How to Pick Good Sunglasses
There's more choosing shades than how good they look on
you. Your sunglasses should keep damaging sunrays away
from your eyes.
Do you love how cool your sunglasses make
you look? If you really want to be comfortable in the
glare and protect your eyes -- and your children's eyes --
from future cataracts, there is more to selecting
sunglasses than mere "coolness" (desirable as that is).
Although the human body is aces at
replacing some damaged cells, the cells in the lens of the
eye are never replaced. Damage from ultraviolet and (to a
lesser degree) infrared rays can build up over a lifetime
and lead to cloudy areas on the lens of your eye called
cataracts. It's hard to see through cataracts, and they
often must be removed surgically. Macular degeneration, an
eye condition resulting from damage to the retina, also
may be accelerated by too much unfiltered sun blasting the
retinas.
"The thing you want to guard against
mainly is ultraviolet rays," explains Lee Duffner, MD,
professor of ophthalmology at the University of Miami and
spokesman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. "You
want to filter as many of these as you can away from your
eyes." Most sunglasses, coated with UV blockers, block the
ultraviolet B rays, but the cheaper ones may cheat a
little on ultraviolet A. Examine the label. (Some contact
lenses also block UVB -- ask your eye doctor.)
Besides UV, brightness is an issue. What
people don't realize, Duffner says, is that going from
inside to outside involves confronting light thousands of
times brighter than that going into the eye the moment
before. Brightness is a comfort issue -- it's
uncomfortable to go into the sun from the shade and to
have undimmed light flowing into your eyes.
So the darker the lens in your sunglasses
the better? "Clear glass transmits 90% of light, Duffner
says. As the glasses get darker, less and less light goes
through. Lightly tinted lenses let in 75% to 80% of light,
Duffner says. Military standards specify that only 15% of
light should penetrate. "You can still see very well with
10% to 12% of light only," he notes. "I recommend glasses
in the 20% range."
What Color?
Duffner says the overall best color to get
is gray. "This absorbs light across the spectrum equally."
Eight percent of men and almost no women
have color deficiencies (which used to be called color
blindness). "Depending on your deficiency," Duffner
explains, you need to select a certain tint of sunglasses.
"Bronze is not good for men with a green deficiency. Green
is not good for anyone with a red or green deficiency.
Gray is safest for men." Women should go with gray, green,
or brown, he adds.
Rose-colored sunglasses. Are they a good
way to see the world? "Pink isn't a good color for anyone
to get," Duffner declares.
|
