by Musa Bala | Mar 9, 2022 | Health & Wellness
“The eyes are windows to our souls, seeing believes”. I’m sure you must’ve heard these phrases or any other of the many phrases that have to do with how important our eyes are. While eyes are a very important part of a person, protecting and taking care of them is the utmost. Beyond making use of proper prescription glasses for eye care, they are quite a good number of ways you can improve eyesight; no surgery, no implant.
How to Improve Eyesight Without Glasses
Some simple but effective activities that almost everyone can do are known to protect and improve our eyesight. They are:
1. Maintain a Good Diet
While feeding well cannot cure any eye condition, some certain foods have a positive impact on your eyesight amongst the many benefits of a healthy diet.
You must’ve heard that carrots are healthy for your eyes, this is because carrots contain nutrients such as vitamins and carotenoids. Vitamin A, C, E, and mineral Zinc are known to protect the macula that is responsible for central vision from deterioration. These vitamins and minerals are found in foods such as spinach, broccoli, strawberries, carrot, sweet potato, citrus fruits, and foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, like salmon.
2. Stay Fit
Maintaining a healthy body involves taking care of your eyes. Exercising doesn’t only help you maintain a healthy weight, it also improves your eyesight. Type 2 diabetes which is more associated with being overweight or obese causes diabetic retinopathy which damages the tiny blood vessels in our eyes. This causes the back part of the eye to bleed, thereby harming our eyesight.
When you exercise frequently, you reduce the sugar level in your blood and as such reduce your risk of being diabetic which can lead to diabetic retinopathy.
3. Manage Other Chronic Health Challenges
Apart from diabetes, they are other chronic conditions like multiple sclerosis and high blood pressure that can cause defects in our eyesight. These conditions typically cause chronic body inflammation which can affect any part of the body, the eye inclusive. Inflammation of the eye is known as optic inflammation which causes pain in the eye and might even lead to loss of vision.
High blood pressure can be effectively treated with antihypertensive medications, a healthy diet, and regular exercise. However multiple sclerosis can’t be prevented but can be managed with proper medication and healthy habits.
4. Practice Good Hygiene
Practicing good hygiene helps improve eyesight without glasses. Good hygiene is important in preventing eye infections. It is important to make sure you wash your hands thoroughly before handling contact lenses and touching your eyes. When you need to clean or replace contact lenses, make sure to always follow the manufacturer’s or doctor’s instructions.
It is also advised not to make use of eye makeup products that have been open for more than three months as old makeup products increase the risk of contracting an eye infection.
5. Quit Smoking
Most people know smoking is bad for our lungs and heart but do not know it also affects our hair, eyes, teeth, skin, and just about every other part of the body. People who smoke frequently are at high risk of developing cataracts and mucular detoriation of the eye. This is a result of the inflammation caused by smoking which affects our blood vessels.
6. Reference Your Family’s Eye Health History
Some eye defects are known to be hereditary, so taking account of eye health challenges your parents and grandparents had will help you take necessary precautions and have an understanding of your eye health.
Hereditary eye challenges include:
7. Wear Eye Protection Equipment When Necessary
The eye is a very delicate organ, any little irritation could easily lead to challenges in our vision. When you are playing football, riding a bike, or doing a science experiment in school, it’s important that you make use of the appropriate eyewear to protect your eye.
Anytime there is a risk of exposure to chemicals, sharp objects, dust, or even a finger getting close to your eyes, it is advised that you wear protective eyewear.
8. Take Screen Breaks
Reducing the rate at which we use our computers helps improve eyesight even without glasses. Our eyes work throughout the day, giving it a rest for a while is advised when working on computers or focusing on one thing for an extended period of time to prevent eyestrain or fatigue.
People who spend a lot of time staring at computer monitors or mobile devices may wish to apply the 20-20-20 rule. That means every 20 minutes, you should stop staring at your computer and look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. This exercise can help to reduce eyestrain.
9. Regular Eye Checkup
Taking regular comprehensive dilated eye examinations is the only way you can be sure your eyes are healthy. A comprehensive dilated eye examination can help detect conditions that may affect our eyesight early enough to manage them before they cause serious damage.
10. Sleep Well
Taking a break for a couple of minutes isn’t enough for your eyes to get the required rest. Your eyes require regular, restful sleep.
