In the back of your eye is an area called the macula. It helps you discern faces or read text, and in good light, provides the colorful, high-def vision we’re accustomed to having on a daily basis. When the macula is damaged — which occurs naturally, over time, via a process called macular degeneration — it’s possible to experience a gradual, near-total loss of vision.
And according to a recent article by Time that cited ophthalmological studies from the past five years, there’s also evidence that a very simple choice you make every day can speed up that deterioration: not wearing sunglasses … or even not wearing the correct pair.
When you don’t wear protective eyewear, ultraviolet radiation piggybacks onto the light streaming into your eyes and guns it straight for the macula. This dosage is doubled when reflected light travels through another prism, as happens when you’re driving in a car and the lights comes through the windshield. Light reflected off of water or a snowbank has the same effect.
Not wearing the right shades also increases one’s risk of retinoblastoma (eye cancer).
Your best defense against these maladies it to find a pair of sunglasses that A) blocks UVA/UVB rays and B) has lenses on the larger side. The darkness of the lenses is irrelevant, as is “polarization.” As long as you have that UV-sticker, they can be $300 designer shades or a pair of $12 airport throwaways. You’re taking care of that macula, and that’s what matters.
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