Clean Air Hudson Health

Archive for August, 2010

Having healthy eyes is the foundation of healthy life, but modern lifestyle and habits are undermining your vision. Here are some very easy-to-do tips for you. A little more attention to your own eye care and eyewear can greatly benefit you in the years to come.

Never use expired eye make-up

Never use old make-up on your eyes, share eye make-up or use old wands in new products as these increase the risk of infection. We have had patients suffering with eye infections from applying out-of-date eyeliner and make-up, so give your make-up bag an overhaul and throw out old mascara and eye liner after six months.

Don’t stare at your computer screen too long

Try to take a break from staring at your computer screen: it’s important to give your eyes a break to prevent headaches, blurry vision and dry eye. Also, try to keep your monitor dust and fingerprint free as both can reduce clarity and cause eye strain.

Sit 50-60 cm away from your screen

Make sure you sit about 50-60 cm away from your computer screen and that there is no light reflecting off the monitor.

Take a break

If working for long periods in front of a monitor, try and take a break every 20 minutes to half an hour.

Get some fresh air

Working in an air conditioned office or building can dry out your eyes even if you don’t wear contact lenses, making them uncomfortable and itchy but a little fresh air will help.

Drink plenty of water

Try and drink lots of water – as well as being great for your skin it can improve the moisture balance in your eyes, especially in air conditioned offices.

Don’t rub your eyes

If you have something in your eye, don’t rub it. The best thing to do is lift the upper eyelid outward and gently pull it down to cover the lower lashes causing tears to wash the object out of your eye. Lens wearers should take them out and clean them thoroughly.

Wear quality eyewear

Quality eyewear like sunglasses can help keep your eyes healthy by protecting them from UV rays – not to mention being a must-have fashion accessory.

Keep a healthy diet

Eating certain foods rich in antioxidants can keep your eyes in good health such as oily fish, nuts and green leafy vegetables. Other foods that help maintain healthy eyes are those containing zinc like red meat or rye oats, as well as strawberries, kiwis and oranges which are foods high in
vitamin C.

Get your eyes tested regularly

Have your eyes tested as regularly as recommended by your optometrist (usually every two years). Optometrists can diagnose not just problems with sight, but major health issues too such as high cholesterol, liver damage and many others, so it’s important to have a regular, comprehensive eye test.

Eye care is a great and tough task; however, if everybody could do the following six steps, it will become easy.

1. Do rest in time.
When you have looked things for about one hour, you need to take off your prescription glasses to have a five-minute break. If the conditions are limited, a break should be taken after at most two hours. The ways of taking a break include looking into the distance, closing the eyes, and walking around at will. The eyes should get suitable rest. Eye tiredness which lasts too long will lead to the damage of the eyes.

2. Do have fitting light.
When you are reading and writing, when you are at work or at home, you should not turn on too strong light that will stimulate the visual cells excessively and result in eye tiredness. Nevertheless, the environment should not be too dim, or you will feel hard to tell things apart and get tired easily. The strength of light should be moderate to see objects with difficulty. In addition to that, the light ought to be neither mixed nor disorderly. The temperature of light has to be close to the natural light (4000K to 8000K).

3. Do pay attention to the posture of using the eyes.
Generally speaking, a comfortable sitting posture should be taken to continue the eye activities. Do not be on all fours or on one side to read books. However, no matter what you are doing – reading a book, watching TV, and playing computer, the above-mentioned posture is unable to stabilize the visual position, which is easy to cause tiredness of eyes, neck, and shoulder.

4. Do take notice of the height of the chair and desk.
You’d better choose the right height of the desk and chair according your own height. The youth should pay attention to that in particular. If the height is not enough, the visual distance will become too short and the sitting posture will be incorrect, so as to lead to eye tiredness and other eye diseases, such as myopia.

5. Do care about nutrition.
In our daily life, you should pay attention to having a balanced diet, especially to supplying the vitamin A, B, and C.

