How to Prevent Optic Neuritis

Optic neuritis is a disease that attacks the optic nerve, leaving it inflamed and causing partial or complete blindness. Most commonly, optic neuritis is a warning flag that the sufferer has multiple sclerosis, or MS. MS is a degenerative disease that dissolves the myelin sheath around nerves, such as the optic nerve.

Instructions

How to Prevent Optic Neuritis

• 1

  Get plenty of healthy exposure to sunlight. On the whole, doctors (especially dermatologists) will caution you against too much exposure to the sun’s harmful rays. But this in no way means that you should become a hermit. Studies have shown that people living further from the equator are more likely to get MS, which may have something to do with exposure to the sun. Use sunscreen and spend a reasonable time outside.

• 2

  Take all your required vitamins, especially vitamin D. Going along with step one, another hypothesis about why people further from the equator and thus less exposed to the sun get MS more often is because the sun is also a source of vitamin D. You can get vitamin D from a variety of dairy products, and many other products will proudly flaunt their nutritional values on the package.

• 3

  Contribute funding to MS research. There is still much unknown about this debilitating and terminal disease. By donating money, you are contributing to the prevention of MS and optic neuritis for yourself and your community. A link to site that rates different MS charities is posted below.

• 4

  Receive frequent vision tests. This is especially a good idea if you suspect something is wrong, but you shouldn’t wait until then to get yourself checked out. Regular visits to the optometrist can lead to early diagnosis and the prevention of optic neuritis escalating into full blindness.

• 5

  Visit your doctor of physician regularly. It helps to have health benefits at the place where you work, but even if you don’t, a regular visit will save you from potentially deadly diseases and help you to recover quickly if anything is found wrong.