Our vision plays a critical role, and just as the rest of our bodies, our eyes require different things as we age.
When we’re healthy, it’s easy to take our wellness for granted, and oftentimes when we’re younger, because we don’t know any better and think we’ll always have our health, we make poor decisions. And, sometimes despite making all the right health decisions, we’re exposed to genetic issues, injury, and illness that greatly impact our quality of life.
Our health is multi-faceted and our eyes are just as much affected by aging, which is why it’s vital to protect them at each stage of life.
At Viteyes, we help you keep life in sight by promoting vision wellness through our premium eye supplements. Learn more about our aging eyes and how you can better protect them in each decade of life.
Protecting Your Eyes At Every Age
Healthy eyes and vision play a large role in our quality of life and when we take preventative steps with routine eye exams, vision issues and eye diseases can be detected earlier and a course of treatment can happen sooner.
So, let’s get to it and explore what you can do for your eyes in each decade!
Children
It’s important that kids receive eye checks and vision care early on as a part of their routine health screenings. Because kids are developing rapidly and learning new things each day, it is crucial that their vision is being checked. When eye issues go undetected it can have grave repercussions in their learning and development because they’re unable to see, therefore impacting their ability to read and hit other important educational milestones.
At birth, newborns are checked for general eye health by a health professional. In the first year of life, at routine check-ups, babies eyes should continue to be examined. Around five, kids will typically receive vision screenings in school and at the doctor — if your child does have a vision impairment, it’s important you follow up with annual screenings.
Teens
At this stage in life, many teens still have 20/20 vision yet it’s important to protect them.
Teens eyes should be checked at yearly physical exams but if they’re having trouble seeing or complaining about their vision, it’s worth it to make an appointment with your local eye doctor.
Because we live in a technological culture, teens face eye issues that generations before never did with being surrounded by an abundance of blue light. Blue light is emitted from our electronic devices such as our smartphones, tablets, TVs, and computers — things teens can’t get enough of.
It’s been shown that blue light affects our sleep and increases the risk of developing macular degeneration later in life, amongst its many other health concerns. Especially with teens, we can’t control what they’re doing all the time, but we can help support the effects of blue light they’re exposed to through eye supplements that contain lutein and zeaxanthin, blue light blocking glasses, and getting them out in the fresh air and away from their screens!
At the end of the day, ensure they’re getting the recommended eye examine and help educate them on how they can support their eye health.
20s And 30s
At this point in life, people in their 20s and 30s have healthy eyes and are treating any vision issues with glasses and corrective lenses (and hopefully a healthy lifestyle), and it’s important to remember that it’s never too early for eye care prevention!
Prevention plays a key role in these decades, especially in your eye health.
Beyond eye examines there are many ways you can take action to protect your eyes including:
Protecting your eyes from UV rays and blue light
Steering clear of harmful habits such as smoking
Wearing protective eyewear in sports and in jobs that can put your eyes at risk
Being mindful of eye strain and fatigue that can come from long hours at a computer
Creating healthy eating habits and incorporating supportive eye nutrients such as fish oil and lutein
40s, 50s, And 60s
While prevention in your 20s and 30s is vital to maintaining healthy eyes vision changes are a part of the natural aging process, and many people begin to experience this in their 40s and 50s.
Common eye concerns you may experience include:
Presbyopia – This causes a lack of focus as our eyes to stiffen as we age making it increasingly difficult to focus on small print, such as the text on our phones.
Glaucoma – This eye condition affects the optic nerve and causes vision loss and blindness.
Cataracts – Most cataracts are an effect of aging and produce a cloudy lens that affects our vision.
Macular degeneration – Age-related macular degeneration is one of the leading causes of blindness in adults 50 and older. It causes damage to the macula, a small area in the center of the retina.
At this stage in life, it’s critical that you monitor your eye health closely so if you do have any issues, they can be diagnosed early to better preserve your vision.
Our eyes age just like the rest of us, so it’s important to care for our eyes at every stage of life — from the early years to our senior years — our vision can be impacted by different elements. We begin to see vision changes as early as childhood and specific age-related eye concerns such as cataracts, glaucoma, and age-related macular degeneration later in life, well into our 50s, 60s, and beyond.
Help maintain your vision with a pan that includes routine eye exams and eye supplements, because a healthy diet, and eye supplements. Lifelong eye care begins with a healthy lifestyle free from smoking and abundant in all the right foods — eggs, kale, spinach and all of their wonderful antioxidants and staying active.
For more information about our leading eye supplements that are formulated from the AREDS2 study, browse our website and explore our products today!