When vitamin A is in short, the eyes’ ability of adjusting to the darkness will be decreased. In the most serious situation, it will cause nyctalopia. Vitamin A also prevents and cures the dry eyes. The best source of vitamin A is the animals’ liver, cod liver oil, milk and eggs.

In the retina, there is a lot of dissociative vitamin B2. Lack of Vitamin B will make eyes fear of light. The food rich in vitamin B is like grains, beans, and meats.

Vitamin C is one of components made up of crystal. If vitamin C is out of demand, cataract will easily developed.

6. Do turn on a light when watch the screen.
A light could moderate the stimulus from the screen, which could make eyes more comfortable. The light should be neither too bright nor too dim.

Eye is considered to be the most important part of our body and eye care is the key method to maintain good eye vision, but almost no one keeps an eye on the care until they have to wear eyeglasses to see clearly. People all regret for not taking more care of eyes before though it is too late.

First, we should know something about eye strain. Eye strain is mainly due to long time using of eyes. As muscles control eyes to move and see, we should keep them elastic and relaxed instead of putting them under much pressure. Sometimes, a very simple precaution will affect your permanent eye health.

When you want do some reading or watching, you are suggested to do the working with enough lights around. However, it doesn’t mean the light is the lighter the better. You only have to choose the proper one as too much light is not good to eyes, either. Moreover, it is best if you can have a rest every quarter of an hour to make your eyes relaxed. Also, a healthy diet, including fruits and vegetables, is advisable to take in maintaining healthy eyesight. Beta carotene is quite rich in carrots which are the savior to eyes. Remember to avoid washing your eyes right after a great physical exertion, because that is the time when the sweat glands are on an overdrive. Bad conditions like heat, dust, pollution, strong light and wind are all harmful to eyesight. Lastly, do not neglect to have an eye check up regularly.

However, we know our eyes feel tired because we do not have enough sleeping or our eyes are overused, so what can we do to deal with the problem when our eyes feel tired? A very convenient way is to soak two cotton pads with cold water and put them gently on the tired eyes for 10 minutes. This also acts the same with cold milk. However, you remember to wash off the milk first with lukewarm water then with the cold water. You can also drink enough water everyday to keep your tear glands in a moisture state. Vitamin C is good to relieve or protect eyes from feeling tired. When comes to the condition that you eyes are badly irritated, you can try the method of applying a drop of honey to each eyes every day. This might cause some little irritations initially, but it can clean the eyes eventually.

When you have refractive errors on your eyes in the end, you should wear prescription glasses to relief your eye muscles, either spectacles or contact lenses. Be cautious when wearing contacts. Make sure the lenses are clean and in the right direction in eyes. Any dirt will make eye infections. Besides, take sunglasses with you when you are going to have a picnic or take a sunbath outside to prevent the hurt by UV rays from sunlight.

Statistics show that cataract surgery as the most commonly performed surgery can reach a success rate as high as 97 percent. This means that cataracts can always be successfully removed by the surgery. But patients also need proper eye care after cataract surgery. Similar requirements apply to postoperative care of lens implant. In some cases, lens implant is part of a cataract surgery.

Dry eye is probably the most commonly seen side effect associated with types of eye surgeries. Cataract surgery also has this problem. What’s more, eye itching can also be caused by cataract surgery. This combination of dry eye and eye itching can be very bothersome. Quite a few patients who have received cataract surgery and lens implant have to suffer these complications unfortunately. In most cases, doctors will prescribe artificial tears to treat these problems. Patients have to administer eye drops several times a day. In addition to artificial tears, other forms of medications are sometimes used.

Defensive living is quite necessary for patients who have just received cataract surgery and lens implant. The eyes after a surgery are quite fragile that they deserve the best precautious. Defensive living involves every aspects of daily life. Patients need to guard their eyes all the time. This self-protection for the eyes is usually very necessary because there are actually many substances during daily lives that can hurt the eyes.

