PT health Life – Habits such as rubbing your eyes, overusing eye drops, steaming betel leaves when your eyes hurt… accidentally cause cornea damage and affect vision.
The cornea is an indispensable part of the eyes, acting as a converging lens to bring images to the retina so we can see things.
The cornea will respond well to small injuries or scratches, healthy epithelial cells will quickly slide in, bridging the damage before the damage becomes infected and affects vision. Superficial lesions may heal completely or leave only very thin scars.
If the damage penetrates the cornea deeper, the scar healing process will take a long time, the patient will feel a lot of pain, blurred vision, stimulate tearing, red eyes and be extremely sensitive to light. Deep corneal injuries will leave thick scars, reduce vision and may require a corneal transplant.
1. What is the cornea, the function of the cornea
The cornea (also known as the black lumen) has the English name cornea, a transparent membrane shaped like a spherical cap that takes up the front 1/5 of the eyeball shell. The cornea is composed of 5 layers that perform the function of protecting the eyeball, controlling and focusing light entering the eye.
The cornea is composed of 5 membrane layers that help the cornea have the following functions:
- The cornea, along with the eye socket, eyelids, and sclera, protects the eyeball surface from agents such as germs, dust, and other harmful agents entering the eyeball.
- The cornea is like a lens that controls and focuses light rays into the eye. The cornea accounts for 2/3 of the refractive power of the eyeball. To see clearly, light rays reaching the surface of the eye must be focused by the cornea and lens to fall correctly on the retina. The retina converts light rays into nerve impulses that are transmitted to the brain to help us perceive images.
- In addition, the cornea acts as a filter to screen out harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays to the eyes. Otherwise, the lens and retina will be damaged by UV rays.
People with allergic conjunctivitis rub their eyes as a natural reaction to relieve the itching, but in fact, this behavior does not solve the itching but also causes eye redness, more inflammation, and can even cause pain. cone-shaped cornea.
2. Bad habits affect the cornea
- Rub your eyes when itchy or scratchy
When your eyes are itchy or scratchy due to insects, sand or even for unknown reasons, raising your hand to rub your eyes will put your cornea at risk of being scratched, causing corneal ulcers, forming corneal scars, and affecting your eyes. to eyesight.
People with allergic conjunctivitis rub their eyes as a natural reaction to relieve the itching, but in fact, this behavior does not solve the itching but also causes eye redness, more inflammation, and can even cause pain. cone-shaped cornea.
In some cases, rubbing your eyes with strong force can also lead to damage to small blood vessels in the eyes and cause the whites of the eyes to become red, and the skin around the eyes will turn dark, causing eye damage. to aesthetics, making you look older than your age. This habit can even cause the cornea to become increasingly thin, deformed, and impair vision, and sometimes surgery is needed to completely solve this problem.
- Take off your glasses, practice seeing to… avoid nearsightedness
For people with refractive errors such as nearsightedness, the way to see well is to wear glasses with the correct number. There is no such thing as nearsightedness, wearing glasses continuously makes nearsightedness worse as many people think.
And removing glasses and practicing vision cannot help prevent nearsightedness. On the contrary, removing glasses will make the eyes have to adjust more tiredly, causing an increase in refraction.
- Massage, acupressure, yoga for eyes
Currently, there are many groups advertising on social networks that massage, acupressure, and yoga can cure refractive errors, but in fact, up to now there has been no official research confirming that refractive errors can be cured. Radiation with massage, eye acupressure or yoga for the eyes.
Therefore, if you are applying this method with the desire to avoid myopia, stop immediately to avoid wasting time in vain. Massage, acupressure or yoga properly are also good for health, helping blood circulate better, but that does not prevent refractive errors.
- Steam water with betel leaves when you have red eyes
In the past, people used to tell each other to cure pink eye by steaming betel leaf water. But according to recent research, steaming betel leaves does not have any therapeutic effect. Moreover, improper steaming can easily burn your eyes.
When you have pink eye (usually caused by a virus or bacteria), in addition to taking medication as prescribed, simply keeping your eyes clean, using clean cotton to wipe eye discharge, and rinsing your eyes with physiological saline is enough.
- Drop breast milk and lemon juice into the baby’s eyes
In some regions, especially remote areas, it is still common to drip breast milk or lemon juice into a newborn’s eyes when the baby’s eyes show signs of inflammation. This is a very unscientific method of treatment, dangerous to children’s eyes, and puts them at risk of blindness
Breast milk is rich in nutrients, and when dropped into a baby’s eyes, it will be a “good prey” for bacteria. So, the baby’s eyes are inflamed, just put a drop of breast milk in, the baby’s eyes will become more inflamed due to the “general attack” of bacteria. Lemon juice has a lot of acid, acid does not kill bacteria.
- Buy your own eye drops
Buying eye drops yourself without professional knowledge can easily harm your eyes, causing your eyes to not be cured, but you may also experience unwanted side effects of the medicine. When you have pink eye, swollen eyelids, itching, scratchy eyes… or any other eye discomfort, you need to see a specialist, absolutely do not buy eye drops yourself.
