10 Surprising Facts About Your Eyes

For most of us, we don’t spare much thought during our normal routines to stop and think about our eyes. The problem with this is that we tend to take them for granted, and sometimes neglect following safe and natural habits to keep them healthy. It is our goal today to inspire you with these interesting facts and help you appreciate just how amazing your eyes really are.

10 Amazing Facts About Your Eyes

 10. Your Eyes Determine What You Remember

Quick, think about how you would describe your favorite place to vacation. Chances are, your mind immediately went to a visual description. Maybe you would describe the colors of mountains, the way the light bounces of the ocean, or even the sight of the famous landmarks. Whatever your favorite site, your memories of it, are about 80 percent visual. Your eyes create the vast majority of your memories, meaning that most of what you remember is imagery captured by the amazing natural lens of your eye.

9. Your Eyes Can Detect about 2.7 Million Colors

There are some people who can distinguish a few more, some detect a few less, but we humans can identify a broad range of colors. It’s more than distinguishing 50 shades of grey, the human eye can actually distinguish about 500 different shades of the grayscale alone.

8. Eyes Are more Unique Than Fingerprints

Your fingerprint has about 40 or so unique, measurable characteristics. Whereas, the iris has around 256 unique characteristics, and the blood vessels in your retina are completely different from any other person’s, even if you have an identical twin.

7. Your Eyes are the Second Most Complex Part of Your Body

After your brain, your eyes are actually the most complicated organ in your body. The human eye has around 2 million moving parts.

6. Your Eyes are Too Complicated to Transplant

Your eyes connect to your brain via the optic nerve, and because of this connection and its complexity, a whole human eye transplant has thus far eluded even the most skilled transplant surgeons. All the more reason to keep your eyes healthy and protected!

5. There Are Around 39 Million People Who Have Lost Their Vision

Nearly 40 million people worldwide are considered to be completely blind, with another 240 million having some kind of vision problem.

4. Most Causes of Blindness and Vision Impairment are Preventable

The number one cause of blindness and vision impairment in adults is actually Type 2 Diabetes, which can almost always be prevented by following a proper diet and exercising regularly. After that, head injuries that cause damage to the eye are the most common cause of blindness. Additionally, studies show that most of these accidents occur when the casualty involved should have been wearing eye protection.

3. Your Eyes Heal Extraordinarily Fast

Your eyes actually recover from damage, such as a minor scratch to the cornea, in about 24 hours. This helps keep our eyes in great condition as much as possible, which is extremely important considering how vital they are to our everyday life.

2. Your Eyes Protect Themselves

That’s not to say you shouldn’t wear safety glasses when in a dangerous environment, or sunglasses when outside, but your eyes actually go a long way to protect themselves. For example, assuming you read at the average of 200 words per minute, you have blinked about 36 times since you started reading this article, each one lubricating and moistening your eyes and it’s likely you weren’t conscious of a single one.

1. With Proper Care, Eyes Can Maintain Their Health

The good news is, you can actively work to keep your eyes healthy. Proper eye care, including diet and exercise, as well as regular eye exams, go a long way towards preventing loss of vision, and with something as important as your eyes on the line, isn’t that worth it?

Our eye care professionals are here to help you go the distance. If you need more information about what your eyes actually do for your body or how to protect them, then do be sure to call us at 1-866-997-2020.