On the Internet, there are a few professional websites providing some advises on the ways to take care of the eyes after cataract surgery and lens implant. These websites cover common problems associated with postoperative eye care, such as a stinging sensation, an itching sensation, a gritty feeling, and excessive sensation to sunlight and bright light and so forth.

For example, a website under Mayo Clinic posts an article called “Cataract Surgery: What You Can Expect”, which offers useful information of both the surgery itself and aftercare. According to this article, cataract patients should never rub the eyes or press on them. If they have to remove eye discharge, a warm wash cloth is the right tool. Never use fingers.

About 20 percent of Americans in need of vision correction wear contact lenses. They can thank Leonardo da Vinci for the concept, as he first came up with the idea in 1508. But what da Vinci did not know was that if you do not take care of your eyes and your contact lenses, they can do more harm than good.

Those who have worn contact lenses for some time are aware of the problems that can crop up. But if you are a first-time user, consider these eye-care tips:

Cleanliness counts. If you have never been one to regularly wash your hands, now is the time to start. You must have clean hands to handle your contact lenses. Before putting in or removing your contact lenses, wash your hands with hot soapy water or pour a disinfectant over them. Be careful to avoid scented or oily soaps that might cling to the surface of the lenses. It is also wise to avoid products that contain lanolin or moisturizers.

1) Wash daily. You should wash the lens case that you use to store your lenses every day. Be sure you squirt enough disinfectant solution in the case to cover the contact lenses before inserting them.

2) Check it out. If your contact lenses are inserted correctly, you should not feel anything on your eyes. But there are plenty of foreign objects that can come between your eye and your contact lens – such as an eyelash, dust, debris or a hair. You could also be feeling a torn lens. If you experience irritation, the first rule is not to rub your eye as this will only irritate it more. Remove your lens, wash it and try reinserting it.

3) Down the drain. When inserting or removing your contact lenses in the bathroom, there is a chance they could end up circling the drain of the sink. Always cover the drain with a towel or tissue in case you drop a lens.

4) Makeup first. If you wear eye makeup, such as eyeliner, eye shadow or mascara, be sure to insert your lenses before you apply your makeup. When it comes to choosing makeup, look for non-allergenic products that are less likely to cause problems. You may also find that crème eye shadow is less likely to irritate your eyes than powder shadow. To avoid irritation, never apply eyeliner on the rim between your eyelashes and the eye. Go under the lashes – not on top.

5) Keep eye drops with you. Contact lenses can definitely dry out your eyes – a situation that can be corrected with an artificial lubricant. Keep a bottle in your desk drawer, in your purse or the glove compartment. You do not want to be caught unprepared.

6) Inside out. When inserting your contact lenses, you may accidentally get a lens turned inside out. Some manufacturers have a marking, or brand name, so you can tell the inside from the outside. If not, you can tell by the shape of lens. Place the lens on the tip of your finger. If it forms a simple “U” shape, it is not inside out. If, however, it forms a “U” that flares out at the rim, it is inside out.

7) Do not sleep in them. There are contact manufacturers that offer contact lenses you can wear for a week or more without removing. While it is true that these lenses will last that long, it does not mean you should sleep in them. Your eyes will become extremely dry if you sleep with your lenses in your eyes. Also, the eye fluids will build up on the lenses and they can become difficult to clean. Additionally, the contacts will float across your eyes in your sleep and you may lose them.

Check your night vision. When you first start wearing contact lenses, see how your eyes react at night. If you see halos around oncoming headlights, you might need to wear eyeglasses at night, rather than your contact lenses. Many people have no problem wearing contact lenses and driving at night, but you should test your response to be sure.

9) Do not share. Never let anyone else wear your contact lenses. They are made according to the shape of your eyes, so they most likely will not correct the vision of others and it could damage your lenses.

