There are some natural methods to reduce eye-strain and strengthen eye sight, these are very simple. The hard part is remembering to do them, often.
Step 1: At least once every 45 minutes, look away from the computer. Look at something say, 20 feet away for about 10 seconds, focus on it. Then look at something say, 10 feet away for about 10 seconds, focus. Basic principle is to choose objects to focus on that are varied distances away, do this for about 1-3 minutes for every 45 mins on the computer, more often is not harmful. This helps reduce eye strain quite a bit.Step 2: This is proven (in Japanese studies) to actually improve eyesight. However it must be done several times a day, every day. Basic concept: There is a simple drawing/picture on a piece of paper. The paper was placed on a type of old fashioned closeline and started about 1 foot away from the person doing the excercise. The person focused on the picture as it was moved somewhat fast back and forth on the clothesline. Starting distance was about 1 foot from the subject, and maximum distance was about 10 feet away. Sessions lasted about 5 minutes. Vision tests given immediately after this procedure showed significant improvement. Doing this with a picture held in your hand doesnt give you enough range for it to truely be effective, so try rigging up something simple. I do this somewhat religiously, 1-4 times a day, and I do notice objects tend to come into focus faster than they used too. I have been doing this for about 3 weeks, and I still need my glasses, but hey, its simple, non surgical, and free. Give it a shot.
Top 7 Good Habits for Good Eyesight
Having good eyesight greatly improves one’s quality of life. Make a conscious effort to keep your eyes in their best condition by practicing the following good habits.
1. Protect Your Eyes With Sunglasses
Harmful ultraviolet light from the sun causes several known conditions to occur in the eye. Sunlight has been shown to speed up the development of cataracts and macular degeneration. It can also cause abnormal thickening or growths to form on the white part of the eye. Especially at risk are people who spend long hours in the sun, who have had cataract surgery or who are taking certain medications such as tranquilizers, tetracycline and diuretics. These drugs can cause sensitivity to sunlight. Furthermore, sunglasses reduce glare and bright light that may impede your vision and cause accidents.
2. Do Not Smoke
Smoking can cause you to develop cataracts and increases your risk for developing macular degeneration. People who smoke, have a poor diet and drink alcohol are prone to an optic nerve condition that can produce profound vision loss. Smoking is also a major irritant to patients with dry eye syndrome.
3. Limit Alcoholic Beverages
Drinking alcohol dehydrates the body, including the eyes. Dry eye symptoms are much more likely to develop if you drink alcohol. Drinking large quantities of alcohol may cause nutritional problems and may lead to toxic amblyopia, an optic nerve disease.
4. Keep Blood Sugar Within Healthy Limits
Continually challenging your body with foods that are rich in fat and sugar can put you at risk for developing large blood sugar fluctuations and eventually, diabetes. If you already have diabetes, keeping your blood sugar levels stable can prevent or delay the onset of diabetic eye diseases including diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and cataracts. Blood sugar fluctuations can also make the natural lens inside the eye swell, resulting in large prescription changes. You may be nearsighted one day, then farsighted the next. When this occurs, a possible diagnosis of diabetes is usually considered.
5. Keep Blood Pressure and Cholesterol Under Control
High blood pressure can lead to hypertensive retinopathy, a condition that left untreated can result in blindness. In addition, high blood pressure has been found to increase your risk for eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and macular degeneration. High blood pressure in addition to high cholesterol places you at risk for developing a stroke or a central retinal artery occlusion. Strokes affecting one side of the brain often produce large blind spots in your vision. A central retinal artery occlusion is a “stroke to the eye” and usually produces profound vision loss.
6. Eat Antioxidant-Rich Foods
Foods containing antioxidants along with zinc have been shown to delay the progression of advanced macular degeneration by 25%. Although studies are controversial, antioxidants are believed to also delay cataract formation. Other nutrients, such as Vitamin A, play a vital role in good retinal health and aid in both color and night vision. Lutein and zeaxanthin, both carotenoid nutrients, have also shown positive side effects in macular degeneration patients. Omega-3 fatty acids were shown to help prevent recurrent styes and improve dry eye symptoms.
7. Have Regular Eye Examinations
Having a regular eye examination promotes eye health. It is easy to do, cost-effective and you might just learn a thing or two. Serious eye conditions are usually detected before vision or eye health is impacted. Regular eye exams also allow your doctor to measure your vision so that changes can be made to your prescription, ensuring your best possible vision. Your doctor will look deep inside of your eyes, checking for any signs of disease. Many eye diseases, if detected early enough, can be treated successfully without significant vision loss.
Today, however, I wear no glasses.
So, what’s this all about? It all started with William Bates, ophthalmologist, who first published his ideas in Better Eyesight magazine, in the 1920’s. As he treated his patients, Bates noticed that contrary to what he was taught in optometry school, people’s vision did vary from day to day; astigmatisms did change or disappear.
Bates had been taught that vision problems stem from malformed eyeballs, or lenses, or even from the muscles of the eyes themselves being too long or too short. But since no problems of the eye remained static, Bates developed exercises that can help people change their eyes for the better.
The basic exercises are palming, sunning, swinging, and vision shifting.
