How to Take the Best Care of Your Eye Health After 60?

As you age, it’s normal to experience changes in your vision. From seeing close-up objects a little blurry to finding it hard to distinguish colours, there are some vision problems that you’ll just have to deal with. Not only this, your risk for certain eye diseases will also increase. So, it’s best to take care of your eyes now than to feel sorry later. Even if you’re in your 60s, you can still practice some eye care tips to keep your vision from declining further. You can keep your ocular health as fit as possible by getting regular eye exams and spotting any vision-related problems early.

What can Regular Eye Exams do?

An eye test is not only for checking whether your prescription is up to date. It gives a closer look at your overall eye health. A comprehensive eye exam is able to detect eye diseases such as cataracts or glaucoma.

The good news is, if you are over 60, you are eligible for a free NHS eye test every two years. Those who are over 70 can get these eye tests every year. But it’s sad that most people still don’t take advantage of this opportunity and pass up the offer, as they don’t consider regular eye exams important.

At Specscart, we believe that attention to eye health is important at every age. This is why we offer free eye tests for everyone across our stores in Manchester. The tests are performed at our advanced eye test labs by our expert opticians.

Wear Prescription Glasses

Not just any prescription glasses, but the correct prescription glasses. Your eyes go through a series of changes between 40 to 60 years of age. And it’s normal for your eye prescription to fluctuate rapidly as well. Make sure to have regular eye exams so that your prescription remains updated. Wearing the glasses with the right prescription will make sure that you can see things clearly, and it also reduces strain on your eyes.

It’s quite common for people above the age of 40 to experience eye conditions like presbyopia. It is a condition in which your eyes' natural ability to focus on close objects is reduced due to ageing. In such cases, varifocal glasses can be a great option as they correct vision across all viewing distances in the same pair of glasses.

How to Maintain Your Eye Health?

In addition to getting regular eye exams, here are a few things you can do to protect your ageing eyes from more serious eye conditions:

Eat well

Eating healthy foods and taking a balanced diet is crucial for your eyes. Make sure you eat plenty of vegetables and fruits to guard your eyes against vicious eye diseases such as cataracts and macular degeneration.

Use sunglasses

Sunlight can damage your eyes and elevate your risk of developing cataracts. You can use quality sunglasses that block 100% UV rays, and make sure to wear them whenever you go out during the day. You can also look for trendy sunglasses and customise them with your prescription power.

Stop smoking

Smoking damages your whole body, and your eyes are no exception. Smoking makes you more vulnerable to age-related eye diseases. And even if you’re young, you should quit smoking as soon as you can to protect your vision from any damage.

Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle

Make sure you’re not overweight, as it could lead to several health conditions, such as diabetes, which is responsible for sight loss in most people. Exercise regularly to maintain a healthy weight and improve blood circulation. It will increase the blood oxygen level in your body, which is vital for good eye health.

Sleep well

When you’re sleeping, your eyes get lubricated to clear out any dust or smoke that might have accumulated on your eyes during the day. Thus, you wake up with healthy and refreshed eyes in the morning. Taking proper rest is crucial for your eyes if you want them to function properly for a long time.

How Does Lighting Help Your Ageing Vision?

To be able to see well in your 60s, you need twice as much light as a 20-year-old would. Make sure you keep the windows and curtains clean in the room to get a lot of bright natural light during the day. Reading or other close-up activities should be done in a brightly lit room. You can also use task lighting or a table lamp to focus more light on your reading material.

Follow these handy tips to ensure the best lighting for your home:

• Minimise glare and reflections.

• Switch to blinds as they make it easier to control the amount of light coming through the window.

• Make sure there’s a light bulb at the top and bottom of the staircase.

• Go for warm white or neutral white bulbs.

The Best Glasses for Your Ageing Vision

When you go to an optometrist for an eye test, they will give you a prescription that determines the type of lenses your glasses will have. You will use this prescription to buy yourself a pair of spectacles that’ll give you the best possible vision. When you’re buying glasses, make sure you get the right lenses. If your lenses are wrong for your eyes, you are more likely to feel eye strain or trip over obstacles.