The benefits of sleep to our health and wellbeing are unquantifiable. Not getting enough sleep can lead to dry, itchy, or bloodshot eyes. The eyes may produce fewer tears after a night of insufficient sleep. This may lead to eye infections. After a day full of intense visual activity such as reading a book or working on a computer, a good night sleep allows our eyes to rest and prevents eyestrain and fatigue.
Conclusion
While you may not attribute simple tasks and intentional actions such as maintaining a healthy diet, washing your hands, exercising, making use of protective eyewear, or practicing good hygiene as factors that can improve your eyesight, they play good roles in maintaining good eyes.
Please note that these ways to improve eyesight without glasses don’t cure any eye defect, however they help in protecting our eyes and taking care of our ability to see.
You could also read on: 10 Surprising Foods That Are Bad for Your Breath (No. 5 Will Shock You)
by Musa Bala | Mar 9, 2022 | Health & Wellness
Extremely stressful events we experience such as being in an accident, watching a loved one die or a natural disaster might have their toll on our physical and mental health as a response to the experience. This response is called “Trauma”. If you’ve experienced such traumatic events, here are signs that you are living with trauma.
Trauma develops when you experience highly stressful or life-threatening events that cause physical, emotional, spiritual, or psychological harm. This leads to feelings of physical threat or extreme fright.
Examples of such traumatic events include:
- Witnessing a death
- Rape
- Domestic abuse
- Physical injury
- Witnessing a natural disaster
- Chronic illness
- A difficult divorce
- War
- Parental abandonment
Trauma can have a long-term effect on the well-being of a person. If symptoms do not decrease, it might be that the trauma has developed into a mental health disorder called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Ptsd).
Types of Trauma
1. Acute Trauma
This trauma develops as a result of a single stressful or life-threatening experience. Examples are accidents or the loss of a loved one.
2. Chronic Trauma
This results from prolonged exposure to extremely stressful events repeatedly. Examples include domestic abuse, bullying, or child abuse.
3. Complex Trauma
This trauma develops as a result of exposure to multiple traumatic events.
4. Vicarious Trauma
Vicarious Trauma also known as secondary trauma, this occurs when an individual develops trauma symptoms from close contact with someone who experienced a traumatic event. Mental health providers, families, and those who provide care to traumatised people are at risk of this form of trauma.
Signs That Show You Are Living With Trauma
The way people respond to trauma is different ranging from mild to severe. There are no obvious signs mostly, but people may have serious emotional reactions.
People tend to use shock and denial to protect themselves from the emotional impact of the event. You may feel numb or detached and chances are you might not feel the intensity of the event immediately.
Once you are past the initial shock and denial, the signs you are living with trauma settle in. These signs are:
1. You Avoid Anything That Reminds You of the Event
When you experience a life-threatening situation, you do everything you cannot feel as you did in the course of the event. You’ll find yourself staying away from the environment, places, people, and things that would remind you of the traumatic event. You shy away from people or activities related to the event.
An example is staying away from the family of a lost spouse or engaging in activities that’ll take your mind off the traumatic experience.
2. You Have Flooding Intrusive Thoughts About the Event
Some people, especially those with highly creative minds recreate the traumatic event over and over in their minds, some experience the event again through repeated nightmares and others can’t get their minds off the event. If you find yourself amongst these, you are exhibiting one of the signs you are living with trauma.
3. You Are Constantly on Edge
Traumatic events make people emotionally vulnerable. And in your effort to prevent yourself from such feelings, you feel unsafe and become paranoid even in normal environments. This makes you struggle to feel safe amongst friends and families.
4. You Feel Disconnected From People Around You
Having gone through something you feel most people around you haven’t experienced makes it difficult for you to communicate with them. You feel they cannot relate to what you are going through and as such withdraw from them, thereby isolating yourself from day-to-day activities.
5. You Try to Stop Thinking About the Event
When you find yourself walking away from a conversation about an event because it is distressing, it might be a sign that you are living with trauma. People who have had a traumatic experience find it difficult to stop thinking about the event yet try to. They try to avoid talking about the event to anyone, including mental health providers.
6. You Have Developed Unhealthy Behaviours to Help With the Negative Feelings
As explained earlier, people who experience traumatic events try to numb the distressing feeling they have as a result of the experience. Some people turn to drugs, alcohol, and even binge-eating in an attempt to do away or reduce the symptoms of the trauma they experience.
7. You Develop Some Physical Symptom
Since trauma occurs as a result of highly stressful events, victim exhibit certain physical symptoms of stress. Fatigue, headaches, digestive symptoms, sweating, and nausea are common physical effects of trauma.
