By covering the basics of eye care and increasing your awareness of prevention issues, you demonstrate that maximizing vision has become your priority. Using UV-rated sunglasses when under the sun means a bit more than a “cool look” for you or your children. Consulting a professional for a thorough eye exam (both at regular intervals and promptly if you experience vision problems) becomes second nature. The importance of diet, taking control of preventable stress and cardiovascular health should be part of your vision strategy.What if everybody was this aware? What results could you reasonably expect over a lifetime. The main benefits would be to the overall and lifetime health of you and your family. We would not expect a big dent to be made in the statistics for the health of the nation. It would take a big awareness campaign to achieve this.

In industrialized countries, many of the most severe threats to eyesight are no longer epidemic. At the same time, our concern regarding preventable vision loss remains, and efforts to defeat vision loss worldwide have not lagged. We should realize, however, that wherever social, economic and health standards have reached modern standards, there has been a shift in needs and a necessity to adopt the most advanced modern prevention strategies possible. Your personal prevention strategy should be geared to this shift if you live in a place where the minimum healthcare standards have already been met or surpassed.

Worldwide, national and international organizations led by eye doctors and specialists to prevent blindness number more than can be listed here. The International Council of Ophthalmology along with the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness have led the way to coordinate efforts with the World Health Organization. But the challenge is great. What can individuals do in their own family to improve their eye health?

Basically, you must work to develop eye awareness among family members as early as possible. Eyesight is also a tool for growth. Pre- and school-age children with vision difficulties should be treated and their vision corrected so they can get up-to-speed quickly.

Vision-aware people also prepare so they can enjoy their retirement. Maintaining your personal optimum vision is a quality-of-life issue at any age.

By maintaining a good diet and maximizing our health status throughout our middle years, we put the best chances for success at maintaining good vision on our side.

Medical researchers are now following the visual health of large numbers of people over many years. The most recent findings reinforce the basic health program we are calling vision awareness.

Neglecting personal health needs (even over the short term) could limit the potential benefits of a long-term prevention program. This is especially true for children and seniors who are not completely autonomous. Every one of us would like to have those around us be sensitive to our individual needs, never taking them for granted.

CVS affects vision and body muscles
Two or three hours per day at a computer, whether at the office or at home, can lead to:

• blurred vision
• eyestrain
• neck, shoulder and back strain
• fatigue and general malaise

A person who works at a screen and has one of these symptoms has a form of CVS (unless there is another medical condition at play). Even if the computer is being used as a video-game or multi-media entertainment device the same strains on vision and the rest of the body can and often do occur. CVS has been recognized by the American Optometric Association as a significant disability affecting millions. Vision is not the only thing affected, which is why computer vision syndrome has the word “syndrome” in its name. Discomfort is felt in the muscles of the neck and shoulders, as well as the wrists and lower arm. But the eyes, and the visual “menu” they are exposed to by the computer environment ? play a central role in causing and, if care is taken, preventing CVS.