Taking Care Of Your Vision

In earlier days specs were worn only by grandfathers, that too at very old age. Youngsters wearing glasses was a very rare sight. Even while fixing marriages people were very particular about the eyesight of those who wear sporting glasses—whether it was boy or girl—fearing that it may be carried on to the next generation. But now things have changed. Leaving alone youngsters, we see even small children wearing specs. It is because of our changing lifestyle. On one side it is pollution, lack of nutrition in the food we consume, and on the other side, junk food and awakening till late hours by sitting before computer or watching television. With a little care, we can always protect our eyes and teach our children how to take care of them.

Given below are the natural remedies to have healthy eyes and good vision.

                First and foremost thing is to keep eyes clean to ward off infections. Clean your eyes in the morning as soon as you get up with running water. Collect water in your hand, bend yourself and put your eyes one by one in the water with lids open. Repeat it many times to wash off the discharge collected, if any.

                Clean your eyes after coming back from outdoors.

                The next important thing is to eat healthy food. Green leafy vegetables, fruits, eggs etc. It is essential to have carbohydrates, proteins and fats in correct proportions in our diet.

                Mother’s milk is best for infants.

                Cabbage, carrots, spinach etc can be had in the form of juice or soup.

                Protect yourself from smoke, dust and sunlight. In case, you have to stay in such conditions for long, blink your eyes or gently massage the closed eyes with your palm.

                Take five pieces of triphala each—the English names of which are Indian gooseberry, chebulic myrobalan and billerica myrobalan—soak them in a glass of water overnight, strain the water and wash your eyes with this water in the morning. Add little honey and ghee to triphala churan, mixed together and about one spoon should be taken inside.

                Do some exercise without moving your head, move your eyes up and down, left to right and vice versa and in circle motion. Close your eyes and massage with til oil.

                Make sure there is sufficient light while reading, writing and working. Staring continuously at long-distance objects is not good. Blink or give rest to your eyes. Avoid looking at the objects in bright sunlight.

                If you feel heaviness and tiredness, close your eyes and take rest for sometime.

                Staying awake for long hours in the night and sleeping till late hours next day is harmful for eyes.

                Warm-up your palms by rubbing together and place them on your eyes.

                Needless to say we all work on computers for long hours. Maintain the distance at least 50cm from the screen. A comfortable chair and correct posture is important. Take rest after half-an-hour, blink your eyes and increase font size.

                Children should maintain correct posture, while reading or writing. They should not lean on the book and write. As I have seen most of them do write like that. They should not lie on the bed and read. Adequate sleep and correct posture are very important.

                Cucumber is good for eyes. Place a piece of cucumber on each eye for 10 minutes this will release the stress from eyes and refresh them.

                Take 10g of harad (haritaki) powder, 30g of gooseberry powder (amalaki), 20g of vibhitaki (triphala’s) 70g of mishri (sugar candy) 70g of honey, 35g of pure ghee and 5g of pippal powder. Roast them separately, make powder and add honey and ghee to the mixture. This will become fine leham. Store this in a bottle and every night take about 5g before going to bed. This will correct the weak eyesight and if used regularly for about 100 days it can even remove the specs with improved eyesight.

                Refrain from smoking as studies have shown that smoking causes cataract and muscular degeneration, a condition where retina cells actually die.

                It is essential to get the eyes checked at least once a year.

                Maintain regular and clean bowel movement. Constipation weakens the eyesight.

These remedies can keep your eyes healthy. One can improve one’s weak eyesight and can even stop wearing specs forever.

By N Suguna