The eyes have it

Taking care of eyes is not difficult, but it is an everyday job

- Puja Awasthi

India is the ‘blind capital of the world’ due to a high prevalence of avoidable blindness.

Besides loss of vision we also have high rates of moderate to severe vision impairment. Dr Bela Kamboj, our expert for this column attributes a lot of this to ‘pseudo literacy’ about eye health and our penchant for doctor shopping till we find one who is willing to tell us what we want to hear. Regular eye check-ups must figure on our list of health checks, and we must accept changes that come with age and hormones. She also tackles some of the most popular myths and marketing gimmicks about eye care.

Allow the eyes time to self-heal: Not every redness/irritation of the eye is indicative of an infection. Towards the end of last year, many people self-medicated or took drugs on the prescription of chemists to treat ‘eye-flu’. A flu virus always comes back with some genetic modification. This time, it required no treatment and healed within two to three days. But with medication, it took one week to two months. Also, self-medication by antibiotics or steroids caused loss of vision for many. Continued, unsupervised use of such drugs lowers the immunity, could make you more prone to infections and lower your body’s response to the medicine when you really need it.