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Seeing Clearly: Simple Steps to Maintain Eye Health

6 min read  |  May 20, 2025  | 

Our eyes, according to poets and playwrights, serve as windows to our soul. But in the workaday world, we also rely on them for more tangible and essential tasks.

Our peepers allow us to interpret our surroundings and help us detect dangers and avoid obstacles. They play a key role in our balance and take in vast amounts of information through reading.

Caring for them should be a priority.

“Our vision is what keeps us connected to the world,” says Giselle Ricur, M.D., M.B.A., MSc, FATA, an ophthalmologist at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. “That’s true more than ever. Everything we do now is visual.”

And yet, we treat our eyes, sometimes unwittingly, to unhealthy habits and harsh conditions, endangering our vision. We stare at screens for hours. We don’t wear safety goggles when needed. And we forget to protect our eyes from bright sunlight, dirty air, and the drying effects of air-conditioned and heated environments. Hence, we run the risk of developing preventable eye conditions, from eye strain to cataracts.

It doesn’t have to be this way, says Dr. Ricur, who is also the Executive Director of Virtual Care at Bascom Palmer. Experts from the World Health Organization say that up to half of eye health issues and vision problems can be prevented by maintaining a healthy lifestyle and getting early diagnosis and treatment.

“Everyone should be taking care of their eyes regularly,” says Dr. Ricur. “There are simple steps we can all follow to protect our vision, but we shouldn’t wait until our vision is damaged or lost completely.”

  Here are some of Dr. Ricur’s suggestions to keep us healthy:

  • Keep regular eye exams as recommended by the American Academy of Opthalmology. Checkups are critical in detecting early signs of cataracts, macular degeneration, and glaucoma. Prompt detection leads to better treatment. A child’s first eye exam usually comes at about 6 months and is followed up by another checkup at the start of preschool (between ages 3 and 5). The exam schedule varies by age group, though the recommendation is usually for school-age children and adults to do one exam annually. People with a family history of eye disease, high blood pressure or diabetes need more frequent checkups.
  • Wear sunglasses. In Miami, this is particularly important. Protecting your eyes can prevent and/or delay cataracts, macular degeneration and the cancers of the eye (which can develop on the eye’s surface, the eyelids, in the skin cells around the eye or in the glands that produce tears).  But be on the lookout for the right kind of sunglasses.  “This isn’t just an accessory,” Dr. Ricur explains. “You have to make sure you wear sunglasses with UV protection,” that blocks 100% or UVA and UVB rays.

Contrary to popular lore, a very dark tint doesn’t mean the glasses offer protection from ultraviolet rays.

So, look for the UV 400 protection label. Dr. Ricur also recommends selecting tints that fit your lifestyle and preferred outdoor activities. Gray tints offer neutral brightness reduction, making them ideal for driving and general outdoor sports. Yellow and orange lenses are best for skiing and indoor ball sports because they enhance contrast in foggy or low-light conditions.  Green reduces glare and provides high contrast, which makes it suitable for tennis or golf.  Amber and brown tints are best if you’re fishing or cycling because they improve depth perception and contrast. Finally, rose and red lenses block blue light and soothe the eyes, so they work for people who drive a lot or are in front of a screen for many hours.

Also, keep in mind that “polarized” does not mean UV protection.

Polarized only means that glare is minimized, making images appear sharper. You can get sunglasses that have both UV protection and polarized qualities.

And one last word: Invest in wrap-around sunglasses. “They protect you not only from [UV] light but they also help avoid contact with the wind,” Dr. Ricur says. Wind often contains dust and sand particles, pollen, and airborne pollutants. All of these can lead to irritation and potentially long-term damage, depending on exposure.

  • Look away from the screen regularly and blink often. Experts recommend the 20-20-20 rule to reduce eye strain: every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
  • Moisturize your eyes. Dry eyes have become an occupational hazard of the Screen Age. Preservative-free artificial tears can help keep those peepers moist and comfortable. But not all eye drops are equally effective. Dr. Ricur suggests consulting your eye care professional to determine the why of your dry eyes. Some people may not produce enough tears, while others produce low-quality tears. “You really need to know the underlying cause before you can effectively treat the condition,” she adds.
  • Always, always wear protective eyewear in situations where you’re at risk of coming into contact with physical objects or chemical irritants. Safety glasses are a critical tool in playing sports, in certain job venues, and while doing home improvement projects, including woodworking, using power tools, and cleaning up debris. “You never know when you’re going to have an accident,” Dr. Ricur says. “Better safe than sorry.”

The protective eyewear rule also applies to pool goggles. They protect our eyes from the chlorine and other chemicals used to treat the pool water.

  • Practice good eye hygiene. This means cleaning your contacts, removing eye makeup every day without fail, avoiding eye-rubbing, not borrowing or lending out makeup, and washing your hands regularly to prevent the spread of bacteria and viruses that cause eye infections.
  • Eat an eye-healthy diet high in Vitamins A, C and E, lutein, and zinc. This means leafy greens, eggs, nuts, whole grains, beans, fruits, and fish high in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, tuna, trout, sardines and anchovies. Avoid high glycemic foods (baked goods, white bread, packaged cereals), which raise blood sugar levels and affect your eyes.
  • Exercise. It’s good for your eyes, as well as your body and brain. One study of more than 52,000 participants, 45 to 83 years old, found that walking more than an hour a day, as well as participating in other physical activities, may be associated with decreased risk of age-related cataracts.  
  • Another study suggests that brisk walking lowers the risk of glaucoma as well.
  • Quit smoking. It has been linked to an increased risk for macular degeneration, cataracts and optic nerve damage. It can also worsen conditions like dry eye and diabetic retinopathy.

Written by Ana Veciana-Suárez, a regular contributor to the University of Miami Health System. She is an acclaimed author and journalist who has worked for The Miami Herald, The Miami News, and The Palm Beach Post.


Sources

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/blindness-and-visual-impairment

https://www.aao.org/education/clinical-statement/frequency-of-ocular-examination

https://www.aaojournal.org/article/S0161-6420%2814%2900761-1/abstract

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32741639

https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/smokers

Tags: Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, Exercise and Vision, Eye Safety Practices, Ophthalmologist Advice, Screen Time and Eye Strain

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