An Ignored Remedy to Rising Eye Problems

Although eye problems do affect all ages, it disproportionately affect seniors. Gratitude to our parents and grandparents demand we make extra efforts beyond advice. It demands making certain helpful products available to overcome elderly illusions, but also other services to encourage seniors towards enough exercise. Yes! Exercise helps our overall health, including the eyes. However, the leaning on this writing is having enough daylight lightening for the homes, especially in Africa. Like many things in life, eye problems have direct and indirect victims, and thus demand global attention. How much light you need to function on many tasks may be very different from how much light you need for healthy eyes, especially for the long term. Whereas we cannot replicate the brightness of the sweet African sunlight inside the homes, it is a good hint to strive for very bright lamps.

Again, we are focusing on seniors, but the problem and remedy is global, in regards to effects. Seniors tend to stay a lot more hours inside homes, so helping them get a very healthy home is vital. Although poverty may be a contributing factor in some cases, sometimes it is simply a lack of knowledge from personal level struggling to adapt, to the top scientists who are discovering new things after highlights by ordinary folks like you and I. How much Lumens (brightness) you need for long term eye health is yet to be properly studied or recommended?

Although it is widely accepted that our eyes need light when opened and prefer total darkness when asleep. I guess nature tends to concur with science, and sometimes with even religion? A verse says , 'we have made the daylight for livelihood, and the night for rest'? Well, seniors hardly go out to work; now humankind have televisions, which keep us from outdoors; and the night programs mean being awake longer hours more than our ancestors? Whereas the research part we can leave to scientists, I want to convince those who use common sense to help at family level or even politicians to act at government levels.

I live with three seniors, my mum and two of her siblings. I repeatedly tell them to be having the lights on even during the day, but they are waiting to hear it from doctors, journalists, and respectable ads? Two of them have already developed eye problems they associate with old age, but I think health issues are often due to lifestyle, lack of knowledge, and sometimes lack of means. Although I planned to write about the ignored remedy, I was more convinced when I accompanied her to the eye health center yesterday. The number one eye health center in the Gambia was not well lighted, as hundreds sit in a fairly dark hall, waiting to see doctors who may advise them many things, except proper lights are vital to eye health? The question is not can you see or function in the short term, but are you feeding enough light to your eyes for long term health?

We are so used to wattage when buying bulbs, but when can we switch to lumens, the amount of brightness you are getting. The watts of the bulb is just telling us how much it will consume, but most vital is the lumens or brightness it gives. I recommend at least one thousand lumens for average small hotel room size, but more for bigger rooms and living rooms. Multiple bulbs per room can be highly helpful.

Since Africa have lot of sunlight, air, and is still struggling with electricity. We must get creative by suggesting all bulbs (lights) be wired separately from other needs and wants of electricity for new homes+... Rewiring old homes is also feasible, but introducing what I call 'healthy eye lamp package' is overdue. It will simply be made of super bright DC bulbs with a very small 48 or more Volt Battery, plus a small solar panel, wind turbine, and/or regular charger. Since DC bulbs consume very little and technology now permits using way beyond 12 volts, we must set new standards. A package for one room, two to even ten rooms can be as affordable as one visit to the eye-care center. Such 'free' lights will not just overcome power outages, but also those who wrongly try to save money, like my parents and how many millions of parents? They wrongly assume the bulbs take a lot of electricity and consider them useless in the daylight?

It is vital for eye doctors to weigh-in, considering eye-health means a lot to humans. Although animals can barely live with eye problems, humans happen to be a lot more fragile by nature. Once we allow one thousand seniors to have eye problems and walking around in barely lighted rooms, at least a hundred of them will fall one day and if fifty happens to have serious falls, then repercussions extend? Will someone leave regular work to care for the elderly, affecting national productivity; or an offspring in the diaspora to cry neglect or stressed out to affect productivity at international level? Oh Jarga, did you forget or do not care about the poor seniors in the west, who are struggling with bills? Again, we can make global efforts, because many western places have enough sunlight to power up way beyond DC bulbs.

Now that the Gambia and many countries are seeing a surge in eye problems, we must not ignore such potential remedies. Our minister of health or other health concern officials up-to WHO must contact manufacturers to help with 'eye health lamp packages'. Small 48 volts batteries are presently not highly available, but it is just simple wiring and can be as small as a motor-cycle battery for one to three Dc bulbs, a fairly long cable, and charging mechanism. Such will be able to light-up not just the day, but the night where need be. It will reduce stress where power outages are still common. So the health ministry will benefit way beyond reduction on eye-patients, and it will boost general production.

