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Monday, May 30, 2011

More about the eyes

You may have read and tried my eye exercises I have given you here a couple of months ago. After consulting others, I come today with further advice on how to protect your eyes. Next to exercises your eyes need proper nutrients to function optimally.

Never forget to include in your diet Vitamins A, C, E, as well as minerals like copper and zinc. I always recommend avoiding buying them from the drugstore and diversify your meals with natural food. You need antioxidants like beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin to get a better sun protection for your macula (yellow spot of the eye) and best place to find them is green and yellow vegetables like dark leafy greens, egg yolks, yellow peppers, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, and carrots. They help you keep macula young and avoid getting blind. Good antioxidants are anthocyanin-rich blueberries, grapes, and goji berries that also have anti-inflammatory properties that can help improve your vision.

Cataract is another disease that often affects eyes and foods rich in sulfur, cysteine, and lecithin help protect the lens of the eye against it. Try to eat more garlic, onions, shallots, and capers to receive more of these protective ingredients.

To maintain the eye health giving structural support to cell membranes you should also make use of DHA, a fatty acid found in coldwater fish like wild salmon, sardines, mackerel and cod.

Dry eyes can also lead to poor eyesight, so do not forget the general rule of the two liters of water you should drink daily, a habit that also prevent dehydration and dry eyes. Good quality water should be drunk and artificial tears should be dropped in your eyes if needed.

Your life style is also very important for the health of your eyes. Enough sleep is equally important for eye health, because eyes rest during the sleep just as your whole body. While slipping your eyes also rest, repair, and recover. Your vision may weaken if you do not have enough sleep (and enough is eight hours of sound sleep a night). Try to you’re your eyes during the day resting them for a few moments every hour. Do it even more often if you work intensively in front of the computer.

Avoid factors that can contribute to eye damage limiting contact with toxins or stressful factors like blinking lights, computer screens, environmental allergens, chlorine in swimming pools, direct air conditioning and heating, extreme weather conditions (dry, cold, heat), reading in dim lighting and constantly rubbing of the eyes. Do not smoke and limit your exposure to cigarette smoke as it may increase optic pressure. Remember to wear sunglasses to protect your eyes from UV exposure.

In the end I want to give you some more tips with exercises you could practice to maintain optimal vision and may also keep those annoying eye floaters at bay. Clean your hands carefully and perform these exercises several times a day, in the morning, before bedtime, or any time your eyes feel tired.

-Warm your eyes. After washing your hands with hot water place them against your eyes for a few seconds. Your eyes will get warmer and feel more relaxed. Repeat this several times, as long as your hands are warm.
-Massage your temples. Using your thumb knuckles, massage your temples in small circles, several times in one direction and several in the other. Repeat the same actions above the mid-point of the eyebrows at the forehead, then below the eyes on both sides of the bridge of the nose.

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Raised White Dots on Eyelids Are Not Acne

Many of us may have noticed the appearance of some pronounced spots (not more than small raised lumps) on the upper or lower eyelid. They do not hurt and develop slowly, during the years. They usually look lighter in color, but sometimes have a white top and cluster together. Beware! They are not acne.

One misperception is that stress is their cause, but the truth is that several other things might make them appear – anything from skin tags (acrochordons) to "white spots" generated by dermatologic diseases or cholesterol deposits (xanthelasma) and even oil gland problems. I know that dermatologists are very expensive, but the large spectrum of causes and implications makes the specialized check of a doctor mandatory.

Irrespective of their cause, the main question you might want to ask your doctor is: Can They Be Removed?

Unfortunately the answer is not so easy. You may be lucky to find out that it could be the type of lumps or patches that are quite common and although they often alarm people they are of no harm. The white or yellow bumps that appear as a result of lipid collection or high cholesterol do not mean that your blood cholesterol level is necessarily high. Nevertheless, do check your cholesterol!

These lumps are usually determined by fatty cells in the eyelids and unfortunately there is no simple solution for them. Creams, lotions and potions usually fail to give the expected result. Massage sometimes brings improvements but pose some risks as the tissues and blood vessels in that area are very delicate and improper massage may damage them. That is why surgery (in fact a small incision made by the doctor under local anesthesia) could be the only solution to remove these white dots.

Always remember that any surgery leaves a scar – smaller or bigger, depending on a multitude of factors, from the dimension of the dots to the skill of the surgeon and the healing capacity of the patient. Techniques sharply improved recently and scars could be so minor that you do not even see them. But they do exist. Also, the white dots may recur in the future and a second surgery might be deemed unfit.

The raised white spots on the lids might be a form of cyst in the eyelid. They feel like bags filled with a thick fluid that can be slightly moved when touched. They are quite specific and cannot be mistaken for acne. In rare cases, the white bumps may be on the inner side of the eyelid, making you feel uncomfortable.

As all the up-mentioned white dots are placed on the eyelid, the dermatologist may ask for further checks with an ophthalmologist and if a gland problem is suspected you may need to approach an endocrinologist.

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