To keep your eyes healthy, follow the suggestions given here under:
Splash water on your face and eyes immediately on getting up early in the morning. Thereafter sip in mouthful of water and hold it ballooning your cheeks. Splash your eyes once again with cool water, about 10 or 15 times. Then let go your cheeks, forcing water out of the mouth in flush-clean-act. Close your eyes then for a few seconds and dry them with gentle squeeze of palm-pressure. This exercise will create a cooling and soothing sensation in eyes. The whole lot of this sequence, at times, may be repeated for better effect.
Walking barefoot on grass, especially dew sprinkled grass is always an energising experience.
In course of day’s work, closing your eyes a while, between intervals, helps relax eye muscles and improve vision.
It isn’t advisable to fix gaze on a point while reading. Rather, your eyes should always be gliding, from one point to another. While writing too, your eyes should follow the tip of your pen. Ditto while you sew or stitch. Your eyes then should move with needle work.
On your study at night, the light should fall on your table from behind your left shoulder. And the study material should be kept about a foot away from eye-level.
Keep your chin slightly raised as you sit watching television. This would keep your upper eye lids down. Take care that you watch TV at least from a distance of 3 metres.
Moon watching at night is advisable as it cools your eyes. Avoid working in direct sunlight during the day. Because scorching sunlight can destroy Vitamin A which is indispensable for good eyesight. Gazing at stars and moon during the night not only enlivens your eyes, it also makes you reflect philosophically and broaden your mental horizon.
Do nasal irrigation (Jalneti), full body massage, selective mild message for eyes apart from taking your regular refreshing bath. Exercise neck muscles by rotating them in differnt directions. That incidently is beneficial for your eyes as well. Yogasana like ‘Pran Mudra’ are also advisable.
Wash your eyes with rose water. Way to do this is vide a flat receptacle filled with rose water. Unto that the eyes are dipped and rotated from corner to corner. At times eyes should also be washed with ‘triphala’ water.
Wet sand poultice in a thin muslin cloth, tied to eyes, is another exercise for cooling and refreshing your eyes—and bettering your eye sight.
For improving your overall vitality, and flow of life energy, here are some tips that make a difference:
1. Rub basal digits of 2nd and 3rd fingers of both of your hands.
2. With the tip of middle finger rub lower points of both the eyes, albeit gently.
3. Massage bone surface palpable around eye ball with thumb pressure. Gradually increase diameter to include muscles around eyebrows and forehead.
Exercise for lustrous eyes
Eyes are a premium endowment of nature to human beings. Ergo, keeping them in good health is critically important. Your eyes too need food, rest and exercise to pull through ordeal of travel-reading, inapt study posture, sitting too close to idiot box, and perusals in artificial light.
Eyes are mirror of a person’s total health profile and are visibly impacted with malnutrition, tension and such like factors.
To keep eyes in sound health, you ought to get into the habit of focussing them in myriad ways and relax them intermittently while doing so.
As you get used to above said exercise, you tend to focus right at one point. This however, needs to be avoided.
To move your glance (eyes thereby) with ease, it is necessary to blink in quick succession as that helps lubricate eyes as also increase circulation of blood in eye tissues. At times your eyes got tired, swollen and rubric. This indicates a paucity of oxygen, what with instant relief coming in just as to take a deep breath. That, obviously, is also the treatment of aforesaid ailment. Cataract and a host of other eye diseases can be prevented by including adequate amount of Beta carotene, Vitamin B, C and E in regular diet. Exercises given here below may also be tried for toning up your eyes.
Sit erect on chair resting your elbows on table for added comfort. Bend palm surfaces in cup-shape, and let them cover eyes balls, without any actual contact between the two. Position your finger snugly to make sure that no light penetrates through inverted hand-cups to strike eyes. All the same—shut your eye lids. Do this relaxing exercise for a few seconds intermittently.
Close your left eye with your left hand, and read half a page with the right eye. Then switch sides, and covering right one, read rest half of the page with left (open) eye.
Having operated each eye individually, you experience better vision when the two are simultaneously engaged.
Throw up a coloured ball with your right hand and catch it by your left. Glide your eyes all along the air-route of ball. Repent this exercise with left hand.
Keeping trunk straight, rotate your head, as well as eyes, in same rhythm.
Don’t fix your gaze, nor stare hard, but let your eyes sail gracefully—and rest them fulsome at a point after completing the required rotation. Let head rotate from one end of the neck to the other with perfect each. All this while, keep eyes in same straight plane as the bridge of nose.
Diabetes impacts your eyes too
Diabetes is one such disease which if diagnosed in the nick of time not only saves one from damage to myriad body organs, but also, if harm is already done—it can be minimised substantially. Senior consultant at Apollo Hospital New Delhi, Dr. S.K. Vangu D.M. (Endocrinology) opines that diabetes has deleterious effect on ace orgens like eyes, kidneys and nervous system—very directly. Ergo, the moment this disease is diagnosed, one should exercise utmost caution.
Regarding how eyes are effected in diabetes, Dr. Vangu says: if a man is diabetic and yet not diagnosed and treated in time, the retina of his eyes in adversely affected. This effect is called diabetic retinopathy. It is characterised by bleeding, plaque formation, inflamation and even bursting of blood vessels of this photosensitive layer. Apart from these eyes fluids many be tainted with blood and retina may even dislodge from its natural position.
These developments pave way for formation of cataract—while or black. Black cataract means permanent blindness. Albeit, if diagnosed early, treatment of cataract in facilitated.
There is a particular spot on retinal membrane, known as ‘Macula’. Significantly, this site too bears the brunt of blood-sugar disease, and consequently a person may loose his eye sight suddenly—at any point of time.
No wonder, principal cause of blindness amongst adults, even in developed countries, is diabeties only.
Lest diabetes encroaches on to your pair of eyes insidiously, get your eyes tested at least once in a year, because only a doctor can make out whether your eyes are safe or not. The diagnostic procedure applied for this purpose is called ‘flourescent angiography’.
By way of above test if it comes to light that retina is impacted, damage control measures can be initiated by way of appropriate treatment. Treatment by laser, in such cases, has been reported to be extremely beneficial.
This above treatment consists of burning the effected area of retina with the help of laser rays so that not only is the rupture of blood vessels thwarted, but, even sepage of blood in eye fluids is saved. At times a diabetic on his own experiences vague symptoms like pain in eyes, cloudiness, split images or a sudden loss in acuty of vision. If this happen at any point of time, eyes should immediately be got tested.
Diagnosed timely, retinal damage can be controlled successfully. Otherwise situation may go out of control. Retinal problems, by and large, are more common in diabetic patients. Generally speaking, these menifest after 10 to 15 years of the beginning of higher disease. But at times they may strike within two to three years, or even lesser times period, and in that case, it is on account of genetic factors.
Researches are underway to shield eyes from illeffects of diabetes. Hopefully some prophylactic vaccines, available in course of time, may help check retinitis in diabetic men and women.
Few other tips for healthy eyes
1. Sit upright, rub your palms and press them on eyes. Feel and visualise the pitch dark that follows. Take care that your palms are loose on contact area so that eyes aren’t encumbered. Now try fantasizing some black object or a black target point. Thereafter relax your facial and eye muscles. Take a deep breath and autosuggest : my hands and feet are relaxed and comfortable. In a span of 4-5 minutes only, you will feel all your stress and strains melt away. Do this drill at dawn or dusk, whichever convenient.
2. Keep both eyes open. Make a lead pencil stand vertically in right hand palm and take it to a distance of 2 to 2½ feet from body line. Now focus gaze on upper tip of distant pencil—and very gradually bring it closer to body line without wavering focus on target. When too close to body line, and focus of vision falters (Pencil appears hazy), immediately increase distance—taking it to same level of 2 to 2½ ft from body line. Then repeat the entire exercise all over again.
3. For a few moments try focussing gaze at the centre of two eyebrows, then for a minute on tip of nose. Thereafter rotate eyeballs—first clockwise—then anticlockwise—each for a minute. Follow this with quick blinking of eye lids—opens and shuts lasting a minute each. Lastly, look to left with left eye—then to up and to down; repeating these very steps with the right eye. If you do this regime even once in a week, rest assured you will up your eyesight.
Your health in hot summers
Spell of summers by Christian calender lasts from April to August-September. But from Ayurvedic point of view, summer is at synging best in Jyeshtha and Aasadh—the 2 months by Hindu calender. Accordingly summer season is deemed to last from 23rd of May to 20th of June. Following this spell comes the rainy season.
In summer months hot and dry winds remain in vogue. All four directions seem synging what with earth surface bearing the brunt of red hot sun. Ponds and streams go dry. Plant and shrubs shrink with dehydration. Hot dusty winds sweep whole day long. During summers human vitality is at its lowest scale. Even moderate work proves tiring. Even resistence of diseases touches a all time low during summers.
Here it is worthwhile to ensure that your eating and living are in vibe with needs and requirements of summer season.
Your food in summers should be light, easily digestible and fresh. Use more of liquid and succulent food items. These help replenish loss of body fluids and overcome dehydration which is common in summer months. Cool (not ice cool), salt peppered and sweetened drinks, juices etc are equally good.
Since digestive system in hot season is at its low ebb, you would do well to exercise moderation in eating. Rice, barley, wheat and jowar chapatis may be taken with pulses and vegetables prepared with minimal use of spices. Whey, curd and salad made of onion and cucumber are good adjuncts to regular meal. Sweatmeats made of pumpkin (petha) are beneficial in summer months. Sauces made from coriander, mint and onion should also be used.
In summers it is advisable to skip breakfasts and go straight for the main course meals. As far as possible, avoid fried and hard-to-digest stuffs like paranthas, pakori and sweetmeat made of mawa (milk product). When thirsty, don’t go for ice which in any case doesn’t really quench your thirst. Helpings of Watermelon, Muskmelon, Grapes, Papaya, Orange, Mango, Leechi, Pomegranates, Cucumber, Bengal quink (Bel) should be taken as often as possible. Sweet drinks made out of rose, khus, sandalwood and almond are advised.
Roasted barley flour (sattu), tamarind, and roasted mango seed are also good summer drinks. A mixture of indigenous herb ‘harar’ 6 gms and gur 6 gms also works as an excellent cooling and energising pop.
Summers are a veritable blow to human stamina. Hence excess of physical labour should be avoided. If you have to move out in blazing sun, make sure you cover your head from direct sun rays. White cotton apparels are best for summers. Sipping of cool water at frequent intervals is recommended. Venturing out of home on an empty stomach not-advisable. So also gulping of water immediately on returning home from scorching afternoons. When leaving home for errand, do so after drinking a glassful of cool water. A brief nap of 2-3 hours is recommended during the day time. Late night activity should be avoided. So also for sex— limit this to bare minimum—total abstinence too is advisable.
Summer season syndromes
Heat-stroke : This disease is characterised by high fever and throbbing headache. For treatment of problem camphor inhalation is advised. Also, use of sauce made from onion and mint. Oral rehydration solution (ORS sugar and common salt mixed in water) sipped frequently, work wonders. Syrup made from onion juice, tamarind and mango may be used as cool and energising drink. At the same time cold cotton packs may be applied on patient’s forehead.
Vomiting and Loose motions : When a person is gripped by these two, dehydration (loss of water from body) automatically follows. To check diarrhoea and vomiting, paste of mint, onion and common salt (for licking) and use of boiled water (for frequent sipping) are advised. ORS may be prepared by adding 2 gms of common salt in 50 gms of sugar—and give spoonfuls of it to the patient at regular intervals.These remedies apart, consulting a Doctor very promptly is important. Equipped with this knowledge, you can guard your health against summer time syndromes with ease and elan.
