4 egg yolks/d for 5 wk increases macular pigment concentrations in older adults with low macular pigment taking cholesterol-lowering statins. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Nov;90(5):1272-9.
Goodrow EF, Wilson TA, Houde SC, Vishwanathan R, Scollin PA, Handelman G, Nicolosi RJ. Consumption of one egg per day increases serum lutein and zeaxanthin concentrations in older adults without altering serum lipid and lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations. Nutr. 2006 Oct;136(10):2519-24.
[2] Krinsky NI, Landrum JT, Bone RA. Biologic mechanisms of the protective role of lutein and zeaxanthin in the eye. Ann Rev Nutr 2003;23:171-201.