This Habit Without Awareness Can Hazard Your Eyes, Check Out The Doctor's Explanation

JAKARTA - The eyes are one of the most important organs in the body, whose health must be maintained. Especially with age, visually threatening diseases arise such as macular degeneracy, glaukuma, and cataracts.

These conditions cannot be completely avoided, but they can be reduced by the risk of occurrence. This is because disorders in the eyes can occur due to lifestyle factors, which can actually be improved.

An eye specialist, Dr. Sandra Brown, MD, says that there are some common habits that often without realizing it can damage eye health. One of them is smoking.

Tobacco smoking increases the risk of macular degeneracy by around 400 percent and a cataract by about 300 percent, Brown said, quoted from Parade, on Friday, July 26, 2025.

This can happen because consuming tobacco can damage the vital parts of the eyes needed to see, including the retina, lens, and makula. Nikotin in cigarettes has also been shown to interfere with the retinal ability to adapt to light.

Then for vape or e-cigarettes, there are aldehyde and free radicals in it which can cause disturbances in the stability of the tear layer. The taste of the vape can also damage the eye lipid layer through oxidation.

In addition to smoking, another habit that can endanger the eye is not true in applying eye makeup. The use of eyeliners in the lines of tears (waterline), which is an area rich in the meibom gland, can increase the risk of dry eyes to corneal damage.

The smearing of the meibom's glands can cause permanent damage to the glands, resulting in dry eyes, permanent cornea damage, and chronic irritation with sudden vision changes, he added.

Not only that, the mascara and eyeshadows that are applied to the eyes can get stuck in the conjunctive and cause inflammation and pigmentation of the conjunctive. Both can move to the surface of the eyes, causing abrasion of the cornea and inflammation of the cornea.

Therefore, it is important to be careful in applying eye makeup products. Always clean the eye area properly after using makeup and choose products with safe ingredients.