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Regular eye exams are key to protecting your vision. Photo Courtesy: Inside Creative House/iStock

Welcome to Aging Well, a SymptomFind serial with tips to assistance you protect your health and well-being as you get older. This showtime edition focuses on center health — and throughout the series, we'll bring you trusted tips to help you lot stay strong, healthy and independent for years to come.

Many center diseases are more common in older adults. Just vision loss does not accept to be a normal part of aging. In fact, you can make simple changes to your daily routine to lower your risk for eye diseases that cause vision loss.

In this guide, nosotros're offering testify-based tips to help you protect your vision as you go older. Learn how changes you brand today tin can protect your sight for a lifetime.

Yeah, everyone's vision changes slightly as they get older. After age 45, the lens of your centre doesn't focus equally well — and that makes it harder to see things upwards close. That'due south why many older adults use glasses to read.

If you're having trouble reading or seeing things up close, see your eye doc for an exam. Your eye doctor may recommend prescription reading glasses or contacts, or you may be able to utilize over-the-counter reading glasses.

While this modest vision modify is a normal and expected part of crumbling, more serious vision changes and vision loss are not normal. Come across your medico right away if yous notice changes in your vision.

Am I at Risk for Center Diseases?

Older adults are at college risk for several eye diseases, including cataracts, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration.

Cataracts are cloudy areas in the lens of your eye. More than than half of Americans over age eighty have had cataracts. The good news is, a uncomplicated surgery tin fix cataracts.
Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that amercement the nerve that connects your eye to your brain. Early treatment can terminate the damage and protect your sight.
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is an eye disease that makes your central vision blurry. People ages 55 and older are at higher risk for AMD, but there may be treatments that can help.

Diabetic centre disease is another main cause of vision loss in older adults. If yous accept diabetes, you're at risk for diabetic middle disease — and your run a risk gets higher every bit you become older.

Your take a chance for eye diseases may as well be higher depending on your race, gender, family unit history of center diseases and any other health weather condition you take. Talk with your physician most your personal risk for eye disease.

And remember, while your take chances for these center problems goes up equally yous age, you tin can withal accept steps to protect your middle wellness. So don't give upwards on your optics!

How Can I Protect My Sight?

Taking care of your middle wellness can be as simple as eating your veggies and remembering your sunglasses when y'all leave the firm. Follow these half dozen tips to protect your vision.

1. Get Regular Eye Exams

Centre diseases that cause vision loss often take no early symptoms. So the only mode to notice them early on is to get regular heart exams. Your eye doctor can exam your vision and detect eye bug early, when they're easier to treat.

The National Eye Institute says that everyone over age lx needs an middle exam every 1 to 2 years. But depending on your risk for eye diseases, you may need to start getting centre exams earlier or become them more frequently. For example, people with diabetes may need to get eye exams at least once a year. Ask your doctor how frequently you demand an eye exam.

ii. Eat Right for Your Sight

Salubrious eating is key to your overall wellness. It tin help prevent weather like diabetes that tin damage your optics. And certain foods have nutrients that can help protect your vision, including:

Leafy green veggies, like spinach and collards
Dark orangish veggies, like sweet potatoes and carrots
Fish that provide Omega-3 fatty acids, like salmon and tuna

Then eat plenty of colorful veggies and fatty fish as part of a healthy, balanced nutrition.

iii. Stay Active to Keep Seeing Your Best

Regular physical activity is another key way to stay good for you every bit you get older. And it lowers your take a chance for health conditions that can touch your vision, like high blood pressure level and loftier cholesterol.

Try to get about two and half hours of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each calendar week. That's anything that raises your heart rate and makes y'all breathe faster, similar walking, biking or swimming. You could do 30 minutes on v days a week, or whatever schedule works for you. And at least two days a week, do an activity that strengthens your muscles, like yoga, lifting weights or fifty-fifty conveying groceries.

If you're just getting started, practice as much as you can and work your mode upward to more! Even 5 minutes of walking a 24-hour interval can make a difference.

4. Manage Your Other Wellness Conditions

Health conditions similar diabetes and loftier blood pressure level put you at higher run a risk for center problems. So getting these weather condition under control is cardinal to protecting your sight.

For instance, if you have diabetes, controlling your blood sugar can lower your run a risk for diabetic eye disease. Talk with your doctor about the best way to manage your health conditions.

5. Always Wear Your Sunglasses

Ultraviolet (UV) light from the sun can damage your optics and raise your risk for cataracts. So it'due south important to vesture sunglasses that block UV light. Try to wear your sunglasses whenever yous get out in the daytime — even if it's cloudy outside.

6. If You Smoke, Quit

Smoking isn't just bad for your lungs and your overall health. It also raises your adventure for AMD and cataracts. If you smoke, brand a programme to quit.

Get Help Living with Vision Loss

If you lot already have vision loss, there are lots of services and devices that can assistance you make the most of the sight you still have. These are sometimes called "low vision" or "vision rehab" services.

A specialist can help you learn to do everyday tasks more easily. For example, you may need a magnifying device to help you lot read, or you may demand to rearrange your furniture to assist you motility around your dwelling better. Inquire your dr. about services and devices that tin can help you alive better with low vision.

Resources Links:

"Good for you Aging Includes Salubrious Vision" via Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
"Aging and Your Eyes" via National Institute on Aging
"8 Things You Can Do Correct Now to Protect Your Vision" via National Centre Institute
"36 Fabulous Foods to Help Protect Your Vision" via American Academy of Ophthalmology
"The Low Down on Center Exercises" via Harvard Medical School
"How Much Concrete Activity Exercise Older Adults Need?" via CDC