Environmental pollution is a major cause for eye damage. Such pollution can be air-borne or water-borne.

Air-borne Pollution

Air-borne pollution is mainly caused by:

1. Industrial smoke, fumes of obnoxious mixtures, smoke from chimneys.
2. Automobi1es~xhaust gases of vehicles run on fuel.
3. Dust, sand, sawdust, coal gas.
4. Sewage effluent, garbage, cattle excreta.

Water-borne Pollution

style=”font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;”>Water-borne pollution is the result of:

1. Industrial effluents from plants, factories and mills.
2. Sewage and animal and human excreta.

Treatment for Eye Diseases Caused by Environmental Pollution

The most common eye symptoms due to exposure to pollutants in the atmosphere are the constant burning and itching of eyes which are, at times, also red and painful. Most of irritation and red eyes are in polluted cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. The picture resembles an allergic conjunctivitis. There is associated soreness of the throat and cough, and in extreme forms, breathlessness and loss of appetite.

Remedy

1. Get away from the polluted environment to a clean, natural environment.
2. Clean the eyes with boiled water and boiled cotton two-three times a day.
3. Use cleaning eye drops like Visine, Clearing and Chloromycetine for long duration.
4. Do not use strong antibiotics.
5. Move closer to natural green surroundings.

A common question asked by almost all patients is what they should eat to keep their eyes healthy. This is a very logical question and deserves a suitable answer.

A balanced diet, which is recommended for general well-being and normal health, is the diet that is essential for all the components of the eye. A balanced diet of non-vegetarian and vegetarian food is standardized by the WHO for the Indian foods also (see chart).

However, of all food, milk, green vegetables in plenty, and fruits are especially good for vegetarians. Fish, eggs, and meat of lamb and chicken are good for non-vegetarian.

Fallacy about Carrot and Carrot Juice

The misguided practice of taking excessive carrot juice and carrots is based on the fact that carrot contains Vitamin A and hence helps the eyes to remain healthy. The practice often becomes an obsession with persons wearing glasses, some of whom unnecessarily consume excessive amounts of carrots in the form of juice. A healthy and normal body makes it own quota of Vitamin A and it should be supplemented by a balanced diet of milk, fruits and green salad, which includes carrot.

It is not necessary to eat carrots in excess. It is a mere waste and a fallacy.

Notes

1. All quantities are indicated in terms of raw foodstuffs.
2. The quantity of 2 oz. of sugar/jiggery is to be used in the preparation of tea, coffee, with milk, curd and/ or for cooking purposes.
3. The quantity of 2 oz. oil/fat is to be used for cooking the various preparations.

Eye Diseases and Home Remedies

A word or two on the use of home remedies like kajal, surma, honey, tea-leaf water and milk will not be out of place here. These are commonly used with great faith by mothers to alleviate any eye condition. The use of kajal and surma is still a tradition among children and ladies. What it does is worthy on cosmetic grounds and if the use of surma and kajal is confined to normal and healthy eyes it is certainly harmless. The use of these for red, watery and congested eyes with long-standing infections must, however, is discouraged at all costs. Their use in unhealthy eyes as a drug or antiseptic is detrimental. They become habit-forming and irritating. Surma is, after all, a powder containing hard chemicals like antimony, carbon, copper and some organic silicon derivatives. They are only good as cleaning or flushing agents. They have no curative properties. Kajal, in addition, has carbon particles which are irritating for infected eyes.

Honey, milk, tea water, etc. are again useful as lubricants for sore eyes. They play upon the surface and lead to temporary relief. The disease and its root cause are not touched at all. The result is that the main disease persists and becomes deep-rooted. Treating the disease with curative drugs takes longer and proves expensive.

eye anatomy

Before we deal with the subject of eye care it would be useful to study the various components of the eyeball with the help of a simple sketch and a comparison of the eye with a photographic camera. We see the Image in the same way as the camera takes a picture.  The working of the eye and a camera is identical. The eye gets an inverted ‘negative’ image of all that it sees and transforms it into an erect positive image in the brain. The photographic camera does the same. The negative film is developed into a positive one in a laboratory or darkroom. The coordination of the eye and the brain is vital for perfect vision. What we see is ‘seen’ by the brain-the eye transfers the image to the brain.