About 90% of vision loss can be prevented or treated. So what can you to do avoid eye damage, and what are just the inevitable ravages of age?
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The eyes are “the lamp of the body” according to the Bible; if they are healthy, the body is full of light, and if they are not, there is darkness.
Literally and metaphorically, it’s on the money. Our eyesight is one of the most important ways with which we interact with the world, and it interacts with us. We take our eyesight for granted, which is why it comes as such a shock when it starts to let us down.
“Blindness is a very scary disability,” says Prof Lauren Ayton, deputy director of the Centre for Eye Research Australia at the University of Melbourne. “But people don’t realise actually about 90% of vision loss can be prevented or treated.” And like many other problems, keeping the eyes healthy so often comes down to good diet, keeping active, and regular check-ups.
