Influence of sports on visual health

In this post we talk about the influence of sports on visual health. From an ophthalmological point of view, physical exercise is a highly recommended practice due to its benefits for visual health. Sport, however, can also entail certain risks for the eyesight. Here are some tips to prevent and avoid certain pathologies that can damage your eyes.

Influence of sport on visual health: benefits

• Physical activity helps prevent diseases whose consequences can also be detrimental to eye health, such as diabetes, which causes diabetic retinopathy, hypertension, cholesterol or certain heart diseases.
• A sports session after a long working day is a rest for the eyes, especially when they have been overtaxed. In this sense, exercise prevents states of visual fatigue or dry eye.
• Some sports such as archery or target shooting, which require marksmanship, help to exercise the eye muscles. Racquet sports such as tennis, paddle tennis or others such as golf are also advisable to improve spatial visual coordination.
• Aerobic sports also have benefits for the eyes, as they help to properly oxygenate the eyes.

Risks of sports for visual health

• Protect your eyes with resistant sports glasses and helmets with approved visors for sports involving risk of contusions and blows.
• Wear sunglasses with the necessary filters in outdoor sports to avoid photokeratitis caused by prolonged exposure to ultraviolet rays.
• Also wear protective goggles outdoors to prevent foreign bodies from entering the eye and to avoid wind discomfort such as dry eye.
• In water sports it is important to wear goggles suitable for underwater vision. If you have vision problems, you can even get prescription glasses. This protection is especially essential in swimming pools where chlorinated water can cause infections such as conjunctivitis or keratitis.
• Avoid the use of contact lenses in some high-risk sports as they pose an additional risk of eye contusion.
• Periodically visit an ophthalmologist to check for certain visual pathologies related to visual acuity, peripheral vision or focusing that may be detrimental to sports practice.
• If you are a professional athlete, we advise you to solve pathologies such as myopia, astigmatism or hyperopia with refractive surgery.
• If you have suffered an eye contusion or trauma, go to the emergency department if you have a red eye, edema of the eyelids, have lost vision at some point, suffer pain, see small spots or flying flies (myodesopsias) or if you have exaggerated flashes of light (photopsias).

Enjoy the sport and practice it with responsibility!