Vision Through the Years
Although people who are blind can easily live very fulfilled lives, there is no doubt that their condition puts them at a disadvantage in every respect – including the reality that those of us who can see get great pleasure from those little sights that warm our hearts like sunsets, children playing, beautiful views and so on. Seeing is such an integral part of our lives. From the moment we are born, until the moment we die, what we see helps us to determine how we view the world.
There are those who are fortunate enough to enjoy 20/20 vision without the use of glasses for most of their lives. In other cases, children from as young as three-years-old begin wearing eyeglasses to correct an eye condition, or simply to compensate for the lack of distance vision. In almost all cases, one’s eyes worsen, to some degree, with age.
For everyone, the deterioration is a very individual process and not everyone will have the same signs, symptoms, or treatment. Sadly, aging often brings eye diseases such as glaucoma, cataracts and macular degeneration. However, if you are careful about going for annual eye examinations, and you know what symptoms are worrisome, then your eye doctor will pick up on the condition in time to treat it effectively. It’s important to remember is that if your eye doctor gives you eye medication – whether in the form of pills, drops or otherwise – always take them as directed, in order to help in the fight to retain your eyesight. The medications are important and often vital for your vision health!
When the loss of 20/20 vision comes outside of an eye condition, patients will find themselves facing any number of optical inconveniences such as the need for more light to be able to see; difficulty in discerning between certain colors; discrepancies between how they see from far and how they see up close – this includes the distance sight and the focusing ability; as well as the ability to adjust to glare and darkness.
Natural solutions to the problem of aging eyes are to stop smoking and eat healthy foods – especially those that are known to be good for your sight. Additionally, controlling your blood pressure, cholesterol levels, diabetes, or other health problems, and being active will help slow down the aging process with your vision. As with anybody else, you should ensure to wear sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat while in the sun; as well as safety eye wear when necessary, such as goggles while swimming, and so on.
Other treatment includes the buying eyeglasses that answer to your optical needs. After a thorough eye examination, your doctor may adapt your eyeglasses prescription You may be required to get new prescription glasses or even multifocal glasses, take this in and get new glasses as soon as you can to minimize your own optical discomfort and start seeing properly. Nothing should ever stop you from being able to enjoy the sights around you – especially not the aging process!
Hillary Glaser is a social networking specialist and expert in cross-media promotion, currently working on promoting prescription eyeglasses. She is the Director of Marketing and Special Projects for GlassesUSA.com – the easiest way to buy glasses online, which now offers free shipping on all US orders with the code FreeShip10.
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Sunglasses for Safe Driving
Driving is an act that comes with the responsibility to do everything possible to ensure the safest driving experience for yourself and others. Not being able to see properly will affect your ability to do this. Here are some tips for safe driving.
Driving – an activity that puts yourself, those in the car with you, and those on the road with you, at risk every moment! Wouldn’t it be great if everyone thought like this? If everyone accepted what a huge responsibility it is when you sit behind the wheel.
When learning to drive, a common phrase will be that you have to worry about others on the road, sometimes, even more than you have to worry about your own driving; however, this does not excuse the driver from doing everything necessary to ensure safety on the roads.
There are numerous elements that will, or can, interfere with your safe driving experience, these include: problems with the car, misbehaving children in the back, another crazy driver who has taken the road as his own personal playground, and your eyes. The latter includes the effect of the glare of the sun, as well as one’s distance vision and whether it is suitable enough for you to be able to see and catch every possible sign post and threat.
A thorough annual eye examination will ensure that you know your distance vision limitations (if there are any) and that you can buy prescription glasses to make up for what is missing. However, even with appropriate prescription eyeglasses for night driving, during the day drivers may find themselves struggling to see through the glare of the sun and this can result in tragedy all round.
The only way to drive safely during the day is to own a pair of sunglasses. After eye surgery, patients should be especially careful about their driving ability and make sure to wear sunglasses during the day. If you wear eyeglasses and do not want the bother of having to change between regular prescription eyeglasses and your prescription sunglasses, there is the option of photochromic lenses. The lenses change from clear to tint when exposed to UV light and return back to clear when the UV light is removed.
The color of the lens of the sunglasses is something to consider as certain colors will distort your view of the colors that you see. Some tips: green or gray colored lenses are said to maintain true color, while brown causes color distortion but improves contrast. Orange and yellow lenses are great for contrast and depth perception but severely increase color distortion. Yellow is often worn by drivers at night as they enhance contrast to a degree. Red is said to minimize color distortion completely. You should also note that turquoise lenses are good to wear if in medium or light conditions as they enhance contrast without causing color distortion.
For night driving, while wearing regular prescription eyeglasses, you should have your lenses protected with an anti-glare coating so that the street lights, or lights from approaching vehicles, will not have you seeing blindly and causing an accident as a result. Even if buying photochromic lenses for day driving, the same rule applies: have them coated with an anti-glare coating.
So take responsibility for your driving! Get your eyeglasses prescription updated and buy glasses with a color tint and anti-glare coating so that you can be sure that your lack of vision will not be the cause of tragedy on the roads.
