Tag: eye care

Healthcare, medical, Optometry

Contact Lens Health Week

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Although we have talked about good contact lens hygiene in the past (remember the underwear analogy?) in honor of Contact Lens Health Week (August 20-24) I will reiterate some of the dos and don’ts of proper contact lens usage.

  • Don’t sleep or nap in your contacts. Ever. This kind of risky behavior increases the chances of contact lens related eye infection by 6-8 times. These types of eye infections can lead to using drops hourly, vision loss, and surgery. Just Don’t Do It.
  • Wash your hands before putting your fingers in your eyes to touch your contacts.
  • Daily disposables are the healthiest modality of contact lens wear. If you do wear bi-weekly or monthly contacts make sure you are using fresh solution in your clean case every day and don’t wear your contacts beyond the recommended wear schedule. Yuk. An old dirty contact lens can also cause infections.
  • No swimming or showering with contact lenses. Microbes in water can adhere to contacts and cause…you guessed it – terrible eye infections.
  • If your eye hurts or looks red or weird don’t put your contact lenses in your eye and hope for the best – make an appointment ASAP with your optometrist.
  • Make an appointment yearly to see your optometrist. Not all contact lens related complications are visible to the naked eye and a thorough professional evaluation is necessary to ensure your eyes are getting enough oxygen and have no corneal defects.

#onepairtakecare – you only get one pair of eyes – treat them well!

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Healthcare, medical, Optometry

Orange You Glad You Ate An Orange?

orange fruit

Eating just one orange a day can slash your risk of developing macular degeneration by 60%. A recent study in the American Journal Of Clinical Nutrition followed 2,000 patients over the age of 50 for 15 years and found that the patients who ate an orange a day had a significantly decreased risk of AMD (age related macular degeneration) compared to those patients who ate no oranges at all. Usually research involving oranges concentrates on the effects of the vitamin C, E, and A the oranges contain, but this study put an emphasis on theflavonoids found in oranges. Flavonoids are powerful antioxidants that have immune and anti-inflammatory effects and are found in most fruits and vegetables. sliced orange fruits on round white ceramic plateThe study examined other foods that have flavonoids such as tea, apples and red wine (yes please) but for some reason oranges were the only food that aided in the prevention of AMD. The authors of the study acknowledge that more research has to be done before doctors can definitely prescribe an orange a day to keep AMD away.

https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/ajcn/nqy114/5049680?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Healthcare, Optometry

National Sunglasses Day

ball shaped beach blur close upWho doesn’t love sunglasses? After all, how many fashion accessories can also claim to be important medical devices? Whether you prefer glamorous or sporty, classic or trendy, sunglasses are a fashion statement that never goes out of style. In honor of National Sunglasses Day which takes place on June 27, here are a few facts about sunglasses that might be new to you.

Size matters. This season has seen a trend in “micro” sunglasses both on celebs and on the catwalk. Don’t be lured into this fad  – not only do the eyes themselves need UV protection, so does the whole lid area and all the skin around the eyes in order to prevent melanoma. Also, do you really want to revisit nineties fashion?  

Kids need sunglasses too. Because children have naturally larger pupils (pupil = that dark hole in the center of the eye that lets light in) more harmful UV rays reach their retinas and can cause future damage. Also interesting is the fact that kids are short and tend to look up more to see the world which causes them to look into the sun more often than adults. Parents are reluctant to spend money on kids sunglasses because kids lose stuff. A lot. One easy way around this is to make sure that kids who wear prescription glasses get photochromic lenses – the ones that magically morph into sunglasses when exposed to sunlight – no keeping track of a second pair. Kids that don’t wear prescription glasses will be excited to wear a cool grown up accessory and wearing them on a strap is a sporty way to make sure they don’t get lost.

artistic cloth design flagJust because sunglasses are dark does not mean they have UV protection! In fact many of those cheap sunglasses you buy off street vendors are tinted but have no UV and are even more dangerous than not wearing anything at all. If the glasses are dark your pupil will open up even wider to let more light in, but since there is no UV in the lens, it allows more dangerous light into the eye. Sunglasses don’t need to be expensive but they do need to have UVA and UVB protection which should be indicated by a sticker on the sunglasses.

No matter what your motivation is, be it hiding from the paparazzi or just sporting a posh headband, quality sunglasses are a fun investment in your eye health.

For more information on National Sunglass Day visit
http://nationalsunglassesday.com/sunglasses/

Optometry

Contact Lenses Are Like Underwear

Did that get your attention? Fantastic, keep reading! A few years ago the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) came out with a cute but slightly stomach churning info-graphic that compared wearing dirty underwear to misusing contact lenses. Daily contact lenses are meant to be worn once and then tossed – that’s why they are called “daily”. Reusing dailies is unhygienic and gross and can lead to potential eye infection and inflammation. The same way you would (hopefully) not reuse the underwear you wore yesterday, don’t reuse your dailies! Other modalities of contact lenses such as monthlies are meant to be reused, but continuing with our undergarment metaphor, like underwear they need to be thoroughly sanitized with appropriate cleansers before wearing again. Other bad contact lens habits the info-graphic highlights are not cleaning contacts with tap water or spit (NASTY!) and not buying non FDA approved contact lenses found in sketchy costume shops or the dollar store. The info-graphic ends off with the advice “Cover your butt, take care of your eyes”. Not the classiest analogy, but I’ll bet it’s a visual that might haunt you the next time you consider abusing your contact lenses!

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