What You Can Do to Protect Your Eye Health

Humans are a visually oriented species. They have a very beautiful sense organ known as the eye which enables them to see the beauty of this universe. The human eye is one of the most valuable and sensitive sense organs in the human body.

We have reasonable quality color-capable binocular vision, common among predators, and use that vision in our day-to-day lives. We orient most things in our society around the assumption of a certain degree of visual capability. Those without that capability face many, many obstacles in life as a result. The eyes are important because humans use and rely upon them. We’ve evolved, we’ve raised, and have built our civilizations throughout history around this sense being available.

It’ll be interesting to know how this intrinsic organ works. What are its components that allow us to see things around us? Each part of the eye plays a very vital role as:

Anatomy of Eye:

• IRIS: It is the colored part (could be black) of our eye and is a dark muscular diaphragm located between the cornea and the lens, which controls the size of the pupil. Because of the color of the iris, we can see the color of the eye.

• PUPIL: It is a black dot on iris. The pupil is a small hole between the Iris through which light penetrates the eye. It is flexible as in the dim light, it opens up completely due to the expansion, but in bright light, it becomes very small due to the contraction of iris muscles.
• CILIARY MUSCLES: It is a soft muscle which increases or reduces the size of eyelets to see the far and nearby object. They hold the lens in position and help in modifying the curvature of the lens.
• SCLERA: It is also known as the white part of the eye, which is an opaque, fibrous, protective, outer layer of an eye containing collagen and elastic fiber.
• CORNEA: It allows light to enter. It is the transparent spherical membrane covering the front of the eye. Most of the refraction of light rays entering the eye occurs at the outer surface of the cornea.
• CRYSTALLINE LENS: It is a fibrous flexible tissue, and it is a convex lens made up of a transparent, soft and flexible material.
• RETINA: It is the main part of our eyes. Whenever light passes through eyelets it refracts, and the image is form on the retina. The retina is the light-sensitive surface of the eye on which the image forms. It contains light-sensitive cells rods and cones. Rod cells respond to the illumination. Many rod cells are greater than the number of cone cells. These cells generate signals which got transmitted to the brain through optic nerves.
• LIGHT-SENSITIVE CELL: Rods and cones which are present in the retina are the light-sensitive cell.
• BLINDSPOT: Due to the absence of rods and cones here no image formation occurs. It is a point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye.
• OPTIC NERVE: Through the optic nerve the electrical signals made by rod and cones gets transmitted to the brain.
• AQUEOUS HUMOUR: Between the cornea and eye lens, we have a space filled with a transparent liquid called the aqueous humour which helps the refracted light to focus on the retina. It also maintains intraocular pressure.
• VITREOUS HUMOUR: The space filled between the eye lens and retina with another liquid called vitreous humour.

All the functioning of the parts of an eye is clear. We can say that by far the most important organs of sense are our eyes. We perceive up to 80 percent of all impressions by means of our sight. If on one hand, our eyes enable us to have a look at the world around us. Senses such as taste or smell stop working, it’s the eyes that best protect us from danger; it also carries some defects. So, to protect our eyes we must be aware of the disease that can affect our eyes so that we can take necessary measures in time.

What causes Eye Problems?

Infection, allergy, Vitamin deficiency, chemical irritants, genetics, smoking, etc. are some of the common causes of eye problems. Others can be;

• Cataract: Etiology could be aging, hereditary, UV-Rays, dietary deficiency of Vitamin E, Vitamin C, Vitamin B, and proteins.

• Glaucoma: Too much aqueous production or obstruction of its outflow from the eye causes an increase in the intraocular pressure (IOP), can lead to glaucoma. Over time, high eye pressure can cause irreversible nerve damage and vision loss.

• Xerophthalmia: This is the most common cause of blindness in children. Due to Vitamin A deficiency people suffer from this.

Defects of the Eye and Their Corrections:

As perfect as the human eye may seem; it’s not. And if the human eye isn’t perfect, which means it has its share of defects of the human eye. Here are few common defects of the human eye:

• Myopia or Near-Sightedness: Myopia is a defect of vision wherein far-off objects appear blurred and near objects seen. Since the eyeball is too long or the eye lens’s refractive power is too high; the image forms in front of the retina rather than forming on it. Correction of myopia can happen by wearing glasses/contacts made of concave lenses to help focus the image on the retina.