Hillary Glaser is a social networking specialist and expert in cross-media promotion, currently working on promoting prescription eyeglasses. She is the Director of Marketing and Special Projects for GlassesUSA.com – the easiest way to buy glasses online, which now offers free shipping on all US orders with the code FreeShip10.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Hillary_G_Glaser
The Dangers of Wearing Glasses With the Incorrect Prescription
If you’ve been wearing eyeglasses for a long time and you are sick of the annual check-ups at your optometrist because you know that your prescription has changed, yet again, and you are in need of a new pair of prescription eyeglasses. This probably upsets you and it’s an understandable feeling. Unfortunately, this is a fact of life – eyesight deteriorates earlier for some, and faster than others.
While your eyes can start deteriorating at any time, you don’t want to be stuck wearing an outdated pair of frames with old prescription lenses. Although wearing eyeglasses with the wrong prescription will not damage your eyes, it can cause some very unpleasant side effects that are really not worth suffering through just to save a few dollars on buying new eyeglasses. Just think, how would you like to suffer from nausea, headaches, blurred vision, strained eyes, dizziness and vertigo? Aside from making you feel sick; these side effects can also prove dangerous if you are in a situation such as driving, carrying glass or hot beverages, handling machinery and so on. Your reluctance to buy new glasses and suffer the side effects instead, can cause harm, not only to yourself but to others as well.
Incidentally, even without a formal trip to your eye doctor, these side effects will be your first clear indication that your eyesight is waning and that you need a new, stronger optical solution. If you are stubborn enough to continue wearing your old prescription eyeglasses, the symptoms of nausea, dizziness and headaches may reduce, or even completely disappear; however, the blurred vision and eye strain would remain because you aren’t seeing properly and the lenses are no longer compensating for your loss in optical strength.
Similarly, when you begin to age and your eyesight begins to change, you will not be able to continue wearing regular prescription eyeglasses when you actually need multifocal glasses. If not corrected with the appropriate prescription strength, you will continue to strain your eyes and suffer from these other unpleasant symptoms.
When you decide to give in and invest in eyeglasses for the sake of your overall health, you should know that following a thorough eye examination, your eye doctor will have your most updated eyeglasses prescription. This will allow you to get lenses made with the correct prescription strength to fit your vision difficulties and allow you to see as you should.
You should keep in mind that the first time you put on your new pair of eyeglasses, you will feel a bit dizzy and nauseous. This is because you eyes will need a few short moments to adjust to their new advanced vision. If, after an hour or two, you still feel these negative symptoms, then it is a sure sign that the lenses were not manufactured exactly according to your prescription and they will need to be changed.
This, however, is a little bit different in the case of multifocal glasses. With these, the adjustment process is a little bit more difficult as there is an optical jump within the lenses that take some getting used to. This adjustment period could take a while, but they usually normalize within 72-hours. Some have even reported a month or more, however, in the end, there is no doubting that your visual needs will be completely taken care of.
Should you be suffering from any of the above-mentioned side effects, or you have already visited your eye doctor and your updated eyeglasses prescription dictates the need for new frames, do not hesitate! Get eyeglass frames that will give you the perfect sight that you deserve! It is not a waste of money; it’s a favor that you do for yourself, to enjoy your health and your life.
Hillary Glaser is a social networking specialist and expert in cross-media promotion, currently working on promoting prescription eyeglasses. She is the Director of Marketing and Special Projects for GlassesUSA.com – the easiest way to buy glasses online, which now offers free shipping on all US orders with the code FreeShip10.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Hillary_G_Glaser
Macular Degeneration Is Preventable If You Catch It In Time
As we age, we generally begin to lose the sharpness of our senses. Our hearing range gradually narrows. Our sense of smell and taste slowly dissipates. Our tactile senses erode as nerve endings in our extremities become less sensitive. And our eyesight becomes poorer and poorer.
Of all of our senses, sight is probably the one that is most important to the majority of people. And, unfortunately, as we age, sight is the one sense that we risk losing totally through blindness if we ignore the warning signs.
One of the leading causes of blindness in the U.S. today is macular degeneration. Even though it can affect people at any age, mostly it is a disease of the elderly, primarily striking those in their late fifties or sixties. The frustrating thing is that, if caught early, the progression of the disease can either be significantly delayed or, in some cases, even stopped.
Macular degeneration is defined as damage to the center of the retina, which is known as the macula. The cause is partially hereditary in nature. Which means that if someone in your family has the disease, the odds of you having it increases. It is important to note that just because no one in your family tree has ever had the disease, does not mean that you cannot be struck by macular degeneration. It simply means that you have a lesser chance of it occurring.
Screening techniques for the illness are getting better all the time. The screening tools used by today’s doctors allow them to look deeper into the retina than ever before. As a result, they cannot only spot the exact places in the retina where the damage is occurring, but they can spot the damage earlier as well. And, this is important, because there are various forms of the disease. And some of these forms can be very successfully treated – if the disease is discovered early enough. In fact, in some cases, the treatment can be simply a subscription for mega-doses of antioxidant vitamins. While in other, major eye surgery may be required. The point is, there are treatments available.
Many people go years between eye exams. But, as you age, everyone should have their eyes tested at least once a year. This is especially true if you have a history of macular degeneration in your family. If you don’t have health care and have limited funds, see what types of health assistance programs are available in your area. Fortunately, in the past ten years, because of its pervasiveness, many clinics across the country offer free screenings for the disease.
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