Eat for Bright Eyesight

Protect your peepers with a vision-ary diet! Our eyes require multiple nutrients to function optimally. Start with
these:
• Vitamins A, C, E, and minerals like copper and zinc are essential to eyesight.
• Antioxidants, including beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin, protect the macula from sun damage. Get these
antioxidants from dark leafy greens, egg yolks, yellow peppers, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, and carrots. Notice any
color patterns here? Current research shows that consuming yellow and green vegetables can help prevent age-
related macular generation, a leading cause of blindness.
• Foods rich in sulfur, cysteine, and lecithin help protect the lens of your eye from cataract formation. Excellent
choices include garlic, onions, shallots, and capers.
• Anthocyanin-rich blueberries, grapes, and goji berries have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that can
help improve your vision.
• DHA is a fatty acid found in coldwater fish like wild salmon, sardines, mackerel, and cod. DHA provides structural
support to cell membranes to boost eye health.

Exercise Your Eyes

These simple exercises will help you maintain optimal vision and may also keep those annoying eye floaters at
bay. Perform these exercises first thing in the morning, before bedtime, or any time your eyes feel fatigued. Make
sure that your hands are clean and that your mood is relaxed. Commit to daily practice and you may just see better
results within one month.
• Warm your eyes. Rub your palms together to create heat, and then place them against your eyes for five seconds.
Repeat this three times.
• Roll your eyes. Start by looking up and then slowly circle 10 times clockwise and 10 times counterclockwise.
• Focus. Hold a pen at arm's length, focus your eyes on it, and slowly bring the pen closer until it's about 6 inches
away from your nose. Then slowly move it back, keeping your eyes focused on the pen, 10 times in all.
• Massage your temples. Using your thumb knuckles, massage your temples in small circles, 20 times in one
direction and 20 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.
• Take a mini-nap. Put your head back, close your eyes, and relax for 3 minutes.

Give Your Eyes Some R&R

• Getting enough sleep is essential for eye health. Sleep allows your eyes to fully rest, repair, and recover.
Insufficient sleep may weaken your vision, so shoot for 8 hours of sound sleep a night.
• Give your eyes a break once an hour during your workday: Rest your eyes 10 minutes for every 50 minutes spent
reading or in front of the computer. If your eyes feel overly tired, lie down and place cooling cucumber slices over
your eyelids.
 Talk to your optometrist about eye exercises. There is no clear scientific data that shows eye exercises improve
your eyesight. So before you attempt eye exercises, it's a good idea to get a professional eye exam done by your
optometrist. Your optometrist can then tell you if you have any existing eye problems or issues. Before you try eye
exercises, you should ask your optometrist if these exercises would benefit your particular set of eyes.[2]
• Keep in mind that eye exercises will not cure or solve eye issues like myopia (nearsightedness), presbyopia (an
inability to change focus from far to near), or astigmatism (blurred vision due to the shape of your cornea).[3] Most
optometrists are skeptical of eye exercises that claim they can help you "throw away your glasses."[4]
• There is no harm in trying these eye exercises if you do not have any eye conditions that will be aggravated by
prolonged use of your eyes. But if you have serious eye conditions like cataracts, blindness in one or both eyes, or
a recovering cornea injury, avoid doing these exercises.[5]

Palm your eyes. Doing this will reduce stimuli to your eyes and brain. Closing your eyes and applying light pressure
to them will spread the tear film in your eyes evenly and relax them.[6]
• Sit comfortably in a chair. Rub your hands together until they feel warm.
• Close your eyes and cover them lightly with your cupped palms. Avoid applying pressure to your eyeballs. Your
nose should not be covered to ensure you have enough ventilation during the palming.
• Make sure no light can enter your eyes though gaps between your fingers or the edges of your palms and nose.
The light will stimulate, rather than relax your eyes, and deter the process of relaxation. Imagine deep blackness
and focus on it.
• Take deep breaths slowly and evenly while thinking of a calming scene, like an empty beach, a clear lake, or a still
mountain. Once you see nothing but blackness, remove your palms from your eyes.
• Repeat the palming for three minutes or more.

Massage your eyes. This will help to improve blood circulation around your eyes and face, and prepare your eyes
for exercise.[7]
• Apply a hot and cold compress: Soak a towel in warm water, and a towel in cold water. Place the warm towel on
your face, making sure it drapes over your eyebrows, closed eyelids, and cheeks. After three minutes, remove the
warm towel and place the cold towel on your face. Alternate between the two towels as desired, making sure to
end with a cold compress. Alternating temperatures on your face will cause vasoconstriction and vasodilation,
physiological changes that will stimulate your face and the skin around your eyes.
• Do a full face massage: Soak a towel in warm water. Rub your neck, forehead and cheeks with the towel. Then, use
your fingertips to gently massage your forehead and closed eyes.
• Do an eyelid massage: Wash your hands well. Then, close your eyes and massage them with circular movements of
your fingers for one to two minutes. Make sure you press very lightly on your eyes as you massage them. Light
pressure will help to stimulate your eyes.

Exercising Your Eyes

Practice zooming with your eyes. This is a good eye focusing exercise, as you have to constantly adjust how well
you can focus on an object from certain distances.[9]
• Sit in a comfortable position.
• Stretch out your arm with your thumb in the hitchhiking position (thumbs up).
• Focus on your thumb. Then, bring the thumb closer to you, focusing until your thumb is about 3 inches in front of
your face.
• Move your thumb away again until your arm is fully outstretched.
• Repeat this exercise three more times, once a week.
• You can also practice this exercise by holding a pencil in front of you at arm’s length. Then, move your arm slowly
to your nose. Follow the pencil with your eyes until you can’t focus on it any longer.

Make a figure eight with your eyes. This is a great exercise to practice controlling the physical movement of your
eyes.[10]
• Imagine a giant figure eight on the floor, about 10 feet in front of you.
• Trace the figure eight with your eyes, slowly.
• Trace it one way for a few minutes and then trace it the other way for a few minutes.

Practice rhythmic eye movements. These movements can help to strengthen your eyes and your hand-eye
coordination.[11]
• Do bar swings. Bar swings help to test your brain's ability to focus on an object with your eyes and maintain your
balance and coordination. Stand in front of a fence, barred window, or something else with evenly spaced vertical
lines. Focus on a distant object on the other side of the bars. Relax your body and transfer your weight from one
foot to the other. Keep your breathing steady and relaxed. Don't forget to blink while performing this exercise.
Continue for two to three minutes.
• Do round swings. This exercise helps to strengthen your peripheral vision. Focus on an object in the distance that is
close to the ground. Sway as instructed for Bar Swings. Keeping your gaze on the same object, use your peripheral
vision to observe your surroundings as you sway. Continue for two to three minutes.

Do directional eye exercises. Moving your eyes in different directions is a good way to exercise your eyes.[12]
• Stand or sit upright. Look straight ahead. Without moving your head, look to the left. Focus on what you see. Then
look right. Move your eyes side to side five times. Repeat this three times.
• Without moving your head, look down. Focus on what you see. Then, look up. Focus on what you see. Repeat this
three times.
• Without moving your head, look straight ahead. Then, look down and to the left. Focus on what you see. Then,
move your eyes diagonally and look up and to the right. Focus on what you see. Repeat this exercise five times.
Then, look straight ahead and do the same exercise looking down and to the right and then looking up and to the
left. Repeat this cycle three times.

End your exercises with palming. Always finish up either with palming to relax your eyes after your intense
exercise session.[13]
• You can also end your eye workout by simply closing your eyes and keeping them shut in a dark, quiet room for
several minutes. Let them cool down and rest.