The five senses consistently extract information about the world around us to help us form memories, to take action when we’re in danger, and to enable us to feel something. They provide us with the ability to see, hear, feel, smell, and touch the world. Although, it’s not uncommon for our five senses to be taken for granted until we start to notice changes that indicate our senses could be deteriorating. In order to preserve your senses, here’s some guidance on how to take care of each of your them.
Taste and smell
Cleaning your nose with tissues, and clean water can help to eliminate any potential nose infections. It’s also important to keep in mind; smoking causes people to lose their sense of smell, and avoiding cigarettes will protect your nose from further damage.
Loss of taste buds over the course of your life is increased if you smoke or lack vitamins zinc and B-1. By quitting smoking and eating nutritious food, you can maintain healthy taste buds.
Sight
There are various ways to protect and preserve your eyesight, here are the most important;
- Rest: 8 hours of sleep a night can help your eyes to repair and re-energise for the following day.
- Protect from blue light: Blue light emitted from laptops and mobile phones are harmful to your eye’s and cause unnecessary straining and migraines. If due to work commitments, you’re unable to spend less time in front of your computer, blue light glasses shall eliminate blue light from penetrating your vision.
- Wash your eyes: Particularly if you have splashed something in your eyes, such as makeup. Cleaning debris from your eyelashes, eyelids, corners and under eyes, will help prevent eye infections.
- Use eye protection when handling chemicals such as paint.
Sound
To protect your hearing, it’s important first of all, to mention not to use Q-tips to clean your ears. Doing so can cause the ear wax to become packed, which could potentially cause damage to your hearing.
Some ear wax is essential to protect your hearing, however too much build-up can cause hearing problems. You can use olive oil or sodium bicarbonate drops twice a day to help loosen any wax, and it shall gradually fall out over the course of two weeks. For cleaning, use a damp cloth to clean the outside of the ear.
Also, try to avoid loud music over 80 decibels. Listening to loud music continuously causes irreparable hearing loss.
Touch
Losing your sense of touch is possible; it’s referred to as tactile anaesthesia. Preventative measures include maintaining a healthy diet rich in B-12 vitamins, avoiding smoking, and wearing suitable clothing to protect your body, particularly in cold weather.
The most straightforward advice for taking care of your senses is to eat healthy food, clean your face and body routinely, particularly after exposure to pollutants, and alert your doctor of any problems with your senses that come to your attention.
Looking after your eyesight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch throughout your life shall help protect and preserve your senses, so that they may last you a lifetime.
