Naturally Improve Your Eyesight And Vision With These 14 Tips

Nov 19, 2018

Our eyes are important, but many people take their eyesight for granted. An inability to see, however, can make many tasks either difficult or impossible. Vision problems, however, are not inevitable. There are not only ways to protect your eyesight, but even to improve it.

Some berries like the three listed above contain phytochemicals or anthocyanins that have antioxidant properties. Various animal studies, like one with rabbits in 2015, have demonstrated that anthocyanins can stimulate the regeneration of a protein called rhodopsin that helps you see in dim light.

Black currant anthocyanoside concentrate can also help your eyes adjust to dark conditions. It can also help prevent or relieve eye strain, like that caused by working with computers for a long time.

The above foods are good sources of carotenoids like zeaxanthin, lycopene, and lutein, and these substances can lower the risk of eye disease. Lutein and zeaxanthin, which are found in some leafy greens, may help prevent retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which both damage the retina. Lycopene, which is found in watermelon, tomatoes, and guava, may help prevent cataracts.

Ayurvedic tradition holds that the human body contains three doshas that perform different functions. Imbalance affecting the doshas causes poor health. The pitta dosha controls the liver and the eyes, and taking one or two teaspoons of ghee every day can keep your pitta in balance and improve your vision.

Triphala is an herbal formula that can strengthen eyesight. It consists of Indian gooseberry (amalaki), beleric myrobalan (bibhitaki), black myrobalan (haritaki), which are all fruits. Take a tablespoon of triphala with milk every day.

Carrots cooked in milk is a traditional Ayurvedic treatment for improving eyesight, particularly in children. The recipe calls for cooking two grated carrots in milk along with five ground almonds and a ground cardamom pod. You take the mixture every day.

Exercise has multiple health benefits, including helping prevent various eye diseases. For example, walking two miles a day three times a week decreases the risk of developing AMD by an impressive 70 percent. Similarly, moderate exercise can reduce the intraocular pressure or fluid pressure within the eyes and thus reduce your chances of developing glaucoma. Regular exercise also helps patients with diabetes manage their condition and keeps them from developing diabetic retinopathy.

Doing eye exercises regularly can also keep your eyes in good working order. For example, strabismus, a condition in which the eyes point in different directions, can eventually cause a condition called amblyopia or lazy eye. Amblyopia causes the brain to stop recognizing images from one eye, so the patient has blurry or reduced vision in that eye. Wearing a patch over the stronger eye will force the lazy eye to do more work and thus grow stronger.

You can also find eye exercises on the internet that can help you improve your peripheral vision or ability to focus.

Yoga also improves health, and there are yoga exercise for the eyes. The following exercises, for example, can help relieve the pressure we put on optic muscles by staring at a book or computer screen. In one exercise, you try to move your eyeballs up and down by imagining a clock with a line moving up and down between the 12 and the 6. Don’t blink!

After about ten repetitions, try a relaxing technique called palming. In this, you rub your palms together and cup them over your eyes. You should feel the warmth from your palms seep through to your eyes.

Next try to move your eyeballs from side to side by imagining moving from the 9 to 3 and back on the clock mentioned earlier. Then move your eyeballs diagonally from the 11 to 4 and 2 to 7.

Spending time outside may help prevent myopia or near-sightedness. Several different studies have found that children who spent a lot of time outside were less likely to become nearsighted than those who did not. One study demonstrated that a child’s risk of developing myopia dropped by two percent for every hour per week that they stayed outside.

A study in Denmark found that children’s eyes grew normally during summer but grew abnormally fast during winter – and myopia is caused by an eye growing too long from the anterior to the posterior.

Short-term exposure to UV rays causes inflammation of the eye, while long term exposure can cause macular degeneration and cataracts. According to WHO, UV radiation causes about 20 percent of cataracts. You should thus wear sunglasses that protect the eyes from UV rays and have a wraparound frame.

Short-wavelength blue visible light (400-440 nm) from devices like smartphones and computers can also damage eyes. People who are over 50 should wear computer glasses or contact lenses that can filter out blue light and decrease glare and reflection. You should also rest your eyes when using a computer to avoid eye strain.

According to Ayurvedic tradition, you should wash your eyes every morning with cold water in order to get rid of the waste that has accumulated overnight.

Collyrium (anjana) is an eyewash, and it is said to be quite soothing.

Neem water can reduce the swelling and burning sensation caused by conjunctivitis or pinkeye. You make it by soaking leaves from the neem tree in lukewarm water. Wash your eyes with the result.

Nasya and tarpana are traditional Ayurvedic treatments. In nasya, you put medicated oils and powders in the nose to remove toxins from the eyes, nose, ears, and throat. You can use nasya to treat conjunctivitis or glaucoma and to relieve dry, itching, and watery eyes.

In tarpana, you use powdered black gram, which is a type of bean, to build a dam around the eye. Then you pour medicated ghee onto the eye and let it soak. Tarpana is used to treat conditions like diabetes retinopathy and various diseases of the optic nerve or retina.

Have you used any of these treatments to improve your vision? Tell us about your experiences and opinions in the comments below and show this article to your friends and family so they can improve their eyesight, too!

Our content is created to the best of our knowledge, yet it is of general nature and cannot in any way substitute an individual consultation by your doctor. Your health is important to us!