How to Preserve Your Vision as You Age

We see worse with age – all of us. But there is a lot you can do to keep healthy eyes for as long as possible. The best anti-aging tips to protect the important sense organ.

Eyes are complex sense organs. Every second they absorb about ten million pieces of information and pass them on to the brain. But more and more people need glasses to see well. In the U.S, according to the Vision Council of America, about 64 percent of adults need glasses. Is this due to a changed lifestyle? And can eyes be trained to prevent myopia?

The most important tips for healthy eyes

Providers of vision training promise that defective vision can be corrected with targeted exercises. Many of them refer to the eye doctor William Bates, who developed vision training in the 1920s. However, the effectiveness of the exercises has never been scientifically proven. “Training your eyes against short-sightedness is just as pointless as training your shoe size”, says Dr Ludger Wollring of the Professional Association of Ophthalmologists. It’s no shame, but you can neither prevent nor reverse myopia with it.

Professor Horst Helbig, Director of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University Hospital Regensburg, also confirms that training against glasses is hopeless. “Every person needs glasses against presbyopia in the course of his or her life because the lens and the muscle lose their elasticity.

Relaxation: Yoga protects the eyes

A healthy lifestyle is much more effective for healthy eyes: Everything that promotes and improves blood circulation is also good for the eyes, for example. “Diabetes and high blood pressure, on the other hand, can damage the blood vessels and reduce vision,” warns Wollring. Relaxation exercises such as yoga and autogenic training or endurance sports could also lower eye pressure, Helbig says. In people suffering from glaucoma, this can have a positive effect on the development of the disease, because increased pressure inside the eye is often responsible for glaucoma.

Sleep: Healthy rest

Adequate sleep also pleases the eyes: if they are closed and do not have to work, their muscles relax and their vision recovers. Caution is advised in the case of sleep apnoea – i.e. nocturnal breathing interruptions. They mainly affect people who snore and are always inexplicably tired during the day. The resulting lack of oxygen can promote the development of glaucoma.

Nutrition: It should be balanced

A balanced diet rich in vitamins and sufficient fluids is also important, says Ludger Wollring. If you eat a lot of fruit and vegetables, you don’t need any additional food supplements for your eyes. However, an extra ration of carrots is not necessary: they were long considered a miracle cure for more clarity. “Carrots don’t do any harm, but they also have no special effect on the eye,” explains the ophthalmologist.

Too much alcohol: Risk of lens clouding increases

If you drink a glass of wine or beer every now and then, you do not need to worry about your eyesight. Studies have shown that high-proof drinks can change the composition of the tear film and promote dry eyes. But a glass of beer on Friday evening is not immediately likely to cause serious damage. The situation is different for alcoholics, says Helbig: “Their risk of cataracts clouding their lenses and macular degeneration is increased. In addition, the alcohol-induced nutrient deficiency damages vision.”

Tobacco: Smoking makes life colourless

On the other hand, nicotine is very harmful to the eyes. “Smoking increases the risk of eye diseases, such as cataracts and age-related macular degeneration,” says Helbig. In addition, smoking can lead to inflammatory eye diseases. According to a study carried out by the American Rutgers University, excessive nicotine consumption not only damages the vessels around the eye, but also leads to smokers being able to distinguish fewer colours than people who do not smoke.

And how harmful is computer work?

“Looking at the screen does not necessarily harm the eye in adults,” says Horst Helbig. But after a long day at the computer, the eyes are often irritated and dry. The reason is that they are closed less often when looking at the screen with concentration. And if the blink is reduced, the eye becomes drier.

Helbig recommends regular breaks. Apps can help here, for example, which after a certain period of time display messages on the screen telling you to close your eyes. Those who work a lot in air-conditioned rooms should also go outside in between.

Off to the countryside: Nature is good for the eye

The advice to go out into the fresh air is even more important for children than for adults. A study in the journal Optometry and Vision Science shows that 10- to 15-year-olds who spent more time outside were less likely to be nearsighted than their peers. “People who spend a lot of time indoors at a young age, move around little and spend a lot of time keeping smartphones, computers or books close to their eyes without pauses are much more likely to become nearsighted,” confirms Wollring. Until primary school age, children should not spend more than half an hour a day looking at displays. Older children and adolescents should not spend more than three hours a day, the ophthalmologist advises.

“From laboratory experiments and theory we know that blue light is potentially harmful to the sensory cells of the eye,” says Professor Nicole Eter, Director of the Eye Clinic at the University Hospital Münster. However, it is unclear how much blue light can cause damage to the eye in everyday life. It is not only its wavelength that is decisive, but also other factors such as the light intensity and duration to which one is exposed to the light. Since scientifically proven data on this is still pending, ophthalmologists do not yet recommend blue filter glasses in everyday life, says Eter. However, in strong sunlight, sunglasses that filter the UV protection right down to the blue-violet part might be useful. Please also read our article on blue light.

Sunlight: Glasses protect against UV rays

Basically, you should always make sure that sunglasses offer good UV protection. This is because UV light can lead to malignant changes in the eye. The tint of the lenses says nothing about their quality. In the EU, only those lenses may be sold that bear the CE mark and thus comply with certain directives. However, there is no inspection body to monitor compliance with them. It is therefore essential to pay attention to the marking “UV 400″ or “100% UV protection“.

Early detection: Check-ups are important

Even if you have no complaints and can see well, you should go to the ophthalmologist regularly from about the age of 40, Helbig advises. Anyone who has a hereditary predisposition or is extremely short-sighted, smokes, suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure or a lot of stress, or has had a long course of cortisone therapy should have themselves examined more often – regardless of age.

With age, diseases such as glaucoma or macular degeneration occur more frequently, which often do not initially cause any symptoms. Many eye diseases can be treated well if they are detected in time. This is especially true for children. They should already be examined by an eye doctor before their third birthday, says Wollring: “Six percent of children are weak-sighted in one eye when they start school. We could reduce that to one percent if we could see the children early enough.”