in this video, I'm gonna share with you five proven eye health tips that both
improve eye health and prevent eye disease so let's take a look. hey
everyone and welcome I'm dr. Joseph Allen here on doctor eye health the channel
that helps you learn about the eyes vision and finding the best vision
products so if you new here to the channel and you like taking care of your
eyes then hit that subscribe button so you don't miss any of my future videos
also remember at any point you can always check out additional information
and links in the description below about anything that I mentioned including
things I may forget. so I want to make this video just to share a couple of eye
health tips that are proven in the literature that actually show benefits
for eye health and preventing future eye disease - tip number five coming in at
the bottom of the list is actually to watch your cholesterol levels and to
decrease your saturated fat intake it's not really big medical news that hearing
a high elevated level amount of cholesterol and saturated fat in the
diet isn't good for you but it's certainly not good for the eyes either
there are studies that suggest having elevated amounts of cholesterol and
eating high amounts of saturated fats actually contribute to the development
of age-related eye diseases such as macular degeneration also having higher
amounts of these levels in your bloodstream also contribute to other
diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure both of which actually
contribute to different retinal diseases within the eye. not only are other
diseases like diabetic retinopathy which can cause blindness hypertensive
retinopathy from high blood pressure that can hurt the eye as well as actual
cholesterol plaques that get released from this cholesterol getting stuck in
your arteries can actually get all the way up to the eye and cause a stroke
within the eye that we call a Hollenhorst plaque. that means decreasing the
amount of foods in your diet that have elevated amounts of bad fats such as
fast food or processed meats including high-fat dairy products such as milk
butter and cheese could not just be beneficial for your whole body and heart
health but also for the eyes this is actually compounded again by having a
decreased body mass index so getting out exercising watching you eat is
associated again with less eye health issues we're tip number five is to
decrease the bad fats in your diet tip for is to increase the good fats in your
diet namely omega-3 fatty acids in case you haven't heard omega-3 fatty acids
are considered the good fats that we find in some natural food sources such
as oily fish like salmon as well as from some vegetable sources including nuts
and seeds there's even an algae based supplement
that I've found that you can actually take as an alternative to taking fish
oil capsules as a supplement now there's a whole lot of omega-3 debates on how
omega-3 fish oils could help with heart health or joint health or even
neurological brain health there are a lot of documented studies that show
support that omega-3 fatty acids can help with dry eye symptoms as well as
preventing retinal disease what's really interesting is that research studies
have consistently shown that people who eat a diet with higher amounts of
omega-3s in them have decreased risk of developing age-related eye diseases such
as that macular degeneration as well as people with diabetes in fact a recent
study found that people who had omega-3s higher than their diet and diabetes not
only developed diabetic retinopathy less but people who did develop it it wasn't
as severe and people who needed treatment for it responded better to the
treatment that's some amazing support for having omega-3s in your diet and
even if you're not diabetic there is a lot of evidence supporting that omega-3s
are good for your eyes and your whole body as well tip number three is to eat
more foods with high levels of antioxidants in them that is namely
fruits and vegetables the high levels of powerful antioxidants that are found in
foods like fruits and vegetables often contain high amounts of vitamin C
vitamin E zinc zeaxanthin as well as a very
powerful eye nutrient called lutein these have all been found to be very
beneficial for the processes inside the eye to keep the eye healthy and prevent
eye disease mainly because we are constantly looking at everything around
our world that means the light is actually entering the eye and causing
the photoreceptors within the retina to turn over and constantly regenerate and
that requires a very high amount of metabolism and a faster working
metabolism causes more amounts of reactive oxygen species with
antioxidants basically negate in fact there's actually eye diseases like
macular degeneration where its standard of care for eye doctors like my
to prescribe vitamins because it helps those diseases so much so yes just as
you've probably heard throughout your entire life eat your fruits and veggies
tip number two is to consider taking some sort of eye vitamin supplement if
you're somebody who doesn't like eating fruits and vegetables and you can't
really stomach eating oily fish like salmon then perhaps taking some sort of
supplement is the best option for you there's many different vitamins you can
find in the market if you go to the store you'll probably be overwhelmed by
the amount of options that you have for eye vitamins in general you'll probably
see ones with the words a reds written on the side that sense for the
age-related eye disease study those are all large scale studies that basically
proved and found the benefit of using a vitamin supplementation for diseases
like age related macular degeneration if you're somebody who's never been
diagnosed with a disease like that you probably won't have much benefit from
taking that specific formulation but there are different vitamins out there
to supplement for your eye health I personally take an eye vitamin every day
from I promise called I promise restore which is more formulated to prevent
age-related eye diseases mainly by increasing what's called the M pod which
stands for macular pigment optical density it's really the amount of
structural support pigmented layer in the back of the eye by taking these
vitamins you increase the amount of that pigment and that helps prevent aging eye
disease mainly by preventing damage from high-energy light that we get from the
Sun and digital devices I personally still think it's best to try and eat
healthy foods and get all of your nutrients naturally instead of
supplements but I still think it's a good option for those who maybe are
concerned or have higher risk for retinal or eye disease but I do also
want mention if you're considering taking some sort of vitamin supplement
make sure you talk to a medical professional in your area to make sure
that it is right for you now my number one tip for improving eye health to
preventing eye disease is something that I know a lot of people are not going to
like to hear and that is to quit smoking and that is because cigarette smoking
and tobacco use in general is associated with higher risk factors of developing
eye diseases such as macular degeneration again a blinding eye
disease that people get in their 50s and beyond as well as development for things
like dry eyes uveitis a bad inflammation inside the eye as well as a condition
called thyroid eye disease so if you have any sort of thyroid
problems for yourself or in your family smoking very greatly exaggerated
problems with your thyroid but the reality is it's really no big news that
smoking can cause a lot of problems in your entire body I mean it's written
warning right on the side of the box but I do know that quitting smoking is one
of the hardest things you can do and I do encourage you to reach out to a
medical professional in your area in case you can get medication from them or
counseling services that they could recommend so that they can help you quit
and if you were a friend or one of your family members maybe need some extra
motivation on how to quit smoking I have included an additional link to one of my
friends videos dr. karthik raman on he does a really great job of explaining
and really motivating people for quitting smoking so if you'd like to
check that out I'll hook that up again in the description below so wild
question of the day which one of these tips was your favorite or do you have
any other eye health tips of your own go ahead and comment in the section below
let me know what you're thinking alright everyone thanks for watching if you like
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over here again this is doctor Joseph Allen hear from dr. eye health
the channel helps you with the eyes vision finding the best vision products
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