Patient Education

A useful guide to keep your eyes healthy-

• Always wear ultraviolet filtering sunglasses and use hat’s outdoors. Exposure to UV rays may lead to conditions such as macular degeneration and cataracts.
• Make a habit to wear safety eye-wear whenever needed to protect your eye sight from any serious injury.
• Regular exercise or physical activity of moderate-intensity for minimum 30 minutes five days a week can help you maintain healthy eyes. Moreover, regular exercise also reduces the risk of macular degeneration by up to 70%.
• A healthy diet rich in fruits, vegetables and anti-oxidants can help slow the progression of eye diseases such as macular degeneration.
• Quit smoking as soon as possible. It has a negative effect on overall eye health and can worsen eye diseases such as macular degeneration and dry eyes.
• Daily intake of about 2 litres of water is very important for those with dry eyes.
• Always wear glasses or contact lenses made using current prescription only. Diseases can be prevented with healthy eyes and the best vision.
• Replace contact lenses at the prescribed replacement intervals and do comply with the safety instructions to maintain proper hygiene of contact lenses.
• Eye examination on regular intervals or as recommended by your optimist can help you maintain good vision and eye health.
• Follow your physician’s instructions to keep diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure under check. They may affect eye health at a greater rate when they are not properly controlled.

Always remember to keep a check on-

• Light source
• Position the light source while reading in such a way to avoid glare.
• Focus light on your task in a way to make it at least 3 times brighter than the background in order to get adequate contrast.
• Positioning the light behind and over the reading material works well.

• A proper posture
• Always sit upright while reading or watching television.
• Maintain a distance of at least 6 feet while watching television to make sure you are not sitting too close which can cause you unnecessary eye fatigue.
• Keep the reading material at an angle of about 20 degrees from your sitting place.
• It is best to hold the reading material at a distance from your fist holding it at your eye level to your elbow.
• When using a computer, position your seat (or screen) in a way as if you are looking down at the top of your screen at an angle of about 15 degrees.

• Taking breaks at work-
• Always follow the 20-20-20 rule: suggesting that for every 20 min of computer screen-time you should look 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds.
• Blink frequently while staring at the computer screen, otherwise it may lead to dry eyes or computer vision syndrome.

Some useful tips-

• Wash and rinse hands thoroughly to prevent spread of eye infections.
• Never rub your eyes with dirty hands.
• Clean contact lenses with proper cleaning solutions as instructed by a physician.
• Protect your eyes from harmful UV rays by using goggles or sunglasses having UV filter.
• Never share eye make-up kits with others as it may lead to the risk of cross infection.