There are several myths about the eyes and vision that have existed for many years. While these statements may not be entirely true on their own, most have a basis in actual truth. This explains several of the most common eye related myths.
Myth #1: Eating Carrots Will Improve Your Eyesight
This myth is based in a lot of truth! Carrots and other orange vegetables have many essential vitamins including vitamin A.
Vitamin A is an extremely important part of the visual process and any deficiency can lead to night blindness or even total loss of vision.
So, making sure that your diet contains a healthy amount of all vitamins is imperative for maintaining your eye health.
For older people, vitamin A is even more important as the risk of macular degeneration increases significantly with age and appropriate vitamin A intact has been shown to help prevent the progression of macular degeneration.
While eating carrots certainly is a great idea to promote both eye and overall health, there is no evidence that carrots will improve vision directly.
Blurry vision may be a sign of uncorrected refractive error, an eye disease, or a problem in the brain and should be treated as a medical condition – and not by eating more carrots!
Myth #2: If You Cross Your Eyes, They Will Get Stuck Like That!
Many mothers and grandmothers have scolded a child when the child has crossed their eyes, stating that the eyes would get stuck crossed if they kept doing it.
Fortunately, this myth is just that – a myth. There are no reports of an otherwise healthy individual crossing their eyes and then the eyes not being able to look straight again.
While this myth is not true, it does offer some insight into reasons why we may not want to continually cross our eyes or turn them outward.
Crossing your eyes or turning your eyes outward requires an eye movement called vergence. Turning your eyes inward is convergence and outward is divergence.
Overworking either convergence or divergence can result in headaches, eye strain, and eye fatigue.
So, while it is not likely that your eyes will ever get stuck if crossed, the eyes may be sore or it can cause a headache.
Myth #3: Wearing Glasses Will Make Your Eyes Worse
This myth is highly talked about and can scare many parents away from having their children wear glasses full time as prescribed by an eye doctor.
Wearing glasses does one thing: allows you to see clearly and comfortably. Glasses do not change the eyes or vision.
The proponents of this myth often cite that children and others who wear glasses and then need a stronger prescription over time.
But the actual reason for this change over time is that the eyes are growing and changing and wearing glasses has shown that individual just how clear vision can be.
After seeing the best possible vision with glasses, any amount of blur is usually noticed when it would not have been previously.
So, if you wear glasses all of the time and your eyes change, you are more likely to notice and appreciate the difference than if you never wear the glasses, but this should not discourage anyone from wearing glasses!
Your eyes will change and grow regardless of wearing or not wearing the glasses!
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