“AMD is one of the most common causes of vision loss among seniors and those over 50 years old. It affects central vision, which is important for driving, reading and seeing faces”, said Leslie Doctor, M.D., a Fairfield County Ophthalmologist with offices in Norwalk, Westport & Wilton, CT. Participants of the study were composed of about 4,000 women and men who were followed for more than 15 years, conducting eyes tests and recording their levels of exercise. They were aged 43 to 86 and were assessed every five years starting in 1988. Considering other factors like age, weight, and blood fat levels, those participants who were active lowered their chances in developing AMD by up to 70% when compared to those who barely had any exercise. Those who regularly walk were found to have lowered their chances to 30%.
But how much exercise is enough? The U.S. Department of Agriculture has recommended 90 minutes every day. This should be enough if you have an active job or walk during the say but would probably require you to do more if you have a sedentary lifestyle. It may help if you wear a pedometer, just to know how much you are walking. You can also try other forms of exercise such as cycling, golf, gardening, swimming, and other sports activities. Cleaning your house can even be of great help.
So how much does exercise to help eye health? It is a little too hard to tell exactly how exercise exactly affects eye health but here are some facts to give you some idea:
- Exercise can lower eye pressure helping to reduce the risk of glaucoma.
- Exercise can help prevent half of the cases of type 2 diabetes, a known risk for significant vision loss from diabetic retinopathy.
- Exercise improves the health of the cardiovascular system by lowering triglycerides and increasing HDL levels. Macular degeneration has been known to be caused by some factors of heart disease.
- Exercise can make us less likely to perform risk taking activities which can damage our health as well as that of others.
Doctor & Associates is a leading Fairfield County Connecticut eye care practice providing eye examinations for adults and children, cataract surgery and intraocular lens implants (IOL), laser vision correction such as LASIK, diagnosis and treatment of cornea disease including cornea transplants, diagnosis and management of diseases of the retina including diabetes and age related macular degeneration and diagnosis and treatment of glaucoma as well as contact lenses, eyeglasses and optical services. For those patients in need of eye surgery, as a founding member of the Wilton Surgery Center, Doctor & Associates eye surgeons are able to provide eye surgery in a convenient, close to home and cost effective ambulatory surgery center.
Whatever your eye care, eye health or vision correction needs might be-Doctor & Associates can serve as a Connecticut ophthalmic consultant and will be conveniently located for patients from Fairfield County and southern Connecticut including Danbury, Stamford, Greenwich, Westport, Weston, Wilton, New Canaan, Norwalk, Fairfield, Bridgeport, Cannondale, Aspetuck, Redding, Trumbull, Shelton, Monroe, Darien, Glenbrook and Ridgefield Connecticut.
