Areas of Your Health You Shouldn’t Neglect

We’re pretty much aware that it’s important to keep our hearts healthy, and most of us also care for the health of our lungs, even if we do struggle to quit smoking. We try to eat healthy and not put on too much weight.

But it’s still easy to overlook certain areas of our health that we don’t see as so important. Here are two areas of your body that you may not be taking good care of: and why you should.

Eyes

If we were asked whether we thought our eyes were important, we would all say yet. Whether we are actually taking good care of them is another matter. Our eyes are vitally important for our lives, but they rarely hurt when something is wrong with them. Therefore it is crucial to have regular eye tests to ensure they haven’t developed some kind of harmful condition.

Eye tests

Eye tests don’t just measure whether you need to have glasses or contacts. A trained optician can tell many things about your health just from your eyes. Eye health is not just about our eyes, but can actually be a window into the health of your entire body.

Not only will an optician check on the state of your vision and let you know if you need glasses or a change to your prescription, but they can also check on your general state of health and let you know if there is anything that ought to be investigated further.

Health conditions your eyes reveal

If you have blurred vision, that could be a sign of diabetes. High cholesterol can cause a white ring to forms around the outer edge of your iris. If the whites of your eyes are yellow, this could be a sign of jaundice; a serious condition caused by decreased liver function. This in turn can be a sign of a more serious problem such as hepatitis, liver disease, or something like gallstones blocking the bile ducts.

When an optician examines the back of your eye they can also check the health of the blood vessels in your retina. If your blood pressure is high, this may show up when the doctor looks at these vessels.

Opticians can even tell if you are working your eyes too hard. Dry eyes, eye strain, and burst capillaries in the eye are all signs that you are overworking your eyes and looking too much at screens.

Teeth

Yes, we know, you don’t like going to the dentist. But your teeth are important, and preventative oral hygiene services can be vital to ensuring the health of your whole mouth. If you get your mouth checked regularly, then you can rest assured that you are taking good care of one of the most important parts of your body.

Dentists offer a range of preventative oral hygiene services such as professional teeth cleaning, often called “scale and polish,”and they can also administer fluoride, whiten stained teeth, and give advice on brushing and flossing to children and adults. They don’t just fix tooth and gum problems: they help you learn how to prevent them.

Dentists are associated with teeth, but they’re actually involved in the health of your whole mouth: teeth, gums, and tongue. If something is wrong in your mouth, your dentist will be able to spot it.

Just as with your eyes, a dental checkup can sometime alert your dentist to other health problems your regular doctor should check you for. More than that, a healthy mouth helps your immune system, you gut biome, your breath, and other aspects of your overall health.