Also, traumatic experience tends to worsen an existing medical condition of people.
8. You Have Difficulty Sleeping/Insomnia
As a result of the repeated nightmares and flashbacks of the traumatic event traumatised people experience, having a healthy sleep becomes difficult. The fear of reliving the traumatic event again while sleeping often leads to anxiety which in turn triggers Insomnia. If you are having difficulty having a good night’s rest as a result of a nightmare about a stressful event you experienced, it is one of the signs you are living with trauma.
9. You Are Having Difficulty Concentrating After a Traumatic Event
The lack of sleep, mental exhaustion as a result of trying to avoid the thoughts of a traumatic event renders traumatised people tired. This exhaustion makes it difficult for you to concentrate on your work, school, family, and your day to day activities.
10. You Experience Emotional Outbursts
Experiencing emotional outburst is one of the signs you are living with trauma. Carrying the constant thoughts of the traumatic experience and not being able to share these thoughts will someone else, leads to emotional outbursts in an attempt to ease the mind of pent-up emotions. These outbursts could be sudden and excessive crying, laughter, or anger.
How Do You Manage Trauma?
They’re many behaviors you could adopt to help with the symptoms of trauma. such behaviours include:
- Spend time with others to help with withdrawal.
- Talk about the traumatic experience with your family, friends, journal, or diary.
- Recognise you can’t control everything.
- Try to eat well, exercise frequently, sleep well and avoid alcohol or drug use.
- Maintain a routine.
All of the above mention behavior adjustments could help with your symptoms. However, it is advised and even more appropriate to reach out to a mental healthcare provider for professional help. Psychologists and other mental health professionals can help you find ways to cope and manage trauma effectively.
Conclusion
At one point or another, some people will experience traumatic events in their lives. Some may respond to it for a short while in the form of shock and distress and can easily recover from it. However, a minority of people will respond to traumatic events for a long term, as in the development of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This involves a lengthy process of recovery.
Understanding the symptoms and signs you are living with trauma, self-care and therapy can help you cope and manage symptoms from a traumatic event and improve your quality of life.
You could also check: 9 Natural Ways to Get Rid of Stomach Ache.
by Musa Bala | Feb 16, 2022 | Health & Wellness
Sexual Transmitted Diseases popularly abbreviated as STDs are diseases transmitted through sexual contact, caused by bacteria, viruses, or parasites. STDs are often confused with Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), however, they aren’t actually the same thing.
An infection is when bacteria, viruses, or parasites attack the body comes before a disease. And while an infection may result in zero symptoms, a disease usually always comes with clear signs. Now that you know what STDs are, here is everything to know about STDs.
What Causes STDs?
All STDs develop from Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). STIs are often transmitted through sexual contact, including through bodily fluids or skin contact via vaginal, oral, and anal sex.
There’s a good chance you can get an STD if you are sexually active. That chance can be high if you:
- Have unprotected sex
- Don’t use condoms or use them incorrectly
- Keep multiple sex partners
What Are The Symptoms of STDs?
STDs aren’t always asymptomatic or may only develop mild symptoms. It is possible to not know you have it, but still pass it on to others. If there are symptoms, they are not limited to but may include:
- Pain or discomfort during sexual activity or urination
- Sores or rashes in or around the mouth, vagina, penis, testicle, anus, or buttocks
- Unusual discharge or bleeding from the penis or vagina
- Abdominal pain
- Fever
What Are the Types Of STDs?
STDs are serious illnesses to which treatment is utmost. STDs such as HIV can’t be cured and are deadly. By learning everything to know about STDs, you’ll be able to protect yourself from the many types of STDs.
There are over 20 types of STDs, including:
- Chlamydia
- Genital herpes
- Gonorrhea
- HIV/AIDS
- HPV
- Pubic lice
- Pelvic inflammatory disease
- Syphilis
- Trichomoniasis
How Do You Prevent STDs?
Since all STDs develop from STIs, the best way to prevent contracting an STD will be to avoid STIs. And the most effective way to do that will be to avoid sexual contact.
However, they are other ways to make sexual contacts safer, thereby reducing the chances of getting an STI. They are:
- Get tested for STIs often; It is very important when you have new or multiple sex partners.
- Always use condoms, and make use of them properly.
- Talk about sexual health with your sex partner(s) and decide what is comfortable for you.
How Are STDs Treated?
