Vision and sport

Eye health and sports performance

Sport is a health activity that is generally favourable to our eyesight. Combining a balanced diet and good lifestyle habits helps prevent systemic or general diseases such as high blood pressure, hypercholesterolemia, heart disease or diabetes, which directly and often severely affect the retina, a highly vascularised tissue.

Furthermore, in an increasingly “myopised” society due to the sedentary lifestyle and the increasing importance of near vision in front of all types of screen, sports and outdoor leisure activities provide an opportunity to break this dynamic and keep our eye health in shape.

Sport can therefore be another incentive in prevention and in attempting to develop our visual potential to the full. Just as it is important for people who do physical exercise to undergo medical check-ups, regular ophthalmic tests are equally essential. These examinations can diagnose disorders that may progress without symptoms, and discover the appearance or the increase in refraction problems or other visual restrictions that determine our relationship with sport.

Binocular vision and stereopsis, which enables you to see in relief and to perceive depth, or peripheral vision that enables you to detect and respond to visual stimuli located around the central point of vision and that is extremely useful when “looking at the hoop, the goal or the net while bouncing or kicking the ball or organising play”.

It is also important to bear in mind the main threats to vision in sports, such as bruises and ball impacts, sun radiation, contact with chlorine and other chemical agents, foreign bodies and the effects of the weather on the eye. Based on this, it offers practical preventive advice, including the use of eye protection with special goggles for sport, or avoiding contact lenses in water sports to avoid infection.

Correctly applying these basic measures and the appropriate treatments in the event of eye disorders and/or refractive errors are essential in minimising risk and making the most of our visual skills in sports. Along these lines, it is important to note that having a disease or having had eye surgery does not necessarily hinder or rule out any sporting hobbies, provide you remember the recommendations and indications of your ophthalmologist.