Perfect eyesight - at any age

Many of our eye related problems are caused by eyestrain, is this a fact? All my life I have been blessed with 20/20 vision that is until the past couple of years.

Glasses, many people wear them from the very young to the very old, and this great invention of the specatacle has improved the quality of many peoples live.

It was about two years ago that I found that I could not see what I was reading as well as I had been. Had I gone to the opticians at that time, he would have given me these simple exercises to strengthen the muscles surrounding my eyes, that had become tense and rigid, and consequently put pressure on my eyeball so that it's shape became distorted.

Any way, I have since learned the art of performing a few simple exercises that will relax these muscles completely and disperse many eyesight problems, whether they are for short sightedness or long sightedness, altogether.

The following exercises are designed to be done without wearing glasses or contact lenses, I have been doing these for a couple of months now and have noticed an improvement,

To help relax the stiff and strained muscles around the eyes: keeping your head still and relaxed , move your eyes up and down half a dozen times, rest and repeat three times more. Repeat the exercise but instead of moveing your eyes up and down , move them from left to right.

Palming: If you are anything like me , you will often find that you are sitting back in a nice comfortable chair, If you are , put the palms of your hands over your closed eyes and stay like it for ten minutesor so. When you remove your hands and open your eyes , try to pick out things of the same colour. Remember to change the colour each day.

To shift the point of focus of your eye and help to lubricate the surface of your outer eye:you need to blink rapidly for a few seconds and then to squeeze your eyes shut for a moment. This exercise can be repeated for up to a minute.

To strengthen the ability of the eye to focus at different distances: imagine that you have a pencil attached to the end of your nose and trace the outline of different objects around you , some objects near and some further away.

Swinging ,helps to relax the neck and shoulder muscles and to improve the blood supply to the eyes: and is best practised whilst standing up. Relax your neck and gently swing your neck from side to side , backward and forwards in a gentle relaxed and rhythmical way.

It cam help to put on relaxing music whilst doing these exercises, also to gain the most out of them ,they need to be done regularly; at least once a day.

The above exercises are the current reccomendations , however , back in the early part of the last century their ideas were totally different , but very easy to apply and ,as beneficial to the eye.

Bathe the eyes frequently with warm water, not hot or cold.

Always read or work with the light falling over your shoulder on to the book or whatever you are looking at.

This one is different Keep a bit of green material by your side - and just look at it for a few seconds if your eyes get tired.

It is a good plan to vary the distance at which you are looking. When doing close work rest your eyes by looking at something further away for a while, and visa versa. By doing this your eyes will benefit from the change and be rested.

100 years ago , it was held that the sight would be strengthened , if the forehead ,just above the eyebrows, is bathed two or three times a day with ice cold water, but the eyes themselves must not be bathed.

To improve your eyesight and having committed yourself to the above , it is also well worth remembering that your eyes need also to be nourished properly.

The foods your eyes need the most

fresh fruit, vegetables and high fibre foods [wholemeal bread, nuts] and to cut down on fatty foods, sugar and salt.