For people without vision problems, eye care is probably the last thing they pay attention to.
"We use our eyes from the moment we open them to the moment they are closed. They just work for us like our hearts," says Sarah Maling, a fellow at the Royal College of Ophthalmologists.
"But when we run, our heart beats faster and we eventually slow down. Unlike the heart, we don't stop looking just because our eyes get tired.
"And we rarely think to inspect them."
- "I see things that aren't there - but I'm not crazy"
- Rest your eyes while you have to work from home due to corona
- Walking 5.000 steps a day is enough to improve your health
That's what the World Sight Day organization wants to change.
"We want to inform as many people as possible that it is very important to take care of your eyes and know where to get eye care," says Peter Holland, Director General of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB).
BBC journalist Lucy Owen recently wrote about how a routine check-up saved her eyesight.
Lucy has been wearing contact lenses since she was 16.
Now in her fifties, she noticed in June that she began to have occasional strong flashes in her right eye.
"It didn't happen often, maybe once or twice a day and, although it was a little unusual, I didn't rush to get checked.
"As my 52nd birthday approached, I just rolled my eyes and thought it must be just another joy of getting older."
She says that she did not visit the opticians as regularly as she should have and often forgot about her regular annual check-up.
But as the flashes continued, she finally went to get her eyes checked and that's when the optometrist discovered that the retina in her right eye was in the process of detaching and that the flashes were a sign.
Lucy underwent emergency surgery on her right eye.
The surgery took about 40 minutes and she was in and out of the hospital within hours.
"I had to spend the next week lying on my side and then I just had to be patient and wait for my vision to return to normal."
Her vision gradually improved over the following months.
And now she has returned to her regular hosting job.
"I keep thinking about how lucky I was. How lucky I was that I went to the optician right when I did and that he was able to react so quickly."
But access to expert eye care and quality eye health services like Lucy Owen's may not be available to people in poorer countries.
This is one of the problems that World Sight Day wants to highlight this year.
Peter Holland believes there is a need for national plans and policies related to eye health and care, especially in low- and middle-income economies.
Holland adds: "Increasingly we want to make sure that eye health is actually included in national health plans, that it's not out there on its own, but that it's properly integrated into overall health policy and planning, so that you then have access to the resources that are available to you." needed."
- Brain fog after covid is caused by blood clots, research has shown
- Protein powders: Are they bad for health?
- Research has shown that those who pick their nose are more likely to be infected with the corona virus
About 2,2 billion people worldwide have some form of visual impairment or blindness, and more than 1,1 billion suffer from untreated or treatable ailments, according to a 2023 report by the International Labor Organization (ILO).
"Unless there is major investment in preventive action, these numbers are projected to rise, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, and in indigenous and remote communities."
The IAPB also wants to highlight the role everyone can play in making eye care a priority in the workplace, which is the theme of this year's World Sight Day.
The ILO estimated that in 2020, approximately 13 million working-age people globally lived with some visual impairment resulting from their professions.
"These workplace-related vision impairments are the third most common causal factor for vision-related conditions," it says.
Workplace eye hazards include, according to the report, exposure to visible and invisible light spectrums such as ultraviolet or infrared radiation, "which can cause cataracts" in all outdoor workers such as those in agriculture, construction or fishing.
The report also states: "Appropriate protective equipment is required for workers who are at risk of mechanical injury, such as flying particles striking or penetrating the eye at high speed or under high temperature."
And last but not least, there is a problem that is quite unique to modern workers: eye strain in front of a computer screen.
"People often maintain a static distance between their eyes and the screen, which causes the eye musculature to maintain a relatively constant curvature," the report says.
"These static computer usage habits can lead to a host of eye and vision problems."
How to fix vision at no extra cost:
- Think of your eyes on your birthday and take care of them that day
- Take this test to test your eye health: watch a well-known scene with both eyes open; cover one eye and watch the scene again; then do the same with the other eye. If there is any significant difference, it could be a sign that you should seek professional help
- If you have children under the age of seven and you don't have access to eye care, just tell them to look into the distance and check that they see well in both eyes; you could recognize problems such as amblyopia, which is reduced vision in children, and seek help for it
- Don't forget that prevention is key to eye health
Advice from Sarah Malin of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists
You may also be interested in this story:
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter i Viber. If you have a topic proposal for us, contact us at bbcnasrpskom@bbc.co.uk
Bonus video:
