Life after LASIK is generally much easier than life before LASIK (after all, that’s kinda the point!) However, at Stahl, we stress the importance of healthy living to our LASIK patients. Why? Because living a healthy lifestyle leads to healthier eyes, which leads to longer lasting clear vision after LASIK. By reducing your risk of eye disease, you are ensuring you will be enjoying your LASIK results for years to come!
LASIK is a permanent procedure, so there is no way that your LASIK results can be “reversed”. However, with the passage of time, many age-related eye problems can crop up and obscure your once clear vision. By staying healthy and active, you are greatly reducing your risk for common eye diseases like cataracts, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy.
Here are 3 (somewhat easy) ways you can keep your eyes healthy and your vision as clear as possible!
Quit Smoking (Seriously!)
We all know by now how bad smoking is for you and the numerous diseases that have been attributed to it. But many people don’t realize how much smoking can affect your eyes and vision. It’s a lot more than you think. Smoking may not impact your life much while you are young, but it can have a vast impact on your health as you age. Age-related eye conditions increase significantly in people who smoke. If you smoke, expect to see a higher risk of:
- Cataracts
- Uveitis
- Dry Eye Syndrome
- Diabetic Retinopathy
- Macular Degeneration
- Glaucoma
NY state compiled this information on how smoking increases your risk of eye disease and what you can do about it. We recommend you check it out and think twice about picking up that next pack! We understand that smoking is a hard habit to break, but we promise it will be worth it. Read up on some helpful tips to make giving up smoking a little bit easier!
Stay Active
Yes, this is another obvious one. You probably hear every day that your activity level has a clear and definite impact on your health. So it must be true!
Many studies prove that the likelihood of eye disease goes down the more active you are. One such study looked at the medical history of 3,800 people to examine the relationship between age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and activity level. Researchers found that people who exercised three times a week were much less likely to develop AMD than those who didn’t exercise at all.
Other studies have found a link between activity and other diseases like cataracts, glaucoma and other eye diseases that can cause blindness and vision loss. It doesn’t matter if you got LASIK if you lose your vision to another eye disease.
Inactivity also leads to weight gain and obesity, which leads secondary issues like high blood pressure and diabetes. These issues can be compounded even further by causing eye diseases like glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy. It really is a ripple effect.
Other Ways Aging Can Impact LASIK Results
Aging is unavoidable, and although there are things we can do the minimize our risk, eye diseases and vision problems can still happen. One vision problem that remains almost entirely unavoidable is presbyopia.
Presbyopia is not a disease. It a refractive error like myopia, but generally only occurs in people aged 40 and over. Presbyopia affects the natural lens of the eye, making it less flexible, resulting in blurry near vision. Loss of near vision as you age is extremely common, regardless of whether or not you’ve had LASIK. Because LASIK only makes changes to the cornea and not the natural lens, presbyopia can still occur with age. This does not mean your LASIK is “reversing”. There are many treatments available for presbyopia. Surgical implants can offer a permanent solution to the problem, or you can do it the old-fashioned way and pick up some reading glasses.
Here at Stahl Eyecare Experts, we understand that big lifestyle changes are not easy to make. We are here to give advice on how to keep your eyes as healthy as possible and point you in the direction of useful resources to make that happen.
If you are interested in learning more about LASIK and what you can expect from your results as you age, contact Stahl Eyecare Experts in Manhattan or Garden City. Call us to schedule your LASIK consultation in NYC today!
