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Four Reasons Poor Vision Puts Your Mental Health At Risk

Proper vision care can change your life, and help keep your mental health intact as well. In fact, poor vision resulting from the wrong type of eyeglasses prescription may even lead to brain dysfunction.

The connection between your eyes and your brain is more profound than you may think.  Focusing on your vision is vital. (No pun intended). And knowing whom to trust with your eyesight is just as important.

Picture1      1.  Adults and Children are at High Risk for Vision Problems

Vision problems are a common occurrence in society. Recent CDC statistics found that 61 million American adults are at risk for vision loss. Surprisingly, only half have consulted with an optometrist or ophthalmologist in the past 12 months.

The statistics are even more startling for children. Proper brain development throughout childhood is essential. However, less than 15 percent of preschool children get an eye exam, according to the CDC. Less than 22 percent get professional vision screening.

    2.   The Wrong Eye Prescription Can Cause Vision Problems and Mental Health Issues

At this very moment your eyes and brain are working together. You are reading this informative post with your eyes, and your brain is processing everything. Your brain may even be multi-tasking if you have the TV on or music playing.

The connection between poor vision and brain dysfunction, including acquired brain injury is essential to understand. Often the best place to begin is with your prescription. If you have the wrong prescription for your eyeglasses, your mental health may be at risk.

suit and tieDo you get frequent headaches after reading, web browsing, or wearing your prescription eyeglasses in general? Interestingly, the number one cause of vision related headaches are the result of vision prescription changes. Contact prescriptions are also a factor.

Correcting your vision’s refractive errors can cause double vision, eyestrain, squinting, and subsequent headaches. These symptoms may occur especially if you have the wrong prescription contacts. And these troublesome headaches caused by poor vision can turn into migraines.

    3.   A Vision Snowball Effect Leading to Brain Dysfunction

The vision related headaches you may be experiencing could turn into debilitating migraines. And that is bad news for your brain. Migraines are indeed a serious medical condition. They can lead to stroke and white lesions in the brain, which lead to more migraines.

Research from Leiden University Medical Centre in The Netherlands found a connection between migraines and mental debilitation. The study, published in Headache (2008) found migraines to cause “silent brain damage.”

Stopping your headaches, migraines, and potential brain dysfunction could be as easy as receiving the Triad Of Health Family Healing Center therapies and obtaining the proper prescription eye glasses to support normal healthy vision. Finding the right optometrist or ophthalmologist is vital to getting the right prescription. The correct type of optometrist is a behavioral optometrist who has the proper skills and training to be able to help their patients with complex visual disturbances.  They have the skills needed to teach their patients to do eye exercises.  They are sometimes called Neural Optometrists.   These specialized optometrists help their patients who suffer from ADD, ADHD, and a variety of Autism Spectrum Disorders and learning disabilities such as Dyslexia.  It would be well advised to visit this website for a list of qualified optometrists.   There are other specialists you can turn to as well.

Father and Son    4.  Get Professional Vision Care the First Time for Better Physical and Mental Health

The best way to ensure the quality vision care for you and your family is to find a board certified optometrist or ophthalmologist. Both of these eye professionals perform routine eye exams, diagnose, and treat vision problems and eye diseases.

It is important to understand that an optician is not the same as an optometrist or ophthalmologist. Opticians are not doctors, and in some states, they are allowed to fit contact lenses.  Some states don’t even require certification and licensure.  At Triad Of Health Family Healing Center we check prescription and reading eye glasses and contact lenses of every single new patient at the time of their initial exam.  In this way you do not have to suffer through the continued experience of Acquired Brain Injury due to the incorrect eye glasses prescription which interferes with a person’s ability to think clearly, make good decisions and function normally.

As mentioned above, other vision care specialists like behavioral optometrists or neural optometrists could be the right choice for you.  Behavioral optometrists combine eye exercises with lenses.  Neural optometrists focus on the vital connection between your eyes and brain.

Understanding the role your eyes play in mental health is the first step to a happier and healthier you. Don’t let something so simple put your mental health at risk. Finding a board certified optometrist that will get your prescription right the first time around is essential. The world is truly a beautiful place when in focus.

This blog post was primarily written by Tara Heath. Tara Heath is a 37 year old health professional and works as a freelancer writer in the evenings. Her writing focuses mainly on health, such as skincare, eye care and how to live a healthy lifestyle overall. She lives in Burbank, Ca. with her husband and two beautiful daughters ages eight and twelve.  She is also affiliated with Campus Eye Group on the East Coast.

 

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