10) Have a pair of glasses for back up. If you develop an infection for whatever reason, you cannot wear your contact lenses. There may also be times when your eyes feel tired. If that is the case, listen to your eyes. Remove your contacts and wear your eyeglasses until your eyes feel well rested.
With the proper care and precautions, contact lenses can improve the quality of your life. But treat them carelessly, and you will wish you had stuck with glasses.

Diabetes is a disease where one tends to experience delay in insulin production or unbalanced blood glucose levels. However, most of the times, it is common for people with diabetes to suffer from different complications.

Problems related to the eye are most common among the complications one tends to face due to the development of diabetes in one’s body. Eye care is a crucial factor to consider white suffering from diabetes. Medical experts believe that blindness is twenty times more common in people with diabetes!

People with diabetes should take special precautions in order to reduce the risk of developing eye problems.

A) Here are some of the eye care tips coming straight from the experts to you. Make sure that you consider these tips seriously and apply these in your daily life.

1. Go for regular appointments with your health care practitioner, especially an eye specialist in order to detect an eye problem at early stages.

2. Make sure that you maintain good control of your blood glucose levels. This will ensure that you don’t have any problems with your eye due to diabetes.

3. Keep your blood pressure in total control. High blood pressure can be a reason to eye disease. Hence, if you have diabetes as well as high blood pressure, it is extremely necessary to take essential steps to control diabetes.

4. Focus on eating a healthy diet. Let your health care practitioner decide a meal plan for you, knowing that you have this disease. Include a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables in your diet. Drink plenty of water and steer clear of sugary foods.

5. Exercise regularly. This is very important. It keeps you fit and also regulates the insulin production in your body. Allow your health care practitioner to prescribe some exercises for you.

6. Avoid smoking. It does a lot harm to your body and may also aggravate diabetes. Abstain from smoking and lead a healthy life.

7. Make sure that you get a regular eye dilated eye exam at least once in a year. Do this even if you don’t experience an eye related problems. Remember that this exam should be conducted by a doctor who is veteran in the field of treating patients with diabetes.

B) Here is a list of some of the problems related to the eye. You may experience when suffering from diabetes:

a) Glaucoma

It is a condition where the optic nerve gets damaged and ultimately results in loss of sight.

b) Cataracts

It is a disease that is characterized by a clouding of the lens of the eye.

c) Retinopathy

Diabetic retinopathy is a type of damage experienced by retina. Retina is the light sensitive area present at the back of the eye.

C) If you experience the following, rush to your health care practitioner on an immediate basis:

1. Vision becomes blurry

2. Visualize double

3. Experience trouble in reading books or signs

4. One or both of your eyes hurt

5. Eyes getting red and stay that way

6. Seeing spots or floaters

7. Straight lines don’t look straight

8. Sudden changes in vision

9. Side vision deteriorates

One of the most wonderful things in nature is a glance of the eye, it beautifully transcends speech and is the bodily symbol of identity. An eye can threaten like a loaded gun, or it can insult like hissing and kicking or in its altered mood by beams of kindness, it can make the heart dance for joy. Apart form these, there are various other reasons for which the eyes should by taken good care of. As a matter of fact, the eyes cannot be taken for granted. An injury or a disease can effect the functioning of your eyes which can lead to indelible consequences. In most of the cases serious accidents also lead to loss of eyesight and other such serious problems. People should undergo regular medical check ups and give special attention to their eyes. In this context, the eye care products prove beneficial.

The carrots are specially referred by the doctors as according to them carrots help to enhance the eyesight of the people. One should take proper care of the eyes and avoid enormous exposure to the LCD or the computer screens. People should take regular breaks even if for a few minutes to reduce the concerned strain of the eyes. Eye sights can also be hampered due to improper lightening. However, one of the most important things which a person should take care of is the ‘sleep’. One should try to take proper sleep to give the required rest to the eyes.