As stated earlier, STDs are caused by bacteria, viruses, or parasites. STDs caused by bacteria or parasites can be treated with antibiotics. Unfortunately, there is no cure for STDs caused by viruses, but the symptoms can be managed with drugs, thereby lowering the risk of spreading the infection.
Some STDs such as HPV and hepatitis B can also be prevented with the use of vaccines.
Common Myths about STDs You Should Avoid
So much misinformation gets passed around STDs. You do need to stay informed and learn what’s true and what’s not. Here is some of the most common misinformation around STDs:
1. Only “Trashy” People Get STDs
The first thing to know about STDs is that they do not discriminate. Anyone can get them, whether you are poor, rich, a professor, a religious scholar, even someone just having sex for the first time. The best way to prevent STDs is to stay away from any sexual contact.
When you decide to have sex, always use a condom.
2. STDs Have a Certain Look
STDs don’t always develop symptoms. But it is possible to carry and spread an infection even if you feel completely healthy. People with STDs might not know they have them. Even professional medical doctors can’t tell if someone has an STD by just looking, they have to carry out tests to ascertain that.
Read: This Is What You Need to Know About Rh Factor.
In addition, even when you and your partner feel healthy, you should go for a medical check-up before having sexual relations.
3. STDs Can’t Be Transmitted through Oral and Anal Sex
This is likely the most shared misinformation around STDs. The same bacteria or viruses that cause STDs can get into the body through tiny cuts in the mouth and the anus, as well as the penis and vagina. Some STDs can spread through just skin contact with an infected area such as herpes or genital warts.
4. You Can’t Get STD More Than Once
Most people think that once they’ve had an STD and treated it, there’s no chance they’ll get infected by that same STD again. This is so not true. Some STDs such as herpes and HIV are yours for life.
Some like gonorrhoea and chlamydia can be treated but you may get infected again when you have sexual relations with someone infected.
5. If You’ve Been Tested STD-Free, Your Partner Is STD-Free Too
Just as stated earlier, STDs can be asymptomatic, people might have an STD and do not know it. It is advised that when you get tested as STD-free, encourage your partner to guttered too. Or better still, get tested together. No one will want to be tested free from STD only to get it from their partner.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About STDs
Q: Am I at risk of an STD?
A: If you’re or you’ve had vaginal, anal, or oral sex you are at risk of being infected by an STD. Some STDs can be passed through sexual interactions and plays that do not involve intercourse. STDs affect people of all backgrounds, races, and economic levels.
Q: Shouldn’t I only get tested when I have a new sex partner?
A: No! You should get tested for STDs at least once a year. However, if you engage in high-risk sexual activities such as frequent change of sex partners, sex with multiple people, or unprotected sex, it is advised you get tested every three to six months.
Q: I have been diagnosed with an STD, what should I do?
A: Once you’ve been diagnosed with an STD, the first thing to do is not to panic, as it doesn’t help in any way. Contact your health care provider immediately for treatment. It is strongly advised that you notify your sex partner(s) so they could get tested also. This will reduce the risk of you being re-infected after successful treatment. You and all of your sex partners must avoid sex until treatment is complete and all symptoms have disappeared.
In the case of STDs caused by viruses such as HIV, genital herpes, and hepatitis which have no cure, special care and measures can help control the infection and maximize health.
Q: Can an STD lead to cancer?
A: STDs increase a person’s risk for several types of cancer. Some high-risk types of human papillomavirus (HPV) are known to be cervical cancer in women and penile cancers in men. HPV can also cause cancers of the mouth, throat, and anus in both men and women.
Viral hepatitis B and C has have been associated with liver cancer, and untreated HIV/AIDS increases might lead to several types of rare cancers, such as lymphomas, sarcomas, and cervical cancer.
Q: Do STDs cause infertility?
A: Infertility is linked to STDs mostly when they are left untreated. Whereas gonorrhoea and chlamydia can be easily cured, however, when left untreated they could lead to Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) which can cause chronic pelvic pain, ectopic pregnancy (pregnancy outside of the uterus), and infertility in women. In men, they might lead to epididymitis, which causes painful urination and fever.
Conclusion
Symptoms of STDs can be mild or severe, either way. STDs are serious illnesses that if left untreated can develop into serious health complications. Many STDs can be treated but not all of them can be cured, although the symptoms can be managed.
After learning everything to know about STDs, it is important to note that the best way to avoid STDs is not to have sex, if you do; use a condom and get tested regularly. Early detection and treatment of STDs are an advantage in maintaining your sexual health.
