Support Your Eyes This Year. It’s Easy as 1-2-3!

caucasian female with clean skin laughing with closed eyes and showing half of fresh orange while advertising benefits of vitamin C Heading into a new year can be exciting. We cannot help but look forward with more positivity and intention. Those New Year’s resolutions are still rolling in and, as your friendly eye care specialist, we have a few ideas about what it means to be healthy. While many people begin their new year with plans to eat better and move their bodies more, we plan to take great care of our eyes, too, and yours! Here, we want to discuss how supporting your eyes can be as easy as 1-2-3.

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Annual eye exams do not take long, they do not hurt, and they are significantly beneficial. And yet, a lot of people skip this step in attending to their health and wellness. Even if you feel your vision is fine, and even if you’ve seen your optometrist, your eyes need more. An ophthalmologist doesn’t check your vision. This specialists examines the structures of your eyes that can be affected by various disease processes. Many of the most common eye diseases don’t provide warning signs. Unless detected during an eye exam, these conditions may not be noticeable until they have degraded vision. If you want to see well 10 and 20 years from now, see your ophthalmologist every year starting this year.

Modify screen time.

Many adults today cannot remember a time when they didn’t look at a screen or two (or three) every day. Most of us grew up watching popular television shows and movies. Younger generations grew up with this technology and then some. The vast majority of people today, including children, are spending many hours at a computer. “Downtime” is spent scrolling online or playing games on a phone or tablet. The point is, there is very little break, and it could be hurting the eyes. We aren’t made to stare into blue light situated at arm’s length. The eyes are healthiest when we also look into the distance. All of our screen time is doing us a disservice. It is disruption our circadian rhythm that regulates our internal clock. It is causing digital eye strain, with its gritty and burning sensations. It may also be involved in dry eye syndrome and poor vision. For optimal eye health, we are encouraged to look away from screens every few minutes throughout the day and, when we can, to turn them off altogether and go outdoors (wearing sunglasses, of course).

Remove Eye Makeup Before Bed

When a person leaves makeup on their skin overnight, debris and oil can build up in the pores of the skin. Likewise, buildup can also happen along the lash line when eye makeup is left on when a person sleeps. This buildup could cause a stye at the margin of the eyelid. A stye can be a painful, pimple-like bump that takes days to clear up. This pus-filled bump can be visible, too, depending on its size and location. Spending just a few minutes washing eye makeup off can significantly reduce one’s risk of developing a stye.

Eye health is important to quality of life. Poor vision can be slightly frustrating, but eye disease can be downright concerning. We can help you support your healthiest eyes by providing thorough exams and treatments to manage existing conditions. To schedule a visit at our office near Chicago, contact us at 847-677-2794.

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