There are various things which pose serious threat to the eyes such as excessive exposure to bright sunlight, smoking and obesity etc. These are basically those factors which can be taken care of and must be controlled. It is well told that prevention is always better than cure. Moreover, proper nutrition and healthy diet sunglasses can play a good role in the eye care process. These factors efficiently controls the deterioration caused by the increase in age of the people. The healthy foods contains certain amount of anti oxidants which help in the developing the eyesight of the people. A person should always remain committed to a balanced diet along with the hectic daily schedules. Vitamins and minerals can also taken in the form of syrups and tablets. Vitamins A, E, and C are very beneficial to the eyes. Vitamin A can effectively restore the mucous membranes and help in the treatment of night blindness, while the vitamins C and E can be taken to avoid muscular degeneration and glaucoma very effectively.

In short, the eyes are the most important sense organs and one should use prescribed eye care products to avoid further irritations and ensure longevity at ease.

There are lots of ways to look after our eyesight. Maintaining a healthy diet and wearing sunglasses are a good start. Regular eye checks are also essential to make sure our eyesight is corrected when necessary and also to pick up any of a number of ailments that our optician is privy to.

For those who need their vision correcting, trends have come on a long way in the last few years. From those ugly national health cheapies that we were subject to a few years ago, we now have the endless choice of designer frames as well as frameless glasses, glasses with bendy frames for the accident prone, designer sunglasses and contact lenses.

Contact lenses have, themselves, come on leaps and bounds with the new technology that is available. The more advanced they become, the more people are able to use them. At first, there were only the hard type and not many people could wear them comfortably. Then there were softer types, short term lenses and long term options. However, it has always been a rule of thumb that if you wear contact lenses, you should take them out at night to reduce the risk of a nasty eye infection.

The latest development in the arena of eye care is the innovative contact lenses that are to be worn at night which promise to correct your eyesight for the following day. The idea is that the lenses gently press on the eyeball to restore the natural shape that is missing in a person who is short sighted, something that affects around 12 million people in the UK.

When the eyeball is too long or the cornea is too curved, light rays from distant objects focus in front of the retina as opposed to directly on it which bakes the vision fuzzy. Hard lenses are usually too uncomfortable to wear all day but worn overnight, they should put enough pressure on the eyeball to temporarily change the shape of the eye, thus restoring normal vision.

Corneal topography, where the curvature of the eye is measured, is used to determine the right amount of pressure needed. A little more pressure than is necessary will be added to prevent the cornea springing straight back into shape therefore allowing the corrected vision to last all day. In some cases, the effects will last more than one day and so it wouldn’t hurt if you missed a night or two, although the vision would gradually deteriorate.

Weighting the eyeballs into a more natural shape is not a new thing. It is believed that for centuries, the Chinese have slept with small weights on their eyelids to counteract short-sightedness. However, their technique was always a little hit and miss given that each person has a slightly different curve to their lens. With today’s technology, the results are much more marked with up to 70 per cent vision correction after one night and full vision restored within a week.

If short-sightedness is caught in early childhood it is thought that this method might lead to permanent correction. If nothing else, it will slow the degeneration process. However, the method is not suitable for diabetics, for those with eye diseases or for long-sightedness.

The new developments in eye care are good news for the millions of sufferers of short-sightedness. It means they can spend all night in their corrective lenses, then spend all day wearing sunglasses, whether designer or other, and not have to worry about wearing corrective glasses.

Your eyes are one of your most important senses. Communicating a wealth of information to your brain, you rely on them to perform a number of essential tasks, like detecting danger and finding sustenance. However, according to research, nearly two thirds of the UK adult population wears glasses or contact lenses. Not only that, but by the time people reach their 60s, 90 percent will require some form of corrective vision.

Making the most of your eyes by looking after them properly, therefore, is of utmost importance. Regular eye tests from a young age are vital and will significantly help to track any changes in your vision, as well as identify problems like short- or long-sightedness early on. Additionally, eye examinations can detect a wide range of other issues, such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

Thanks to advancements in technology, many people who experience vision problems now have the option to permanently correct their eyesight, thus removing the need to wear glasses or contact lenses. In fact, utilising the latest laser technologies, a number of treatments have sprung up in the last few years, which are serving to help millions of people correct their sight.

