Page 58 - South Mississippi Living - August, 2024

HEALTHY LIVING
story by Dr. Nickie Harris-Ray
August is National Eye Exam Month. It reminds us that eye health is important and should be a part of your annual wellness checkups, just like your annual physical. Our eyes may not have any obvious symptoms of something being wrong, but some problems are slowly progressive and can be caught with annual exams.
Loss of vision can be detrimental to daily activities. It can make normally routine tasks challenging. As vision becomes diminished, it can cause anxiety, sadness, or fear. But there are things we can do to lessen the chances of something going wrong.
According to the National Eye Institute, there are simple yet crucial steps we can take to maintain our eye health. One of the most important is to get a comprehensive, dilated eye exam every year. This is the gold standard for eye health, as many eye conditions can be present without any symptoms. The dilated exam allows your provider to detect any changes in our eyes early, before they become serious issues. This annual exam is a vital part of maintaining good vision and overall health.
Another step is to understand our family history and potential risk factors for eye disease. As we age, the potential for vision issues increases. Alongside age, a family history of disease,
obesity, or specific ethnic backgrounds can heighten our susceptibility to eye disease. It’s also important to remember that many medical conditions affecting other body systems, such as diabetes, can impact our vision. By being aware of these factors, we can take proactive steps to protect our eye health.
Finally, daily activities can be implemented to monitor
and protect our eyes. One is wearing sunglasses and other protective eye gear. Sunglasses can even be worn on cloudy
days and should block over 99% percent of UV rays. Also, wear protective goggles when underwater or when workplace hazards put our eyes at risk. And the easiest of all, our eyes need to rest just like the rest of our body. Staring at TV, computer screens, and phones over time can stress them. Looking away for several seconds at no more than half-hour increments will help with eye fatigue. These simple inclusions help keep our eyes in the most optimal state between our annual exam visits.
58 | August 2024
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