Home Remedies for NIGHT VISION / NIGHT BLINDNESS

NIGHT VISION / NIGHT BLINDNESS

 

 

Night vision is the ability to see , whether through biological or technological means, in a dark environment. Most instances, whether biological or technological, use a combination of two approaches: enhanced spectral range, and enhanced intensity range.

Natural home remedies

• Eat blueberries when they're in season. They can help restore night vision.
• You know the old joke about carrots being good for your eyes? Well, you've never seen a rabbit wearing glasses. Eat two or three carrots a day (raw or cooked) and/or drink a glass of fresh carrot juice. It's excellent for alleviating night blindness.
• Eat more watercress in salads and/or drink watercress tea.
• This remedy seems so yucky, we would not have included it had we not heard of the wonderful results from several reliable sources. Every day for two weeks, put a drop of raw honey in each eye. (We said "yucky," didn't we?) It stings like crazy for a few seconds until tears wash away the pain. Within a week or two, there should be a noticeable improvement in your night vision.

CAUTION: Be careful putting any foreign substance in the eye. It can be painful and may cause infection.

 

 

11 Ways to Deal with the Dark

 

 

Do a self-evaluation. "Many people have enormous concern about their eyes," Dr. Laties says. "They are afraid of going blind." He says most people can reassure themselves that their night vision is all right. "After 5 minutes in a movie theater you should be able to see the person next to you."

 

Make sure you're getting vitamin A. This nutrient is important to night vision. In fact, large doses of vitamin A given to a person who is vitamin A deficient can bring improvement in night vision within hours, says Creig Hoyt, M.D., vice chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center. However, vitamin A deficiency is rare in the United States, Dr. Hoyt says, adding that high-level vitamin A supplementation should first be approved by a doctor.

 

When driving at night, do everything you can to increase visibility. On a clear day, from the driver's seat, you're usually looking about 1,200 to 1,500 feet down a straight road, says Quinn Brackett, Ph.D., a research scientist at the Texas Transportation Institute, Texas A&M University.

 

But at night, under good conditions and with only your headlights as your guide, you can only see 300 to 400 feet. So it's important to give yourself every advantage. "Make sure your headlights are cleaned off," says Charles Zegeer, senior staff associate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Highway Safety Research Center. "Dirty headlights really reduce visibility" and will only make an already bad problem worse.

 

Don't wear sunglasses at dusk, either�no matter how stylish they may be�because they will further reduce light coming into your eyes, says Dr. Brackett.

 

Slow down. That way, you give yourself more time to react to any unexpected hazards.

 

Expect the unexpected. These days the roads don't belong just to cars, but to walkers, runners, and cyclists as well. "And wearing white at night isn't enough to be visible," Zegeer says. So it's your responsibility to watch for pedestrians.

 

Respect the rain and fog. These two conditions make night driving especially dangerous, Zegeer says. He recommends keeping your headlights on low beam in fog for better visibility.

 

Plan ahead. Careful route planning can make night driving easier. "When possible," says Brackett, "select roads that are divided or have very little traffic."

 

Don't take chances. If fog or travel conditions become too bad, says Zegeer, pull off at a rest area, service station, or parking lot. Stay off the shoulder of the road.

 

Look to the right. "Look at the roadway's edge to the right to help you avoid the glare of oncoming headlights," Brackett suggests.

 

Leave the driving till tomorrow. Drive only during the day. Even good lighting conditions at night, such as found in a big city, can be troublesome to someone with night blindness.

 

 

MEDICAL ALERT

 

Leave Diagnosis to your Doctor

 

Occasionally, night blindness can be an early symptom of a progressive eye disease. One example is retinitis pigmentosa (RP), which affects an estimated 100,000 people in the United Sates, according to Jill C. Hennessey, M.S., assistant to the director of science at the RP Foundation Fighting Blindness in Baltimore, Maryland.

 

"At this point," Hennessey says, "there's no know effective treatment." RP tends to run in families and the cause of the disease is also a mystery. It can eventually lead to blindness.

 

If you're having problems with night vision, you should have your eyes examined by an ophthalmologist, advises Alan Laties, M.D. It's the best way to protect your vision.