Your eyes reflect your age and lifestyle long before the rest of your face does, so look after them to keep them young and healthy, says Nirmala Shetty

However hard you try to hide your feelings or your age, your eyes, which mirror your inner self and lifestyle, give you away. Besides highlighting them as assets, it is necessary to strengthen and protect them, so you don’t get bags, crow’s feet and lines.

Here are a few dos and don’ts for healthy eyes.
• Eat foods rich in Vitamin A like apples, carrots and spinach.
• Avoid late night television viewing even though your favourite show may be on.
• Avoid straining your eyes by spending too much time in front of the computer.
• Avoid washing your eyes with hot water and stay away from excessive heat or excessively cold rooms.
• Always read while maintaining a good posture with the book kept at a safe distance away from your eyes.
• Never read while travelling.
• Do simple eye exercises.
• Use sunglasses when out in the sun.

Bags Under The Eyes
Causes:
Lack of sleep, water retention, hereditary factors, excessive use of rich make-up creams and removers, sleeping on your stomach or at an angle which inclines your face more towards the bed, can cause bags under the eyes. So can drinking less water, excessive intake of alcohol and smoking.

Remedies:
1 Apply a cold compress of any of the following when you wake up:
Grated potato
Cucumber
Used and chilled tea-bags
A compress made from coriander seeds soaked in water.

2 Remove all traces of under-eye make-up with ordinary milk or buttermilk. Buttermilk not only restores the acid mantle of the delicate area but also tones it.

3 Reduce intake of excessively salty food.

4 Avoid smoking and too much alcohol.

5 Sleeping on the back or with a pillow helps prevent fluids from accumulating under the eyes and thus forming bags.


Dark Circles
Causes:
• Hereditary factors.
• Irritants like dust and other pollutants trigger the release of chemicals in the body which enlarge the blood vessels above and below the eyes which causes darkening of the skin in that area.
• Lack of sleep.
• Reading and watching television in bad light, and poor posture.
• Eye strain due to computer use.
• Lack of foods rich in iron and Vitamin A.

Remedies:
Avoid the above mentioned causes and try the recipes given below
Grind ¼ of a carrot with ¼ of a cucumber, close your eyes and apply it all over. Leave on for five minutes. Remove gently and tone with buttermilk.
Soak almonds overnight. Grind to a fine paste adding milk. Add ¼ tsp of Vitamin E oil and massage gently over closed eyes, taking care to see that it does not enter the eyes. Remove gently, using buttermilk, and gently splash cold water.

Crow’s Feet:
Causes:
Crow’s feet could be formed due to squinting of the eyes, lack of elasticity and tone, or excessive eye strain. Crow’s feet and lines could also be formed by a poor diet, lack of sleep, sleeping in very cold rooms or washing with hot water. Removing make-up in a hurry with the wrong ingredients could also give rise to this problem.

Remedies:
Skin generally loses its resilience due to ageing and hence should be toned with natural products which create acidity and thus tone the skin. Moreover, the eyes being the most sensitive and delicate part of the body, should be taken care of with products that are safe and natural. In short, eyes require more looking after than just eating carrots and spinach.