Visiting With Your Optometrist Right Away

As a wearer of glasses or contacts, you might feel tempted to latch on to the hope that your eyesight can gradually get better naturally. Since laser correction surgery is often out of reach for the average glasses-wearing patient, this is the only hope you might have one day being glasses (or contacts) free. However, before you get your hopes too high, here is what you need to know about natural vision correction.

Vision can only be corrected naturally under certain conditions.

If you are near-sighted, far-sighted, or if you wear glasses because you have astigmatism, you should know that none of these conditions will self-correct. Postponing or neglecting to wear glasses on the hope to retrain your eyes to see better will not work for patients who wear glasses for these three conditions. At best, your eyesight will not worsen, but you strain your eyes by trying to focus on things that you cannot see clearly. 

Some people report having better vision as they age, but unfortunately, this is just a temporary improvement as the lens of the eye begins to harden. For a short time, the hardening lens will act similar to how a contact works -- bending the light to make it easier to see far distances. But, as the hardening continues, the window of clearer sight closes. 

Some types of conditions can improve with natural care.

However, all hope is not quite lost. For example, some people who suffer from double vision or who have hard time focusing on fast-moving objects (convergence insufficiency) can benefit from doing eye exercises that will eventually bring an improvement to eyesight and therefore reduce dependence on corrective lenses. 

Your lifestyle choices can help prevent your vision from worsening. 

If you are concerned about your eyesight getting worse, however, you can still be proactive about keeping your eyes healthy and your vision as good as it can be under the circumstances. Try:

• eating an eye-supportive diet. Plenty of fruits and vegetables (especially dark green and organic varieties), as well food rich in omega-3 fatty acids, can help stave off conditions like macular degeneration that will make your eyesight go from bad to worse. 
• take frequent breaks from your computer screen. Looking at screens strains the eyes, which is why your eyes start to feel itchy and tired and your head starts to hurt when you've been binge-watching Netflix on your laptop for five hours at a time. Also, try not to get to close to the screen, as it forces your eye muscles to focus too long on something that is more difficult to see. You will see an acceleration in your worsening vision if you're not smart with screen time.

For more information on training and self-correcting your vision, talk to your optometrist.