Anything missing from that list? Yup. Sunglasses!

While many of us are ensuring not an inch of bare skin is exposed to the harsh conditions winter can bring, we unfortunately tend to forget about protecting our eyes. Individuals typically don’t associate winter with a need for sunglasses, but with cold temperatures and snow there also comes hazardous conditions for your eyes.

Excessive exposure to the sun’s powerful ultraviolet rays without proper eye protection can put you at risk for a painful condition known as photokeratitis, which is akin to sunburn of the cornea and conjunctiva. The risk for photokeratitis is elevated in the winter months when fresh snow has the potential to reflect 80% of UV radiation. In comparison, a dry beach will reflect roughly 15% of UV rays.
In addition to photokeratitis, overexposure to UV rays has been found to cause cataracts and macular degeneration, two of the most common eye health issues experienced by older adults. Fortunately, these conditions can be avoided with proper eyewear and limited exposure to excessive UV rays.

Not only will sunglasses offer protection from the powerful winter sun, but also from the cold, dry air that can irritate eyes, especially for those that wear contact lenses. The bitter winter weather has the potential to dry eyes, making them itchy and irritated. While eye drops can help to alleviate dry eyes, sunglasses will help to eliminate the threat.

If you find yourself spending time outdoors this winter, make sure to put on a pair of sunglasses and keep your eyes protected!

Thankfully there are several organizations that are committed to helping those in need get the proper eyewear. If you are interested in donating your old eyeglasses, here are some organizations to look into:

Lions Clubs International cleans and fixes old non-prescription and prescription glasses before donating them to people in need. You can go to Lions Clubs International’s website to see the 17 locations in the U.S. and around the world where they collect glasses. Even if they don’t have a physical office in your city, they may have drop boxes in your community.

Another organization doing similar work is OneSight. In 2011, the organization helped an estimated 120,000 – 160,000 people through their eye care clinics around the world. You can search for their donation location nearest you.

If you’re willing to ship your eyeglasses to a non-profit, there are even more organizations to choose from. For example, New Eyes for the Needy, based in New Jersey, accepts sunglasses, and plastic and metal glasses. Even if the lenses are broken, sending your frames could still benefit a person in need.

By donating your eyeglasses, someone will have the opportunity to see and do things that they could have never dreamed & that is definitely a very special gift!

1.)    How Often Will You Be Wearing Contacts?
One of the very first questions you should ask yourself is how often do you plan to wear your contacts. It’s important to determine the frequency of your contact usage, as it will help determine which type of contacts you choose, either hard (rigid gas permeable) or soft.

Will you only wear your contacts every now and then, or will you be wearing contacts each and every day? If you are the latter, hard contacts may make the most sense. Although they take some time to adjust to, with regular every day usage, hard contacts will become more comfortable. However, if you are looking for flexibility and plan on switching back and forth between contacts and glasses, soft contacts may be the best option as they require little time to adjust to.

2.)    Do You Intend to Wear Your Contacts For Long Periods of Time?
Do you envision yourself taking your contacts out each night before bed or do you plan on sleeping with your contacts in? If you plan to continually wear your contacts, let your optometrist know. While extended usage of contacts is often advised against, as it can create health risks, the FDA has approved certain contacts that allow high amounts of oxygen to pass through for extended & overnight wear.

3.)    Will You Have the Time to Properly Care for Your Contacts?
You are probably already thinking of all the convenience contacts will offer, but remember, they require proper care to keep your eyes healthy and happy. This will involve cleaning not only your contacts themselves, but also the case that your contacts are stored in each day. If you are not up to the task of cleaning and disinfecting your lenses and cases each and every day, look towards single use disposable lenses.

If you’ve taken the time to consider these three important questions, your next step will be to schedule an eye exam with your optometrist and get fitted for your new contact lenses!

1.)     Get an Eye Exam:  When going through the process of buying new frames, take the opportunity to visit your optometrist for an eye exam.  The last thing you want to do is spend time shopping for the perfect pair of glasses, only to put old lenses in the frames. Having an up to date prescription is key to walking away happy.

2.)    Consider Function:  Will you be active while wearing your glasses?  Looking at a computer screen?  Speaking in a professional setting?  All of the questions posed above will be important factors in choosing the right pair of glasses.  For example, if you will be wearing your glasses in a professional setting put your quirkier fashion sense aside and opt for a more classic frame that can be worn across multiple functions.  If you will be looking at a computer for hours a day, you may need to consider lenses with an anti-reflective coating.

3.)    Shape, Size, and Color:  The retailer you choose for your purchase is of the utmost importance.  Choosing a retailer such as a Cohen’s Fashion Optical, will ensure that you have a wide variety of options available to you.  This is especially important as knowing what color, size, and frame type to choose can only really be decided after trying on multiple pairs.

4.)    Comfort is Key:  Once you’ve narrowed down your favorite pairs, spend some time in them.  The length of your eyelashes, the way the glasses feel on your nose and behind your ears will all affect your long term satisfaction with the pair you choose!

The number one thing to remember when shopping for glasses is having fun!  Buying new specs not only gives you an opportunity for better vision, but can also provide you with a whole new look!  How many accessories can say that??!!

Sitting too close to the television is bad for my vision.

Scientific evidence does not exist to support the claim that sitting too close to the television jeopardizes one’s vision.  While your eyes may become fatigued by sitting too close to the television set, they will not physically weaken.  In summary, if sitting close to the television is the most comfortable position for you, don’t worry about affecting your vision long term.  That said, if you are sitting close to the television because you cannot see at a further distance, schedule an eye exam to have your vision tested. 

Reading in the dark is bad for my vision.

Again, reading in dim light may fatigue your eyes, but it will not harm your vision.  To avoid eye fatigue, read under a good source of light.

