Eye care is essential. It is more than just getting the right contact lenses and eyeglasses or going through routine eye exams for vision correction. Eye care involves the prevention and treatment of eye diseases and vision loss. In this article, you will find a few therapies that help alleviate certain eye conditions. It also includes tips to prevent vision problems and maintain overall eye health. Read this post and acquaint yourself with a few eye care services before heading to your ophthalmologist.
Boosting Eye Care with Treatment and Prevention
1. Ozone Therapy
Ozone, or O3, is a reactive kind of oxygen. It’s an effective way of regenerating the body and fighting infection and parasites. Ozone therapy tends to reboot the human body and allows people to take in more oxygen through their cells.
Remember, ozone therapy may not be as quick as other treatments. Significant improvement can take about 6 months. Stick with a gamma of 8 for the eye drops. Anything higher may irritate the eye. Stick to 200cc for the insufflation as well.
2. Microcurrent Simulation
Microcurrent stimulation is another option for vision care. The process aids in reducing eye pressure and inflammation. It also improves blood circulation in the eyes and even stimulates cellular activity. Because of these properties, some doctors use this technique as an alternative method of slowing down macular degeneration.
Aside from improving eye problems, microcurrent therapy also aids musculoskeletal conditions and chronic pain. It helps with dizziness and high blood pressure and others use it to reduce stress as well.
Note: This method is not applicable if the patient suffers from open-angle glaucoma. But a patient can opt for laser treatment if he or she suffers from narrow-angle glaucoma.
3. Light Therapy
Light therapy or optometric phototherapy is another option for treating eye problems. In this technique, doctors use different wavelengths of visible light and shine them on the patients’ eye. Doing so may improve the visual field and the processing of visual information. Because of these effects, optometric phototherapy helps address vision problems such as strabismus, amblyopia, and photosensitivity, among others. It also beneficial to people who have vision-related learning problems.
4. Diet and Nutrition
Better food quality positively impacts overall eye health. Increasing the variety and amount of vegetables, fruits, and protein sources in your diet is part of vision care. Green vegetables such as spinach, broccoli, kale, and collard greens contain beta carotene, lutein, and vitamin C. These help in preventing vision problems like cataracts and macular degeneration. Other fruits and vegetables that improve eye health include bell pepper, carrot, orange, and blueberry. As for protein sources, food like salmon, tuna, eggs, almond, and beans are beneficial to vision care as well.
Make sure you’re getting your produce from organic sources. Sometimes, you think the food you’re eating is healthy but it actually isn’t. No matter how much you load up on kale and spinach, if they contain harmful pesticides, they won’t do you any good. The body functions significantly better when there are fewer bad chemicals in the food you consume.
Doctors are also recommending to focus on your gut. Some bacteria in the gut causes eye disease. This said, keeping the gut healthy benefits overall eye health. So, start including fermented food in your meals because they have probiotic properties which can improve gut health. Common examples of fermented food are sauerkraut, kimchi, and yogurt.
5. Vitamin C
Vitamin C helps in fighting off system deficiencies, including vision problems. Having poor levels of nutrients may cause eye problems. Increasing you intake of food rich in vitamins is one of the best ways to address these issues. But you can also choose to take Vitamin C supplements instead.
Before you load up on Vitamin C, be wary of some dangers. The sad reality is that there are companies that don’t quality-check their products and get vitamins from dubious sources. Worse, some even produce fake supplements, which might cause eye problems, even blindness. Here are three major problems with vitamins:
- Some vitamins from China may contain pesticides, heavy metals, and pollutants.
- A number of synthetic vitamins may carry toxic chemicals. These harmful chemicals are released into the body upon consumption.
- The recommended dosage of vitamins is sometimes not regulated. Not knowing exactly how much you’re supposed to take is dangerous.
6. Homeopathic Treatment
Some patients opt for homeopathic treatment instead eye surgery and other eye care services. Note that using state-of-the-art technology is not the focus of this alternative treatment. Homeopathy is about natural health care. Treatment involves using natural ingredients, which sometimes comes in supplements, to treat certain conditions.
Many professionals in the field still consider this type of treatment for eye diseases a novel concept. However, there are those who prefer a homeotic approach to preventing and treating cataracts, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and other eye conditions.
7. Eye Drops
Improving eye care may mean having to use eye drops. They help manage eye allergies, ease itchiness, and moisturize dry eyes. Plus, if you get debris in your eye, you can sometimes remove it with eye drops. Treating eye conditions with over-the-counter eye drops poses some risk, however. Overusing them beyond recommended use, even moisturizing eye drops, may cause dryness and irritation. Before you use any type of eye drop, make sure you have verified its safety from a doctor. It is also safer if you buy them from an eye care center.
Watch this video from Dr. Josh Axe and learn how to boost eye care with healthy food:
Ultimately, the best eye care treatment is still prevention. One way to do this, as emphasized in this post, is by eating healthy foods. A proper diet may even trump light therapy, ozone therapy, and microcurrent simulation, especially when started early. Another way is to go through regular eye examinations. When you have routine eye exams, it is easier for your doctor to detect vision problems early on.
Have any questions about eye care? Share them with us in the comment section below!
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Editor’s Note – This post was originally published on November 1, 2017 and has been updated for quality and relevancy.