Beautiful sunny days are finally here to enjoy! I love spending lots of time outdoors in the summer hiking, biking, swimming or just relaxing on the beach. Of course, everyone knows how important it is to protect our skin from the negative impact of the sun radiation, so me make sure to apply sunscreen when outdoors.
There’s one sensitive part of your body though that you can’t put the sunscreen on – your eyes, which are wide open to both good and bad effects of the sunlight.
Too much exposure to the harmful UV rays increases the risk of cataracts, macular degeneration and cancer.
You are mistaken if you think that these vision problems only happen in older age.
Some benign eye growths, such as pterygium and pinguecula may appear even in your teens or early 20’s, especially if you spend lots of time outdoors on hot days or in areas with very high UV index like on the water: rivers, lakes, ocean or in the mountains.
Sun radiation causes damage to our cells, which over time may lead to such serious health issues as cataracts and cancer. Each time when we expose our un-protected eyes to the UV light adds up to the cumulative damage, no matter your age, gender or ethnicity. Even babies and children should have their eyes protected. Children’s lenses are much clearer than in adults, which makes them more vulnerable to the retinal damage from the UV radiation.
What about cloudy weather? Have you ever noticed that you squint outdoors even when the sun is not shining? That’s because the sun rays penetrate the clouds and haze, which cannot protect you from harmful UV light
Famous Benjamin Franklin’s saying “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” holds true when it comes to protecting your eyes.
6 EASY WAYS TO PROTECT YOUR EYES FROM DAMAGE
1.Wear a hat with a wide brim and sunglasses outdoors.
Make sure that your sunglasses block out both UV-А and UV-В rays and have 100% UV protection.
2. We love admiring beautiful sunsets, but never look directly at the sun without the sunglasses!
This can lead to retinopathy, which damages the eye retina, even during the solar eclipse.
3. Remember to take care of your youngest and eldest loved ones: protect their eyes with hats and sunglasses.
4.The secret weapon against sun damage is the yellow macular pigment of carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin. It acts as an UV filter that reduces the harmful effects of the sun radiation by neutralizing free radicals.
5. Greens like spinach and brightly colored vegetables, such as sweet peppers as well as egg yolks are excellent food sources of these carotenoids.
6 If you are not big on eating veggies and must stay away from eggs because of allergies or for other reasons – no need to panic! You can amp up your intake of eye-protective nutrients by taking nutritional supplements of lutein and zeaxanthin, such as Visionex that I take regularly to help keep my vision sharp. My 80-year-old Mom loves it, too, and swears by it making her see things less blurry.