There is no reason to have my eyes checked before I am 40. 

Myth!  Even those of us lucky enough to have 20/20 vision should go for regular eye exams.  Vision aside, doctors also check for eye related diseases such as Glaucoma during routine eye exams.  As with any disease, early detection is the key to recovery.

Wearing glasses will make my vision worse over time.

Not the case.  While you may continue to experience further vision loss as you age, the loss will not be caused by the glasses or corrective lenses prescribed to you by your eye doctor.  Having your eyes examined regularly and making sure your prescription glasses are up to date will only have a positive impact on your vision.

Carrots:
We’ve all heard, since childhood, that carrots are essential to healthy vision, but do you know why? Carrots are rich in beta – carotene which your body converts to vitamin A. Vitamin A, which helps transfer fat to energy, is essential for maintaining healthy vision. In fact Vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of blindness in the Third World. The vitamin helps maintain the surface lining of the eyes and integrity of skin and mucous membranes that protect us from bacteria and viruses.

Eggs:
Due to carotenes such as lutein and zeaxanthin, eggs may prevent macular degeneration which results in a loss of vision in the center of the visual field. Additionally, studies show that the sulfer in eggs protects the lens of the eye from the formation of cataracts.

Goji Berries:
Goji Berries, which play an important role in Chinese medicine for their positive affects on eyesight, are nutritionally rich, containing beta – carotene, Vitamins C, B1, B2 and other vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and amino acids. It has been inferred that Goji Berries are able to reduce the time it takes for vision to adapt to darkness and that the berry improves vision under subdued light. There’s also evidence to suggest that Goji Berries may also protect against macular degeneration and cataracts.

In closing, to best maintain your stellar eyesight, always schedule regular eye exams…but in the meantime, be sure to keep a healthy serving of eye friendly foods handy!

Below are a few items your doctor will look for:

Refractive errors such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatisms.

Amblyopia which occurs when one eye is stronger than the other, causing the weaker eye to experience permanent vision impairment as it learns to depend on the stronger eye.   

Strabismus or crossed eyes.

Focusing problems such as incompletely developed focusing skills in children or declines in focus ability due to aging.

Eye diseases such as glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy.

Other diseases such as diabetes or high blood pressure that your eye doctor can detect early signs of by looking at your eye’s blood vessels, retina, etc.

To maintain healthy vision, follow the eye exam frequency recommendations below:

Before the age of 40:  Every 2 Years

Between the ages of 41 – 64:  Every year

After the age of 65:  Every 6 months to a year

Anyone with risk factors should be tested every 6 months to a year

Scientists from MIT and Cambridge have created a prototype of a pair of glasses that can track 24 “feature points” of your conversation partner’s face and feed back information to the wearer on how their compatriot is feeling. This new eyewear isn’t just useful if you’re a little obtuse about the finer points of body language. They could also be valuable tools for people on the autism spectrum who often have a difficult time gauging the emotions of others according to NewScientist. They could also help with communicating across cultural boundaries, where the computer software that the glasses use might be better able to parse unfamiliar facial expressions than the human eye.

The person wearing these special specs receives information via a small headphone and a blinking light that, together, convey the mood of the other party. The six main expressions that the glasses can detect are: thinking, agreeing, concentrating, interested, confused and disagreeing.

While it would be useful to know if you were talking someone’s ear off or thrilling them with your wit and charm there’s the issue of privacy. No matter how good an actor you are, there are some microexpressions that you can’t mask. As a result, if someone wearing the glasses starts conversing with you without your permission, they could glean information that would make your interaction more, rather than less, awkward.

But you don’t need to worry just yet about your great aunt Doris discovering what you really think of her goulash. It will likely be a while before these glasses are on the market.

At the age of 45, Scott started covering rock and roll in its nascent moments and kept doing so until well into her 80s. The writer for The Cleveland Plain Dealer, who was known, among other things, for her signature red fashion frames, with roundish lenses in the cat eye frames and a keystone bridge, started her beat covering the Beatles’ 1964 Cleveland concert when none of her colleagues were interested in going.

Scott went on to interview some of the biggest names in the music world including Paul McCartney, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, and Mick Jagger. Though she often didn’t fit in with the rest of the artists’ swooning teenage fanbase − the Philadelphia Inquirer once referred to her as “a drop of bleached blond and pink polyester in a roiling sea of blue denim and black leather” − Scott always kept an open mind, and openly adored many of the acts she covered.

Though Scott grew up listening to music on a Victrola, her vigor and her enthusiasm kept her in the music journalism field until well into the iPod era. She passed away earlier this week from complications due to Alzheimer’s.

1)      Polarization – Polarized sunglasses are good for driving, skiing, fishing, any scenario where you have a lot of light bouncing off of flat surfaces like water or snow.

2)      Tint – You can get sunglasses tinted in any color that you prefer, it doesn’t have to be a dark, gloomy hue, in order to offer you protection from the sun’s ultraviolet rays.

3)      Photochromic – These lenses get lighter and darker depending on how much sunlight you’re being exposed to. The advantage of going with this option is that your everyday wear glasses can double as your sunglasses, but for those who love to accessorize, that might be more limiting than refreshing.

4)      Impact resistance – The Food and Drug Administration requires that all sunglasses be able to survive at least some minimal impact. But if you want to shield your eyes from the sun while playing sports, you’ll need special protective sunglasses with greater impact resistance.

Sunglasses help protect against cataracts and age-related macular degeneration, so it’s imperative that you consider the factors listed above and think beyond the fashion implications of your eyewear. And in case you were wondering, even with the best sunglasses, looking directly at the sun can scorch your corneas so don’t give in to your curiosity. Happy Fourth of July and happy sunglasses shopping!