Beyond The Price Tag: Investing In Eye Care Wellness

Have you ever taken a moment to talk to someone who is simply obsessed with their car? The kind of person who spends any spare time working on fixing up their car: sourcing obscure parts to buy, researching how to install and maintain new components, and spending hours carefully tinkering with their “baby”? Hoping one day to see their efforts rewarded with the gentle purr of the restructured engine.

That person has dedicated their free time and funds to invest in maintaining their car. Likewise, we should be taking the same painstaking care and patience with ourselves. Our physical wellness is something that we should be thinking about often. Many of us wait until our bodies “check engine light” comes on to address our well-being. Living a long and healthy life starts with investing in our wellness.

No, I don’t mean scouring your feed for fitness hacks or diet mania—those guides mainly address surface-level issues. Investing in your wellness means being intentional in taking care of your entire body; especially the small parts that often take a backseat like your eye care. When it comes to eye care wellness, there are ways to make short-term investments that will benefit you in the long run.

Yes, it’s difficult to find the time to visit all of your doctors, but your eyes are delicate. It’s easier than you think to forget about taking care of them even though you use them everyday.  If you’ve found yourself having a hard time reading the tiny restaurant menu font or rubbing your eyes constantly, it’s time for you to revamp (or even start) your eye care wellness routine.

Why Everyone Needs an Eye Care Wellness Routine

Fun Fact: By your eighteenth birthday, your eyes are fully developed–lucky you! We go the rest of our busy adult lives with eyes that are maturing and straining just as much as we are. There are so many things that can hurt the delicate tissue in our eyes, from the sun’s UV rays to hours in front of screens - prioritizing our eye care wellness is key. The first step: your annual eye exam.

Routine eye exams check the health of your eyes, vision strength, and address any family history of eye diseases or abnormalities. If there is a family history of eye conditions, early detection is crucial in preventing misdiagnosis or long-term damage.

It’s easy to skip this routine exam especially when it looks like nothing has changed with your vision, but for the sake of your eyes keep that appointment. Optometrists are the only ones who can identify the subtle changes in your eyes that signify preventable issues. Plus, most insurance carriers cover one eye exam annually—essentially it’s already paid for! Why not take advantage and make sure your eyes are in top shape?

Eye Care is Wellness

In addition to visiting your doctor, what you eat makes a world of a difference when it comes to the health of your eyes.  It may not feel like it, but nutrient-rich diets and exercise can help protect our eyes from diseases that develop with age.

Unhealthy habits like smoking and heavy drinking increase the risk of developing eye diseases and heart diseases (which also have a huge impact on eye health). While the tall tale of carrots improving your eyesight is untrue, chomping on them now may reduce the risk of developing blindness as you get older.

Eye care wellness isn’t as hard as we’d like to think; we just have to be mindful of what we put in and near our eyes. If you are a contact user, follow the cleaning and disposal instructions explicitly to avoid irritation and a trip to the emergency room. Eye hygiene looks different for everyone, but the basis is to keep the germs away! Only touch your eyes with clean hands. No expired or shared facial products near your eyes—all of it is a big no-no. If you’ve ever cut peppers and then rubbed my eyes like me, you probably regretted every decision that brought you to that moment. Don’t be like me… Be mindful of your eyes.

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The Cost of Eye Care Wellness

It’s no secret that the cost of living has skyrocketed across the country and paradoxically causing people to sacrifice their physical health for survival. Skipping doctor visits and avoiding the predatory costs of American healthcare, we are in a crisis and our bodies are bearing the brunt.

The many barriers to eye care wellness make it difficult for many people to decide what should take precedence in a list of important things. Our physical health should be a priority, and the costs of insurance and medical bills shouldn’t be the thing that leads you to a medical emergency.

The National Eye Institute has compiled a list of resources to assist people in accessing Free and Low-Cost Eye Care. The list includes eye exams, prescription glasses, eye surgery, and more. Accessible and equitable healthcare is a human right. National organizations want to help!

Long-Term Benefits of Eye Care Wellness

Investing in eye care wellness is guaranteed to make your eyes healthier longer. Getting routine checkups, eating nutritious foods, and having top-tier eye hygiene are all short-term actions that will yield long-term results. The days of waiting until there is an emergency are over! Managing eye care wellness means maintaining agency over your health and independence as you age. Our eyes are the windows to the world, don’t let yours blur.