If you were asked to consider your health, what would you think of first? Would it be your internal organs? Your joints and bones? Your mental health? It could be any of these things, and very possibly all of them. 

What you might not think about because they are so much a part of everything you do is your senses. Site, taste, hearing, touch, and smell are all essential to your daily life, and yet we often take them for granted. However, we do need to keep them as healthy as possible and take care of them as much as we can, as losing any of them would be devastating. Here are some ways to do it. 

Sight 

Your eyesight is incredibly precious, yet it is also incredibly vulnerable, and it can easily be damaged. Illness, an accident, or even the environment you live or work in can all have an impact on your eyes and can damage your eyesight, sometimes irreparably. 

Taking the appropriate steps toward maintaining healthy eye care is therefore essential. To do this, you should start taking care of your sense of sight by having regular trips to the opticians. An adult should visit around once every two years, but if you think your sight is getting worse, or you have problems with pain in your eyes, or you see flashes of light or dark spots, an additional appointment should be made. Opticians have a range of Ophthalmic Equipment designed to identify and help any sight issues you might be experiencing.

In your day to day life, it’s a good idea to wear sunglasses when you go outside, even if the sun appears to be weak. The UV rays may not feel like they are causing damage, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t. Plus, if you use computers a lot of the time, your eyes could become dry and uncomfortable. Make sure you take plenty of breaks and use eyedrops if required. 

Hearing 

The fact is that hearing is the one sense that we tend to ignore as we get older. Even if we’re not ready for retirement or in home caregivers just yet, we still need to check our hearing health. Listening to loud music or using earbuds can slowly chip away at our hearing, and even for those in their early 20s, this is when hearing quality can start to taper off. If you think your hearing is deteriorating, you can have it checked at a clinic, and sometimes opticians offer this service too, so you could book in for two appointments at one time. By having this hearing test, you can determine if there are any problems, and although it’s good to know if you have got hearing loss, it’s actually better to prevent it from happening in the first place. 

Some tips to protect your hearing include not using cotton buds in the ear itself (this can push wax deeper into the ear, causing problems with your hearing, and it can also damage the eardrum), and wearing ear protection if you work or visit somewhere noisy. 

Taste

The mouth is a much more complex body part than it is usually given credit for, and many elements come together to enable you to taste. Your tongue, teeth, lips, and throat are all part of what allows you to taste your food and swallow it easily. 

You’ll know that if you are feeling unwell, your food may taste different – or you may not be able to taste it at all. The same is true if you have a damaged tooth or your gums are infected. This loss of taste is a great indicator that you have something wrong with you and has even been shown to be a symptom of COVID-19 for some people. 

To protect your sense of taste, you should visit a dentist every six months. They will be able to give you advice on how best to keep your mouth clean and healthy, and if you need extra work done, they will also be able to refer you to a good root canal dentist. 

Smoking is a habit that can cause problems with your sense of taste as well. When you smoke, your taste buds become deadened, and they can no longer distinguish one taste from another. When you stop smoking, you allow them a chance to come back to full working order, and your sense of taste will, hopefully, return. 

Smell

Not only can you protect your sense of smell, but you can enhance it too. This is unlike most other senses, and it’s just one of the reasons your sense of smell is so unique. Another reason is that it is linked directly to the part of the brain that deals in memories which is why, when you smell a certain scent, it will transport you right back to another time, possibly even a time during your childhood. 

To protect your sense of smell you should always wear face or head protection when playing sports that might cause facial injuries, and you must always wear a seatbelt as if your face were to impact the windscreen, your sense of smell could be damaged. 

When it comes to supplements, zinc is excellent as it is vital for a good sense of smell. If you prefer not to take supplements, zinc can be found in lamb, seafood, and yoghurt, for example. 

Touch

Since there are around 100 touch receptors in your fingerprints alone, it’s clear that you need to look after your hands. Wear gloves when you are preparing food or using any chemicals – in fact, wear gloves whenever you are using your hands for manual work. 

You can also protect the receptors and the skin of your hands by using hand cream every night before bed.