Palming
Rub your hands together to make them warm. (You can shake them or hold them in front of a heat vent if you prefer.) Then close your eyes. Cover your eyes with your warm hands. Make sure your hands do not touch your eyelids and that you do not rest your cheekbones on your hands.
If you want to place the weight of your head on your hands, put the weight on the forehead. I like to lie on my back with a couple of tennis balls under the achy part of my upper back, and cover my eyes with my hands in that position.
Then — this is the exercise — LOOK at the dark. My mom likes to pretend she’s looking at black velvet. If you see spots or zaps of light, so be it. Wait. You will see the dark. Don’t hurry. Do this at least twice a day for 5 to 15 minutes (Hey, that’s what 15-minute breaks are for!).
Also, be sure to drink lots of water. This isn’t in the Bates method — it’s part of what works for me.
Sunning
Try to do this once a day. It requires a sunny day, or a good desk lamp with an incandescent bulb. The exercise is simple. Close your eyes. Look directly at the sun through your closed eyes. While facing the sun, slowly rotate your head from side to side as far as you can.
This gets the sunlight on the peripheral vision, and it helps bring more blood circulation to your neck. Do this for 3 to 5 minutes. It’s amazing, even on a cold day, how warm the sun feels on your eyes.
Swinging
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, arms hanging loosely at your sides. Look out a window, or do this outside if possible. Shift your weight to your right foot, and swing your upper body to the right, letting the heel of your left foot come up off the floor.
Watch your surroundings as you swing. If you can see a tree out the window or in the distance, notice how it seems to move opposite to the direction you are swinging. This exercise is good for your eyes and your back.
Vision shifting
It’s as simple as it sounds. Whenever it occurs to you that you’ve been spending too much time staring at that monitor right in front of your face, purposely shift your vision to look at the weave of the fabric on your sleeve, or the poster on the wall, or the tree across the street.
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And you thought only physical body requires exercise. There are instances when your eyes get strained and stressed. Like the days you spent staring at the computer screen and felt drained and tired. The toll is taken by not only your body but also your eyes. The natural state of the body is to be at peace. When we read to understand and learn new information, the mind becomes tense and tries to catch hold. This agitation strains the entire body, including the eyes. This is precisely the reason why people often feel drained after studying or working, even though they have not physically exerted themselves. Like physical exercise strengthens and de-stresses the body from fatigue, similarly a few simple exercises go a long way in strengthening eye muscles and provide relaxation. The following recommended exercises help counterbalance the effects of eyestrain. The key to doing these exercises is to completely relax and empty the mind as in meditation or yoga. |
| The following eye exercises are frequently suggested by most health care providers: |
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Improve Visual Concentration The first step is to strengthen visual concentration. Sit comfortably with your back and neck straight but not stiff. Start by holding each below mentioned posture for a few minutes and gradually increase the time.
After you are finished, place the palms of your hands on your closed eyes and rest for some time. This will help eye muscles relax. |
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Imagination for better eyesight This is another exercise to improve visual concentration. First lie on your back facing up. Your palms should face the ceiling and your legs should be about shoulder-width apart. If you are doing this exercise in your office then sit comfortably in your chair. Close your eyes. Breathe into your stomach. Feel it expand as it fills with air. Continue breathing in and out for a few minutes and then open your eyes. Pick a stationary object to look at. Close your eyes again and continue “looking” at that object. This exercise helps to relax your eyes. It also balances mental focus with imagination. |
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De-stress your eyes Like the previous exercise, lie on your back facing up with palms facing the ceiling and legs about shoulder-width apart. Sit comfortably in your chair if you are doing this exercise in office. The above three exercises help in improving and strengthening visual concentration. However, these alone are not enough for effective eye strengthening. Eyes, as we all know, are subjected to so many ordeals that cause various forms of discomfort and sight problems the most common being headache. The following set exercises that form a part of yoga aim to provide relief and strengthen eye muscles.
All these exercises done at regular intervals with proper care on inhaling and exhaling of air provide satisfactory results. For safeguard eyesight and de-stress eyes from strain one should take a break from work for a few minutes that exposes to potential things that cause eyestrain. |
Vitamins That Improve Vision
Learn which eye vitamins naturally improve eye health. The Rebuild Your Vision Ocu-Plus Formula was designed to improve vision and eye health, and help people with Macular Degeneration, Glaucoma, and Cataracts.”
Essential Nutrient #1: Alpha-Lipoic Acid ( One of our vitamins included in OcuPlus)
2006 may as well have been the “Year of the Antioxidant.” The latest research has discovered these substances, which prevent or impede cell oxidation (destruction) by free radicals, in everything from red wine to blueberries to chocolate – and now, red meat.
Red meat is the richest food source of alpha-lipoic acid (ALA), which has been called the “universal,” “ideal,” and “ultimate” antioxidant. According to the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, “What makes ALA special as an antioxidant is its versatility – it helps deactivate an unusually wide array of cell-damaging free radicals in many bodily systems.”
ALA also helps “recycle” vitamins C and E and other antioxidants, thus making them much more effective.
ALA is thought to be a powerful weapon in the fight against the oxidative stress we encounter as we age. The incidence of eye problems such as macular degeneration, cataracts and pterygium (a fleshy growth on the cornea that can impede vision) increase dramatically as we age due to free-radical damage from factors such as smoking, poor nutrition, and exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light.
