Exercise and Your Eye Health

Ever wondered how exercise can affect your eye health? You’re not the only one. The body is a marvelous thing, with every part of it being dependent on the health of the rest. This means that there’s a direct link between exercise and your eyesight. While we’re not saying you need to become an Olympic athlete to benefit from great vision, there are many exercise-related aspects that you can do to help increase the chance of your eyes remaining as healthy as possible throughout your whole life.Read on to find out more…

Exercise, Eye Health, and Other Positive Steps to Great Vision

• The exercise—eye health connection
• It’s not just exercise…

The Exercise—eye health connection

Our body is a dynamic entity—what happens in one area affects every other part. Once we realize this, it makes perfect sense that there’s a link between exercise and eye health.Your eyes are made up of certain body tissues. Every type of tissue requires the same things to function correctly, namely:

• Oxygen
• Nutrition
• Water

In a very basic explanation, this is provided to the tissues by the blood. So the better our blood circulates around the body, the more effectively the tissues can function.One major aspect that determines blood flow is the health of our cardiovascular system. This comprises the heart, lungs, and all of the blood vessels of the body. One of the biggest drivers of cardiovascular health is regular exercise. It’s recommended that adults do at least 30 minutes of exercise that gets them slightly out of breath at least 5 times per week. Good cardiovascular health helps keep our blood pressure under control, stimulates the heart to pump well, and provides the body tissues—including the eyes—with what’s needed to renew and rejuvenate throughout our lives.

It’s not just exercise

Exercise isn’t the only part of the equation. While it’s very important, we also need to ensure we provide our body with the right nutrition, enough water, and to protect it from harm. Together, all of these elements give us the best chance possible to remain in good health throughout our life or to help the body fight off disease and repair after injury.

Top Tips for Great Vision

• Nutrition, healthy habits, & exercise for eye health

Nutrition, healthy habits, & exercise for eye health

The following are great habits to get into for the best chance of good vision through the years.

• Take regular cardiovascular exercise: This doesn’t have to be running or swimming (although if that’s your bag, go ahead!). Anything that raises your heart rate is good, such as gardening, running around with the kids/grandkids, gentle walking, vigorous housework, dancing to the radio… You get the picture.
• A healthy diet: Cut down on sugar, highly processed food, and those high in fat. Try to eat a colorful range of foods, from red strawberries and tomatoes to dark and light green vegetables and fruit. Cut down on red meat and include plenty of oily fish in your diet. If you’re vegetarian or vegan, make sure you get the right nutritional balance by including plenty of nuts, pulses, and dark leafy greens.
• Cut down on alcohol: Try to keep your intake below the recommended 2 drinks per day for men and 1 drink per day for women. You should also have more non-alcohol days in a week than alcohol days.
• Give up smoking: There’s a proven link between tobacco smoking and poor eye health. Giving up is one of the biggest things you can do for your eyes, and there’s plenty of help available to do so.
• Protect your eyes from UV rays: Wear good quality sunglasses and/or a hat to shade your eyes in the sun.
• Get regular eye checks: This is vital to ensure any issues are diagnosed at the earliest stage. Those with any other conditions, such as diabetes, should also partner with an expert ophthalmologist who can monitor the health of their eyes.

Partner with Leading Eye Clinic, the West Boca Eye Center, for the Ultimate in Eye Care

The WBEC is an academic-grade clinic headed by globally-renowned eye surgeon, Dr. Brent Bellotte. He leads a talented team of clinicians who’re all dedicated to providing bespoke treatment for every patient, helping them benefit from their very best eye health throughout their lives. The clinic is a center of excellence for advanced laser vision correction and laser cataract surgery, often able to offer treatments that aren’t commonly available elsewhere. To find out more, visit https://westbocaeyecenter.com/services/cataract-surgery/ and call today to book an appointment.