• Hypermetropia or Long-sightedness: Hypermetropia is a defect of vision wherein there is difficulty in viewing objects that are near, but one can view far objects. Since the eyeball is too short or eye lens’s refractive power is too weak hence the image instead is of being forming upon the retina, its forms behind the retina. Correction of hypermetropia can happen by wearing glasses/contacts containing convex lenses.

• Cataract: Cataract is the clouding of the lens that prevents the formation of a clear, sharp image. A cataract forms when old cells after they die, stick in a capsule wherein with time a clouding over lens happens. Because of this clouding blurred images forms. Correction of cataract can happen through a surgery. An artificial lens in place of the opaque lens is after removing it via surgery.

• Presbyopia or Old-age Long-sightedness: Presbyopia is a natural defect that occurs with the age. In presbyopia, the ciliary muscles become weak and are no longer able to adjust the eye lens. The eye muscles become so weak that no longer can a person see nearby objects. The near point of a person with presbyopia is more than 25cm. Correction of presbyopia can happen by wearing bifocal glasses or Progressive Addition Lenses (PALs) wherein the upper part of the lens contains concave lens and lower part contains a convex lens. (A person with presbyopia can also have myopia or hypermetropia.)

• Astigmatism: Astigmatism is a defect wherein the light rays entering the eye do not focus light to a single focal point on the retina but instead scatter away. The light rays in a way where some focus on the retina and some focus in front of or behind it. This happens because of non-uniform curvature of the cornea; resulting in a distorted or blurry vision at any distance. Correction of astigmatism can happen by using a special spherical cylindrical lens.

Some other eye diseases are:

• Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the physical disturbance of the center of the retina called the macula.

• Bulging Eyes

Bulging eyes, or proptosis, occurs when one or both eyes protrude from the eye sockets due to space-taking lesions such as swelling of the muscles, fat, and tissue behind the eye.

• CMV Retinitis

CMV Retinitis is a serious infection of the retina that often affects people with AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) and that may also affect people with other immune disorders.

• Color Blindness

Color blindness is not actually blindness in the true sense but rather is a color vision deficiency—people who get affected by it do not agree with most other people about color matching.

Keep Your Eyes Healthy

Since one’s eye health is the topmost priority, there is a lot one must do to keep the eyes healthy and protect their vision. By keeping your eyes healthy, protecting one’s health can go a long way. It’s important to make good healthy choices for the body. Keep in mind that healthy habits like eating well and being active can lower your risk for diseases and conditions that can lead to eye or vision problems, some of the points you need to take care to keep your eyes healthy:

• Eat healthy foods: Make sure to have plenty of leafy greens vegetables like spinach, kale, and collard. One must also include Eggs, nuts, beans, citrus fruits such as oranges in the diet. Eating fish that are high in omega-3 fatty acids — like salmon, tuna, and halibut — is good for your eyes, too.

• Be active as being active helps you stay healthy: It also reduces your risk of health conditions that can cause eye health or vision problems — like diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

• Quit smoking: As, Smoking isn’t bad for the lungs, it can also hurt your eyes, too! Smoking increases your risk of diseases like macular degeneration and cataracts — and it can harm the optic nerve.

• Give your eyes a rest: If you are using a computer for a long time, it can tire out your eyes and may result in Eyestrain, Blurry vision, Headache, Dry eyes and even Trouble focusing at a distance. So, rest your eyes by taking a break every 20 minutes to look at something about 20 feet away for 20 seconds. Even you can use computer glasses with the recommendation of your doctor.

• Wear sunglasses to protect your eyes form the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays, as too much of them can increase the chance of cataract and muscular denegation.

• You must visit your doctor for the eye examination. It thus helps to protect your eyes and lets you see the better and best.

The human eye is a complex organ. The eye collects the information we see and converts it to electrical signals then the brain processes all this information. We just take a second and look around, and the eye somehow manages to take the colors, depth, shape, shadows, etc… And pass all the information to the brain then the brain takes this information, and we are capable of sight. We also face different issues related to the eye which are very common, such as myopia and hypermetropia. And some other diseases are caused by deficiency of certain vitamins like night blindness. There are also some factors that can affect the eye like UV rays or dust in the air, to protect our eyes from these issues we can use sunglasses and clean our eyes on a regular interval. So, it’s very necessary to follow a healthy diet and lifestyle and take care of this delicate organ.