The human eye is a wondrous factor.
It’s thought-about the physique’s most complex organ after the brain and accommodates over 2 million working components. About 80% of all studying occurs by way of imaginative and prescient.
So how can we maintain our eyes in tip-top situation? And what ought to we by no means do if we wish them to remain as wholesome as potential?
That’s what we — Raj Punjabi and Noah Michelson, the hosts of HuffPost’s “Am I Doing It Wrong?” podcast — requested Dr. Amanda Redfern, an ophthalmologist and assistant professor at Oregon Well being & Science College’s Casey Eye Institute, when she lately dropped by our studio.
″[Sleeping with contact lenses in your eyes] is unhealthy. It’s actual unhealthy. Don’t do it,” Redfern informed us, including that this even applies to naps. “It’s like a sport of Russian roulette.”
That’s as a result of you may get a corneal ulcer, which is an an infection on a part of the attention {that a} contact covers.
“It’s not going to occur each time, however when it occurs, it’s horrible,” Redfern mentioned. “It may be so unhealthy you would, in actually horrible instances, lose your eyeball.”
In much less extreme conditions, Redfern mentioned you would find yourself with a scar in your cornea.
“If that scar is within the middle of your imaginative and prescient, that would have an effect on your imaginative and prescient completely, until you get a corneal transplant,” she mentioned.
Redfern additionally warned us to not have interaction in any exercise that would trigger lenses to grow to be compromised or contaminated, together with swimming in a pool or lake whereas carrying contacts or even showering with them.
“The issue with contact lenses is that it’s going to sandwich micro organism between the lens and your cornea, and you may get contaminated after which have all of the issues we talked about,” she mentioned. “Normally, we frown upon something the place your eye goes to show to one thing nonsterile.”
That features utilizing faucet water to rinse or retailer lenses.
When requested what she would recommend if somebody had been on trip and forgot to convey contact lens resolution, pushing them to decide on between sleeping whereas carrying contacts or utilizing faucet water to retailer them, Redfern refused to choose both selection.
“Each of these are terrible choices,” she mentioned. “I’d moderately you [throw the contacts out] and simply stroll round slightly bit blurry for the weekend.”
One factor Redfern does need us to do to maintain our eyes wholesome? Use eye safety extra recurrently.
“I all the time put on eye safety if I’m doing a home venture the place I’m hammering, sawing — something the place one thing can fly at my eye,” she mentioned. “All the time put on eye safety, as a result of I truly spend half my time seeing hospital consults and the trauma that you simply see is simply loopy.”
If you find yourself getting one thing lodged in your eye, don’t attempt to take away it your self. As a substitute, tape a paper cup over your eye and instantly see a medical skilled.
“Pulling it out in an uncontrolled vogue [could cause] the internal contents of the attention to come back out with it,” Redfern mentioned.
She additionally busted some myths about different actions that could be dangerous or useful for the eyes (spoiler alert — studying in the dead of night isn’t going to smash your imaginative and prescient), why we get floaters (and once we ought to see a health care provider about them), and much extra.
Take heed to the complete episode above or wherever you get your podcasts.
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And for extra from Redfern, check out her Instagram page.
Have a query or want some assist with one thing you’ve been doing improper? Electronic mail us at AmIDoingItWrong@HuffPost.com, and we’d examine the subject in an upcoming episode.
