Polarized sunglasses look cool and help you to see better by reducing glare. They are a great option for people who spend a lot of time outdoors in the sunshine, especially around water, snow, or other reflective surfaces. In some cases, polarized sunglasses can actually help protect your eyes from harmful ultraviolet radiation. All sunglasses are not the same, and some may actually be doing you more harm than good. Learn more about the advantages that polarized lenses have to offer.
How Polarized Lenses Protect Your Eyes From the Sun
You are able to see because light, whether natural or artificial, is reflected off of objects and enters your eyes through the pupil, where it then makes an impression on the retina, and the image travels via the optic nerve to the brain. Under ordinary circumstances, the light gets scattered as it hits a surface so that it does not go directly into your eyes. However, when the surface is very smooth and shiny, the light may not scatter, and that is when glare occurs.
According to an old cliché, the eyes are the windows to the soul. If that is true, then womens polarized sunglasses are kind of like vertical blinds. The lenses are treated with a special chemical that acts as a filter that only allows some of the light through. Most glare consists of horizontal light, and because the filter is oriented vertically, it blocks a lot of the glare, protecting your eyes from the sun.
Damages UV Rays can Cause in Non Polarized Lenses
It should be noted that polarization by itself does not provide protection against UV radiation. Fortunately, however, many polarized lenses are also treated with a substance that blocks harmful UV rays. Sunglasses that do not block UV radiation may actually put you at greater risk of exposure. The reason is that shading your eyes with dark sunglasses causes your pupils to dilate, letting more UV radiation into your eyes.
UV radiation can cause a number of different eye conditions. Photokeratitis occurs when short-term exposure to high levels of UV-B radiation causes inflammation and swelling of the cornea. It is also called snow blindness or corneal sunburn.
Photokeratitis is temporary, but UV exposure can cause other eye conditions that are chronic. UV exposure may be responsible for 10% of all cataracts, which occur when the lens of the eye starts to cloud. Another condition related to long-term UV exposure is macular degeneration. This is a condition that causes changes in the retina, which is located in the back of the eye. These conditions can cause vision loss. While cataracts can be treated with surgery to replace the lens, treatment options for macular degeneration are more limited. In many cases, the most you can hope for is to slow the progression of the disease rather than reverse the damage that it causes.
It is preferable to protect your eyes from UV radiation. Polarized sunglasses for men that have been treated with a UV-blocking substance provide significant protection. You can find these in multiple colors at reasonable prices from online retailers.
