Did you know osteopaths are interested in eyes too? Eyes can be thought of as a window into your health in some respects, and keeping your eyes healthy is as important as keeping your muscles toned – perhaps even more so! Check out this guide to understanding how your eyes work and how to keep them healthy.
Your optometrist should examine your eyes regularly order to check your vision and do a special health screening of your eyes. This is not only to look for problems with the eye itself, but also to screen more generally for conditions that can affect the eye. Eye health (and in some cases vision) can be affected by a lot of health conditions – and those trained to look into people’s eyes can sometimes see evidence of conditions such as diabetes and hypertension.
Osteopaths will always observe your eyes and eyelids for any obvious variations or changes, including redness, pupil changes, infection, styes etc. A more formal screening the eyes is sometimes done if we are doing a neurological screening examination as well. This examination is looking at the functions of the small muscles that move the eyeball, the muscles that operate the eyelids, and the nerves that control some of the finer automatic functions of the eye such as the control of how much light enters the eye. This kind of examination is looking for changes that could possibly indicate the presence of conditions that might require referral to your doctor and more extensive examination.
It might seem obvious that nutrition can affect your health. EyeHealthWeb has a handy chart of nutrients that are involved in eye health. Please note that this does not suggest nor condone the taking of supplements of those nutrients in an attempt to improve eye health. A varied and fresh diet which includes these nutrients would be a sounder approach to not only improving eye health but improving health and well being overall.
If you have any questions about your eye health, do see your local optometrist.
