NIKE MAXSIGHT

The Grey-Green tint is designed for use in sports played in bright sunlight
where visual comfort and glare are concerns. Grey-Green enhances the green and
red portions of the visual spectrum to improve detail and contour recognition.

The Amber tint is designed for use in sports where tracking a fast moving ball
is critical. Amber selectively filters specific wavelengths in the blue green
portion of the visible spectrum, making the ball "pop" off the background.

Seeing Better For Outdoor Winter Activities

By Juawana C Hall, O.D.

Now that cooler weather is quickly approaching, many of us will try to enjoy the various outdoor sports and recreations that are part of our local tradition around this time of the year. Whether your outdoor recreation of choice is ice skating, hockey, snowmobiling, snowboarding, cross country or downhill skiing there are some tips you should keep in mind to help protect your vision during winter weather conditions while still enjoying the fun outdoors.

If you wear glasses you know the frustration associated with having your lenses immediately fogging up when you go from a cold environment to a warm environment. The inconvenience of having to remove your glasses, clean them, put them back on hoping they don't fog up again can be a nuisance. This can be such an annoyance, that some patients refuse to wear their prescribed lenses outside during cold weather - even when driving. That is obviously not a safe and lawful way to handle the problem of lens fog.

A better alternative might be to try soft contact lenses. Contact lenses allow the wearer to have excellent vision without the fogging and slippage that can be associated with wearing glasses in wintry conditions. Contact lenses also allow you to wear sunglasses that can help reduce eye fatigue associated with squinting from sun glare that reflects off of snow and ice as well as damaging ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun. In fact, there are newer contact lens designs such as the Nike MAXSIGHT sports contact lens that block more than 95 percent of damaging blue light and UV rays without having to wear sunglasses. Such innovative contact lenses enable you to engage in your chosen winter sport activity without the visual obstruction that the frames from sunglasses can sometimes cause.

Another benefit of contact lenses is that while they are easy to remove from the eye when a wearer wants to, they are not easily jarred from the eye due to the rigors of winter sports. Even the tooth-rattling effects of a hard hit in a hockey game will typically not affect a contact lens on the surface of a player's eye - the same impact to somebody wearing glasses usually has a different outcome altogether.

Eye protection is another important consideration while engaging in outdoor activities. The fast speeds of downhill skiing, snowboarding, sledding or snowmobiling virtually require the use of high-quality, shatter resistant goggles to help protect the eye from debris and injury if an unplanned impact or wipeout occurs.

Should you choose to wear contact lenses while enjoying winter fun, keep a bottle of re-wetting drops in your parka. We've all experienced winter related dry-eye conditions caused by windy, dry conditions that can quickly evaporate the tear film that keeps the surface of the eye moist. I typically recommend that my patients use a re-wetting drop from a company such as Bausch & Lomb since it is a proven and known solutions manufacturer that also understands and manufacturers soft contact lenses.

If you plan to engage in various outdoor activities this winter, it would be a good idea to first consult with your eye care professional about your specific visual needs and requirements. Be sure to tell your doctor what your planned activities will be and ask the eye care practitioner about how you can meet the environmental challenges of wintry conditions, which will enable you to safely focus on enjoying the challenges of your respective wintry fun.

Improving Your Vision May Improve Your Golf Score

By Juawana C. Hall, OD

With better weather approaching nationwide, many "linksters" are ready to dust off their clubs and get out on the golf courses again. Few people would argue that a fundamental requirement of good golf is a combination of one's best visual skills along with concentration, relaxation and visualization.

Golfers spend a lot of time and money on equipment, lessons, green fees, the driving range, training videos and anything else that might improve their game. Yet many don't even wear their prescription glasses when they play. The truth is that a golfer's visual judgment is only as good as their best corrected vision, which often requires some kind of prescription. However, glasses can actually cause unnecessary distraction.

One of the most common problems that golfers face while wearing glasses is the slippage that can occur with the frames when the player's head is lowered while putting or driving a ball down the fairway. Another reality of the game that makes golfing while wearing glasses a challenge is the weather.

Golf is one of a few outdoor sports that is played in all weather conditions, except thunderstorms. That means golfers face rain, sleet, wind, bright sunlight, dryness, heat, cold and ultraviolet light. Whether its drops of rain dripping from the frame or a golfer's own perspiration from the heat on the glasses lenses - it may prevent a player from enjoying the game to the fullest.

The golf course itself can also pose some problems. Dirt and dust can be a hazard when it is flipped up while trying to blast a ball out of a sandtrap. Corneal abrasions or scratches on the surface of the eye are rather common among golfers. The fact is that contact lenses can be more effective than glasses for most of the problems noted here.

In fact, a new contact lens technology is available that may help improve a golfer's view of the course and improve their score as well. The Nike MAXSIGHT sport-tinted contact lens comes in a grey-green tint that has been found to help golfers enjoy their sport more. The lens was designed to block out most blue and ultraviolet light; as well as to help the player better identify how the putting green breaks; to make the ball "pop" from the background it is resting on and to reduce eye stress from squinting.

These new contact lenses require a prescription from an eye care practitioner who can also assess the 18 visual skills associated with sports vision. Some of those skills include color perception; the ability to see in low-light; the ability of the retina to recover from intense glare or light exposure; depth perception and peripheral vision - to name a few. A trained sports vision expert can usually help you improve most visual weaknesses in some degree, which may in turn help improve your golf game or any other warm-weather activity.