Having been carried out on more than 22 million individuals worldwide, LASIK (Laser-Assisted-In-Situ-Keratomileusis) is the most common form of eye surgery available. Helping to improve many cases of short- and long-sightedness, as well as astigmatism, it is a relatively non-invasive treatment lasting for approximately 10 minutes.

Using an excimer laser, the optician can reshape the surface of the eye, or if required, both eyes at the same time. More often than not, people notice a significant improvement in their vision just a few hours after the procedure and can usually return to work or drive again after 48 hours.

In comparison to other forms of eye surgery, many patients report experiencing less discomfort after the LASIK procedure has been carried out. Additionally, because it does not remove the epithelium, like LASEK (Laser-Assisted-Epithelia-Keratomileusis) surgery, for example, the eye heals a lot more naturally.

Before the treatment is carried out, you will need to find a reputable optician and schedule a consultation. The internet provides a wealth of information on the subject and a quick search will see you find a range of facts on the procedure, as well as a number of different opticians. After that, you can then discuss with your eye care specialist whether or not the surgery is right for you.

The health of your eyes is crucial. Consequently, it is important to make sure that you care for them properly. However, if you do experience difficulties with your sight, there are many things that can be done to help it, such as LASIK eye surgery. As a result, you can then focus on the more fun things in life.

The sense of sight is an indispensable tool and a huge blessing for both those who have it and those who haven’t. A nearly sightless man, for example, has to wage battles every day with his disability to survive and stay afloat. Hence all of us must take excellent care of our eyes and to help ensure that our capacity to see does not diminish with the years. You don’t really even need any reason to take care of your eyes. You simply have to do it.

Eyes are not just meant for seeing, either. They can speak volumes too. Batting your eyelashes is an expressive gesture, to put it mildly. Eyes are the windows to your soul, as a wise man once said. It doesn’t matter if you have small eyes but would rather have large ones. Do take care of them. Large eyes, with layers of dark circles around them are not pretty. Small, bright eyes are. And make-up can take care of the way your eyes look for a short while. However, for lasting beauty, you need to resort to expert care.

To get beautiful eyes, take care of them just as you would take care of your face, hands or feet. Below are some tips for appropriate eye care:

Proper Diet

Inner cleanliness will make your eyes look nice and sparkling. Always live on a balanced diet. Spend time outdoors. Take in the fresh air and sunshine. One way you can have a good time and enhance your health is to expose your skin to the sun for about twenty minutes when it is warm. The air will fan your pores and the heat will bring out any blocked perspiration.

Vitamins should be an integral part of your diet. You get vitamin A in spinach, turnip leaves, sweet potato, milk, butter, cabbage, tomato, peas, gourd and carrot.

In the husk of wheat seed, soya, milk, peas, any kind of rice but polished, raisin and fruits, you get plenty of vitamin B.

Vitamin C is easily available too. Green chilies, citrus fruits and juices and leaves and stems of brightly colored vegetables are rich in this nutrient.

You get Vitamin D in milk and butter. Apart from these, sunlight is a great source of vitamin D as well.

Exercises for your Eyes

Tuck your hands under the armpits and move your shoulders to trace a circle. Regain the original posture slowly. Make contact with the underside of your neck with your chin. Move your head to touch the right and left shoulders, in that order. Next, make a mirror image movement, so your head touches first the left and then the right shoulder.

Move your eyes along with your head, but keep your body still. Repeat six times.

View a spot over your index finger with an outstretched arm. Repeat twenty times.

Stand and move body from left to right and follow up with a sprinkling of cold water on your eyes. Dab off.

Cover your eyes with cupped palms but do not exert any pressure on them.

Practice the suggested exercises when you are completely relaxed, both physically and mentally.