Since we cannot be directly hard on our parents and grandparents, we need media help with educative ads: 'Bad grandparents will refuse to light up the room to contribute to eye problems, accidents, pain, stress, death, etc ? You want to save $10 or xyz electricity bill in a year, but how much is one visit to the eye health center , fuel, the pain you feel, the worry of your loved ones, etc? Well, good children re-wire or buy healthy eye lamp package' bright and free, from the sun, so caring mum or grand-mum have no excuse to turn off the lights?' We can make songs, comedy, etc to sensitize the public towards never turning lights off during the day.

Of course, A wide variety of food and enough exercise will help. Enough light is an easy fix and crucial than many eye professionals may guess. Like plants and many things, the amount of light for a cannabis or xyz plant to exist, barely live, thrive, etc are different. Similarly, seeing and the ability to work around may not mean enough light for long term healthy eyes. A room should be bright enough to see a single hair or to put a thread into a needle eye, with ease. We can agree enough light won't hurt, so if we differ on what is enough light for long term healthy eyes, then I want to be among the pioneers on the brightest light research section. Go upgrade where you can, advise others, and pray for me to be a billionaire or at least millionaire to help beyond words. Until then, words can still help billions. May God bless us through Showlove Trinity: Let's learn, let's work, let's have fun.

By Jarga kebba Gigo
An Activist and Transformer.
Author of Juts Quhr-aahn.
Optional note:
I have repeatedly urged for preventive health centers in villages and urban neighborhoods. It is not enough to tell our seniors+ to be exercising. By creating a friendly space, lots of different products and services, it can be motivating and help ascertain proper exercise, beyond yoga and gym. Our love for seniors must not be just finance or paying medical bills in the most inefficient manners. We cannot always wait for the government, even where they can at least provide land and great examples; let's proceed where God provides beyond words...

Such investment is among the highest 'charity' you can give to your neighbors. I continue to pray for health, but I rather pray with actions beyond health. The knowledge God revealed is for application, at least for the grateful. Also setting a much higher standard is vital, in and beyond business. 24 hours access on certain businesses can help where the blind cannot see, yet.

Our age have completely different challenges, and people sometimes make very wrong comparisons. Whereas our ancestors may have spent two hours under candle light before going to bed; they spent a lot more hours outdoors than average seniors of today. So they strengthen in the day, have tolerable hours in poor lights, and some of them still suffered? Contrast that with seniors who hardly spend two hours outdoors, daily, weaken their eyes for over 8 hrs daily, joy and stress of television, etc. Urging them to spend more time outdoors is good, but it does not excuse us from upgrading lights standard and helping where we can. Enough windows and other measures will help, but which ones are under discussed and easiest to fix? Sun (vitamin D/mood) mimicking bulbs exist, but they seem costly for now and capitalism is not finding ways to share technology, mass produce healthy products than the imposed questionable vaccines?

How bright are the offices vs homes? In some countries, people choose beauty over functionality, and so called professionals are sometimes sleeping. Or how can a health facility, eye or otherwise be poorly competing with nightclubs on lights? The builders may not know better, but the science on long term effects will compete with many factors, including beauty oriented multi billion dollar industries. So let nature and common sense be your top guides, then science as aid, or a group we have to drag to confirm... Once the debate reaches a certain level, the best of them will agree.

Bad adaptation towards gradual degradation: we are used to thinking adaptation in positive ways, but bad adaptation can occur, including with the eyes. When you enter a dark room, after a few seconds you can see a little bit, thanks to adaptation. However, that does not mean you are not destroying your eyes, in gradual ways, by spending a lot of time in such dark places. A similar example is bad odor: when you enter certain nasty areas, the bad smell will seem normal after sometime, however whatever you are inhaling will do good or bad to your body, sometimes in gradual ways. So once we agree our eyes need light beyond seeing, that light is like food to open eyes, then our responsibility to supply enough lights to those we love should be taken seriously. What is the reward of a person or group that tries to raise the health of billions or millions of people with efforts? Well, wishes are part of thoughts; but thoughts have levels, words have levels, even efforts on actions have different levels, as individuals towards governments. May the kind Lord of facilitation help and reward us beyond our imaginations...