Vision Tips

Did you know that babies have to learn how to see? It might seem strange, since using our eyes is something we do automatically all day, but babies need to develop a number of visual skills in order to effectively use their eyes and process what they’re seeing, just like they have to learn how […]

A smoking habit damages every organ and system in the body, including the eyes. We typically think of lung cancer as the main health risk associated with smoking, and then maybe oral health problems next, but the parts of the body that have direct contact with the smoke aren’t the only ones hurt by it. […]

Human eye color comes from melanin, the same compound that determines skin and hair color. Melanin absorbs light, even some UV light, which is important for the iris — the part of the eye that controls how much light enters the pupil. Melanin and Pigment Types There are two different types of melanin a person […]

Since as early as 60 A.D., people have been using vision-correcting tools to help them see. Around that time, the Roman philosopher Seneca used a glass globe of water to magnify text, while Emperor Nero needed a magnifying emerald to see gladiator fights. Thanks to millennia of innovations since then, we don’t need to rely […]

Studies have shown that sleep deprivation hits the body and mind a lot like alcohol. That isn’t great, but where do our eyes fit into the equation? When we get enough sleep, it’s great for both our overall health and our eye health, and we can also improve our quality of sleep by changing what […]

Back in the old days, makeup was full of ingredients like lead, arsenic, and mercury. Thankfully we don’t have to worry whether or not we’re putting actual poison on our faces when we apply modern makeup, but we should still take a few precautions to protect our eyes from unnecessary injury and infection. There’s no […]

Among the many changes our bodies undergo as we get older are the changes to our eyesight. Early diagnosis is critical for stopping many sight-threatening conditions in their tracks, which is why we should be on the watch for signs of age-related vision loss. There are also more benign ways our eyesight can change over […]

A staple of every school nurse’s office is the big E eye chart. That chart, the formal name of which is the Snellen chart (after the 19th-century Dutch eye doctor Herman Snellen who developed it), is certainly a good diagnostic tool for catching nearsightedness, but there are many other things that could be wrong with […]

We tend to think of 20/20 vision being a synonym for perfect eyesight, but that isn’t quite true. All it means when someone has 20/20 vision is that they have normal visual acuity without refractive errors like nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism. There is a wide range of vision problems that have nothing to do with […]