Eyesight: What Your Mother Always Told You Versus the Truth

Chances are either you, your family members, or a friend of yours wears glasses or contacts. If this is true, chances are also very high that you have probably been exposed to some of the common myths surrounding the topic of eyesight. There are numerous beliefs about common everyday activities being the cause of weakened eyes. However, most of this information is not correct.

You have most likely heard someone tell you not to read in the dark because it will hurt your eyes and you will end up needed glasses. The truth is, you may get a headache from straining your eyes and having to work harder to read the words on the page, but this will not weaken your eyesight.

The same is true for sitting too close to the television. If you sit close enough, you may develop a headache, but your eyes will not be weaker because of it. Years ago, television sets emitted damaging radiation, and therefore TVs were capable of causing harm to eyes. These days, televisions are no longer made that way and therefore, cannot hurt your eyes.

Another common myth is that if you hold off getting glasses and continue straining your eyes, you will cause you eyesight to become even worse. This is also incorrect. Again, you may develop an uncomfortable headache and your eyes may feel strained or dry, but you cannot make your eyes weaker in this way. The same applies to people who think overusing their eyes can cause eye weakness. Whether they are referring to watching too much television, reading for a long period of time, or staring at a computer screen all day, none of these things will physically change the strength of your eyes.

Many people also believe that once you start wearing glasses, your vision will gradually get worse over time. Those that believe this are confusing weakness with perception. What really occurs that makes people think their eyes got worse is that before they got glasses, they saw the world from the blurry perspective their eyesight allowed them to see it at. Even though this was so, they were still able to get around and do what they had to do because they were used to it and adapted to it. After they got glasses, they saw clearly and adapted to this new view or perspective of the world around them.

Once they became used to this new world of clear vision, taking their glasses off made everything seem blurry. It was the exact same level of blurriness as before they got their glasses, but because they had become so used to seeing clearly, they perceived the blurriness as much worse than before. Now instead of accepting the blurry world as they did prior to using glasses, they accept the clear world and reject the blurry. Therefore, it is solely a mental perceptual issue.

Lastly, do carrots really make your eyes stronger? The answer lies in vitamin A. Carrots contain high levels of beta-carotene, which is converted to vitamin A. This specific vitamin is known to maintain normal vision. Also, one of the leading causes of blindness around the world is a deficiency of vitamin A. Therefore, carrots may not necessarily improve your vision, but they may be able to maintain what vision you do have and prevent it from getting worse.

Source:
http://www.agingeye.net/visionbasics/visionmyths.php