Protect Your Eyes with Regular Exercise | Healthy Aging Month 

​In our first post for Healthy Aging Month, we looked at the role of diet and nutrition in healthy aging eyes. Exercise is another important lifestyle choice that can help us maintain our eye health and site as well. In this post, we’ll take a look at how.
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Exercise & Eye Health

We all know the importance of regular exercise to our overall health. But do you know how important regular exercise to our eye health? 

Our eye health is linked to our general health, and many health problems, such as cardiovascular disease (including high blood pressure and high cholesterol) and diabetes, are linked with eye health issues. Keeping our bodies and our cardiovascular systems healthy can contribute significantly to eye health and healthy aging eyes.
 
With that in mind, we can see why exercise that’s good for our overall health is also good for our eye health and vision. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), “It makes sense that your eyes would receive the same benefit that the rest of your body does when you exercise… Exercise can help keep these problems [high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes] at bay or limit their impact if they do occur.”
 
According to research sited by AAO, exercise helps our eyes in three important ways:

1. Moderate physical exercise can help reduce the risk of developing glaucoma by 25 percent, and regular, moderate-intensity, low-impact exercise can help people who already have the disease to manage their condition. Regular, moderate exercise can lower intraocular pressure (IOP) and improve blood flow within the eye.
2. Regular exercise three or more times per week can decrease the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD) as compared to no exercise and inactivity.
3. Exercise can help keep chronic diseases like diabetes under control, which can reduce the risk of complications, such as vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy (diabetic eye disease).

 
That’s pretty clear. But does exercise help in other ways? It seems so. Research cited by the Cleveland Clinic reports that brisk walking and running / jogging performed regularly may be associated with decreased risk of developing age-related cataracts. Similar to research related to inactivity and risk of developing glaucoma and AMD, the research on exercise and cataracts shows that a lack of physical activity or a sedentary lifestyle could be associated with an increased risk of developing this common age-related eye condition.
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Tips for Getting Regular Exercise

There’s an abundance of information about exercise available online. We’ll offer a few tips below. As always, please consult with both your primary care physician (PCP) about appropriate exercise (type, amount, level, etc.), particularly if you’re just beginning a new exercise regimen, you have any sort of conditions (cardiovascular disease, orthopaedic injury, diabetes, etc.) that should be actively managed by a healthcare professional while exercising, or you have any questions about your overall health and exercise.

1. Make exercise a priority in your day-to-day life and a part of your regular routine so it becomes automatic.
2. Aim to carve out 30 minutes out of your day for exercise three or more times per week.
3. Track and celebrate your progress if you’re striving for a particular goal or milestone, like reaching a certain distance or weight.
4. Make exercise feel less like a chore and more like a lot of fun by participating in activities you enjoy, like dancing, gardening, bowling, biking, roller skating, or yoga.
5. Find a friend or loved one to join you, either as a way to spend time together or as a partner to make each other accountable.
6. Take a walk in a park or along the water to get some fresh air while you’re being active. Exercise doesn’t mean you have to go for a run or head to the gym for a workout. 
7. Use household chores like cleaning and yard work to supplement your fun activities and increase your overall amount of physical activity.
8. Join a local walking or running group, look for people with similar interests on websites like MeetUp.com, or take a class (or series of classes) that interests you. 

 
Of course, you can find many more ways to live a physically active lifestyle, like parking farther away, always taking the stairs, or taking your dog for regular walks, online. Perhaps the best tip we can offer is to get creative and make activity a fun, everyday way of life.
 
If you have questions about lifestyle modifications, exercise, and your eye health or your risk of age-related eye conditions like glaucoma, AMD, and cataracts, please call us to schedule an appointment to discuss ways to ensure your eyes age in a healthy way.
 
So far this month, we’ve looked at the role of diet and nutrition, as well as the role of exercise and activity, in healthy aging eyes. In our next post for Healthy Aging Month, we’ll look at a common condition called Dry Eye Syndrome that can affect our eye health as we age. 
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