in this video, I'm gonna share with you
five proven eye health tips that both
improve eye health and prevent eye
disease so let's take a look. hey
everyone and welcome I'm dr. Joseph
Allen here on doctor eye health the channel
that helps you learn about the eyes
vision and finding the best vision
products so if you new here to the
channel and you like taking care of your
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you don't miss any of my future videos
also remember at any point you can
always check out additional information
and links in the description below about
anything that I mentioned including
things I may forget. so I want to make
this video just to share a couple of eye
health tips that are proven in the
literature that actually show benefits
for eye health and preventing future eye
disease - tip number five coming in at
the bottom of the list is actually to
watch your cholesterol levels and to
decrease your saturated fat intake it's
not really big medical news that hearing
a high elevated level amount of
cholesterol and saturated fat in the
diet isn't good for you but it's
certainly not good for the eyes either
there are studies that suggest having
elevated amounts of cholesterol and
eating high amounts of saturated fats
actually contribute to the development
of age-related eye diseases such as
macular degeneration also having higher
amounts of these levels in your
bloodstream also contribute to other
diseases like diabetes and high blood
pressure both of which actually
contribute to different retinal diseases
within the eye. not only are other
diseases like diabetic retinopathy which
can cause blindness hypertensive
retinopathy from high blood pressure
that can hurt the eye as well as actual
cholesterol plaques that get released
from this cholesterol getting stuck in
your arteries can actually get all the
way up to the eye and cause a stroke
within the eye that we call a
Hollenhorst plaque. that means decreasing the
amount of foods in your diet that have
elevated amounts of bad fats such as
fast food or processed meats including
high-fat dairy products such as milk
butter and cheese could not just be
beneficial for your whole body and heart
health but also for the eyes this
is actually compounded again by having a
decreased body mass index so getting out
exercising watching you eat is
associated again with less eye health
issues we're tip number five is to
decrease the bad fats in your diet tip
for is to increase the good fats in your
diet namely omega-3 fatty acids in case
you haven't heard omega-3 fatty acids
are considered the good fats that we
find in some natural food sources such
as oily fish like salmon as well as from
some vegetable sources including nuts
and seeds
there's even an algae based supplement
that I've found that you can actually
take as an alternative to taking fish
oil capsules as a supplement now there's
a whole lot of omega-3 debates on how
omega-3 fish oils could help with heart
health or joint health or even
neurological brain health there are a
lot of documented studies that show
support that omega-3 fatty acids can
help with dry eye symptoms as well as
preventing retinal disease what's really
interesting is that research studies
have consistently shown that people who
eat a diet with higher amounts of
omega-3s in them have decreased risk of
developing age-related eye diseases such
as that macular degeneration as well as
people with diabetes in fact a recent
study found that people who had omega-3s
higher than their diet and diabetes not
only developed diabetic retinopathy less
but people who did develop it it wasn't
as severe and people who needed
treatment for it responded better to the
treatment that's some amazing support
for having omega-3s in your diet and
even if you're not diabetic there is a
lot of evidence supporting that omega-3s
are good for your eyes and your whole
body as well tip number three is to eat
more foods with high levels of
antioxidants in them that is namely
fruits and vegetables the high levels of
powerful antioxidants that are found in
foods like fruits and vegetables often
contain high amounts of vitamin C
vitamin E
zinc zeaxanthin as well as a very
powerful eye nutrient called lutein
these have all been found to be very
beneficial for the processes inside the
eye to keep the eye healthy and prevent
eye disease mainly because we are
constantly looking at everything around
our world that means the light is
actually entering the eye and causing
the photoreceptors within the retina to
turn over and constantly regenerate and
that requires a very high amount of
metabolism and a faster working
metabolism causes more amounts of
reactive oxygen species with
antioxidants basically negate in fact
there's actually eye diseases like
macular degeneration where its standard
of care for eye doctors like my
to prescribe vitamins because it helps
those diseases so much so yes just as
you've probably heard throughout your
entire life eat your fruits and veggies
tip number two is to consider taking
some sort of eye vitamin supplement if
you're somebody who doesn't like eating
fruits and vegetables and you can't
really stomach eating oily fish like
salmon then perhaps taking some sort of
supplement is the best option for you
there's many different vitamins you can
find in the market if you go to the
store you'll probably be overwhelmed by
the amount of options that you have for
eye vitamins in general you'll probably
see ones with the words a reds written
on the side that sense for the
age-related eye disease study those are
all large scale studies that basically
proved and found the benefit of using a
vitamin supplementation for diseases
like age related macular degeneration if
you're somebody who's never been
diagnosed with a disease like that you
probably won't have much benefit from
taking that specific formulation but
there are different vitamins out there
to supplement for your eye health I
personally take an eye vitamin every day
from I promise called I promise restore
which is more formulated to prevent
age-related eye diseases mainly by
increasing what's called the M pod which
stands for macular pigment optical
density it's really the amount of
structural support pigmented layer in
the back of the eye by taking these
vitamins you increase the amount of that
pigment and that helps prevent aging eye
disease mainly by preventing damage from
high-energy light that we get from the
Sun and digital devices I personally
still think it's best to try and eat
healthy foods and get all of your
nutrients naturally instead of
supplements but I still think it's a
good option for those who maybe are
concerned or have higher risk for
retinal or eye disease but I do also
want mention if you're considering
taking some sort of vitamin supplement
make sure you talk to a medical
professional in your area to make sure
that it is right for you now my number
one tip for improving eye health to
preventing eye disease is something that
I know a lot of people are not going to
like to hear and that is to quit smoking
and that is because cigarette smoking
and tobacco use in general is associated
with higher risk factors of developing
eye diseases such as macular
degeneration again a blinding eye
disease that people get in their 50s and
beyond as well as development for things
like dry eyes uveitis a bad inflammation
inside the eye as well as a condition
called thyroid eye disease
so if you have any sort of thyroid
problems for yourself or in your family
smoking very greatly exaggerated
problems with your thyroid but the
reality is it's really no big news that
smoking can cause a lot of problems in
your entire body I mean it's written
warning right on the side of the box but
I do know that quitting smoking is one
of the hardest things you can do and I
do encourage you to reach out to a
medical professional in your area in
case you can get medication from them or
counseling services that they could
recommend so that they can help you quit
and if you were a friend or one of your
family members maybe need some extra
motivation on how to quit smoking I have
included an additional link to one of my
friends videos dr. karthik raman on he
does a really great job of explaining
and really motivating people for
quitting smoking so if you'd like to
check that out I'll hook that up again
in the description below so wild
question of the day which one of these
tips was your favorite or do you have
any other eye health tips of your own go
ahead and comment in the section below
let me know what you're thinking alright
everyone thanks for watching if you like
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over here again this is doctor Joseph
Allen hear from dr. eye health
the channel helps you with the eyes
vision finding the best vision products
keep an eye on it we'll talk to you soon
