How Lifestyle Impacts Vision & Health

Common sense lifestyle habits empower you to take charge of your health.  Enjoying a healthy diet high in fresh vegetables, fruits, and low in sugars and fats, coupled with daily exercise and adequate rest are the foundations of good vision and good health.

Diet

Limit Sugar

Reduce or eliminate all types of refined sugars. White sugar in particular should be avoided, but also fructose, sucrose, fruit juice concentrates, maltose, dextrose, glucose, and refined carbohydrates. This includes “natural” drinks that contain a lot of sugar, including all fruit juices.

• Diabetic retinopathy is the best-known eye disease linked to sugar imbalances.¹
• Macular degeneration risk is higher in those with high-glucose and/or high-fructose diets.²
• Glaucoma.  High glucose levels are significantly linked to risk of glaucoma.³
• The optic nerve is damaged by even a short term high-fat, high-sucrose diet.⁴
• Cataract risk is markedly increased by hyperglycemia.⁵ Another sugar, galactose (“milk sugar”), may have an impact for people who are lactose intolerant, putting them at higher risk for cataracts.⁶

Artificial Sweeteners

Avoid these completely. Sugar and artificially sweetened beverage intake have been linked to cardiometabolic risk factors, which increase the risk of cerebrovascular disease and dementia. Artificially-sweetened soft drinks are associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke, all-cause dementia, and Alzheimer’s’ Disease.    Some of the adverse effects on the central nervous system caused by the intake of aspartame are headaches, mood changes, insomnia, and seizures.  Other effects include confusion, personality disorders, dizziness, and visual difficulty.  In mice studies, chronic aspartame consumption resulted in a longer time for the mice to locate the reward within the T-maze, which showed impaired long-term memory retention.^{7 8 9}

Favor an Alkaline Diet

Eat an alkaline-based diet. The standard Western diet is high in acid, due to the increase in grains eaten, particularly refined carbohydrates and processed foods, also meat, sugars, and poor-quality oils (for cooking). Acidic balanced diets versus an alkaline diet high in fruits and vegetables contribute to inflammation in the body and overall chronic illness, and may, in many cases, be the ultimate cause of chronic health conditions, such as autoimmune disease. For more information on an alkaline versus acidic diet, see our article on alkalizing foods.

Drink Pure Water

Drink plenty of water daily, in small doses. You will have heard many wholistic health practitioners tell you to sip water throughout the day. This is optimally taken as a four-ounce glass of water every half-hour to equal 16 four-ounce glasses. Our bloodstream can only effectively handle about four ounces at any one time.

When you drink more than four ounces at a time, the kidneys must work more to filter this water that hasn’t had a chance to travel through the lymph system and clean body tissues. Adequate water intake helps maintain the flow of nutrients to the eyes and to release wastes and toxins from tissues. Favor purified water.

Increase Antioxidants

Eat foods high in antioxidants. Antioxidants come from enzymes, phytonutrients such as carotenoids and bioflavonoids, and some vitamins and vitamin-like biochemicals. Most of the important nutritional components of vision-disease prevention and reversal are related to boosting antioxidant levels. Antioxidants are one of the most important combatants against free radicals, a major cause of inflammation.

Fresh vegetables and fruits are important sources of antioxidants.  See our vision health diet pyramid (mouseover the image to compare the Mediterranean diet and our vision diet recommendations) — which include 1/2 cup cooked or 1 cup raw leafy greens — every day, every meal.

Because our ability to absorb nutrients declines somewhat as we get older, good diet that is supplemented with antioxidant vitamins and minerals can help prevent the damage due to oxidation.

Lifestyle

Wear Sunglasses

Wear 100% ultraviolet-blocking wrap-around sunglasses (polarized) and a hat, since ultraviolet light from the sun can cause damage to the lens of the eye and even accelerate retinal disease.¹⁰ Amber colored lenses are best for neutralizing blue light. Brown lenses are second best. Ongoing exposure to sunlight increases the risk of macular degeneration, cataracts, and more.

Note: Cheaper glasses may have a coating to block out UV light that, over time, can rub off. Many people think it is the tint that helps protect the eyes, but it is actually the UV filter on, or in, the lens that is helpful. A dark lens without UV protection increases pupil dilation, increasing the amount of light that enters the eyes.

Avoid Microwaves

Radiation leakage from microwave ovens is a direct cause of some conditions like cataracts.  If you have an older microwave with seals that have deteriorated, then there may be risk if you peer close to the oven door.  Severity of damage depends upon the duration and exposure to microwave emissions.¹¹ To be safe, avoid constant peeking into the door window while you cook.

Steaming and slow cooking is the best option for retaining the maximum amount of nutrients in food. High temperature cooking and microwaving both cause greater nutritional deterioration. We feel that if you are going to use a microwave, then warming up foods in the microwave is preferable to cooking in the microwave.

Avoid Chemical Toxins

Many synthetic chemicals and pharmaceuticals can cause vision problems. Steroids, for example, taken internally or applied to the skin, are a typical cause of cataracts, because they block the normal metabolism of the connective tissue, one of the components of the lens. In addition, the steroid “estrogen,” which is prescribed for menopause and breast cancer, impacts eye function.¹²

Steroids such as glucocorticoids are photosensitizing, and they make you more susceptible to cataracts¹³ and glaucoma.¹⁴

Stop Smoking

Cigarette smoking causes about 20% of all cataracts, likely because smoking depletes antioxidant levels in the body. Men who smoke more than 15 cigarettes a day increase their risk for cataracts by 42%.¹⁵ For female smokers, the risk of getting cataracts is also high. Quitting without supplementing the diet with additional vitamins and minerals doesn’t seem to eliminate the increased risk for almost ten years.¹⁶

Get Exercise and Take Breaks

Exercise regularly several times a week. Researchers find that exercise improves almost all health conditions, including vision conditions.

Take breaks. Most importantly, take time away from your electronic devices, as computer use is directly linked to many eye conditions, including glaucoma and dry eye syndrome. Your eyes and your body need regular breaks from computers, phones, and televisions. Rest periods of at least a couple of minutes every hour will do wonders for your eyes and your body. Make sure your “rest” activities are the opposite of your current preoccupation; the point is to engage your eyes and body in different ways. For example, if you have been sitting, doing close-up work, stand up and stretch, while looking out a window into nature. Better yet, take a walk around the block. If, on the other hand, you’ve been engaged in broader visual work, a rest might include checking your emails on your phone. Doing eye exercises during your rest period is also recommended.

Meditation

Find time for meditation each day. Even walking in nature, without electronic devices, can be extremely meditative; it is very relaxing to both our psyche and our physical body if we pay attention on the activity of walking itself.

Supplement Recommendations

Advanced Eye and Vision Support Formula – our whole food, organic, GMO free formula with lutein and zeaxanthin.

Dr. Grossman’s Meso Plus Retinal Support and Computer Eye Strain Formula with Astaxanthin 90 vcaps -with lutein, zeaxanthin, mesozeaxanthin and astaxanthin

Dr. Grossman’s Whole Food Organic Superfood Multi-Vitamin 120 Vcaps -our organic, whole food, GMO free multivitamin

ACG Glutathione EXTRA STRENGTH Spray 2oz.

ReVision Formula (wild-crafted herbal formula) 2 oz

Footnotes