Welcome to Eyecare Insights with Doctor Kyle Tate, your Jenks Eye Doctor. Today we are in part two of our update about blue light. We are discussing the dangers of blue light and how it affects your body. In our last article we learned that blue light is very common from technology and that’s what causes the largest risks to the eyes. We discussed in length where blue light comes from. As your Jenks eye Doctor we also gave our medical opinion on how blue light is out of balance; that imbalance is core problem these days, because we spent more time in front of screens and less and less time outside. Let’s focus a little bit more on how blue light affects your body; that means the diseases and the damage that it can cause to you. And come back for the next article, as your Jenks Eye Doctor discusses how we can prevent this blue light from affecting you each day and throughout your lifetime.
Luckily right now we do not have any evidence that blue light technologies will soak into the skin badly enough to cause any type of cancer like ultraviolet light can. Your Jenks Eye Doctor sees many patients who have abnormal-looking growths on their eyelids from ultraviolet light. Part of being a Jenks Eye Doctor is learning how to evaluate those growths as to whether they are cancerous or not. If you or any of your family have any type of lumps or bumps on the eyelids please come to Insight Eyecare and let your local Jenks Eye Expert look at those to make sure everything is healthy. Blue light at this time also does not hurt the front of the eye, called the cornea, or soak into the next layer, which would be the lens of the eye. The lens of the eye is where cataracts can come from. Your Jenks Eye Doctor has discussed cataracts in one of our previous podcast episodes so please reference that if you’d like to know more about cataracts. Even though blue light does not soak into the front surface of the eye, we do know that the blue light or the amount of screen time does cause the surface of the eye to dry out. Science has not yet proven medically if blue light is a factor making that worse, or if it is 100% from your blink rate being reduced while using devices such as phones tablets computers. As your Jenks Eye Doctor we believe the imbalance of blue light and reduced blinking is what causes computer vision syndrome or eyestrain on computers.
The main symptom you experience each day using technology that has blue light – such as your cell phone, iPad, tablet, or your computer – is eyestrain and a tired feeling in your eyes later in the day. Using some of the technologies we will talk about our next article, your Jenks eye doctor can help relieve these tired eyes and the strange feeling from your eyes. We have many patients who get these technologies and then tell us how remarkable it is to work for an entire day without tired eyes. We also have many patients who appreciate their Jenks Eye Doctor discussing this technology with them. Now their eyes do not experience that burning, gritty feeling at the end of the day, simply by getting a new no-glare treatment or a different lens option on their glasses. Your Jenks Eye Doctor’s biggest concern for the long-term health of your eyes is that blue light will soak in to the back of the eye in a structure called the macula to cause macular degeneration. Macular degeneration is a disease that normally does not begin until patients are 65 years old; however, in the last 10 years as we started using these technologies more, we are noticing that patients are developing macular degeneration in an earlier state. What macular degeneration does is very slowly erode the part of the retina that gives your clear detail vision. This is also referred to as your central vision. In Macular Degeneration your macula degrades away to blurrier vision progressively. Macular degeneration has a few different types which we’ve discussed another article. If any of your family has Macular Degeneration, please come visit Insight Eyecare, your local Jenks Eye Doctor, for evaluation and treatment.
Insight Eyecare, your Jenks Eye Doctor, has researched these technologies that help block blue light, and what that can do for you on a day-to-day basis. Blue light filters make your eyes feel less tired. Blue light blocking technologies can help protect your eyes from macular degeneration. This interprets to your life being better! Remember our mission at Insight Eyecare is to improve every life in every encounter. That means your Jenks Eye Doctor is committed to staying on the forefront of these technologies to improve your life; not just today, but also in the future to come. It surprises many of our patients to find out that these blue lights can also affect the rest of your body and these effects are not truly known yet because this is a very hard thing to study. We do know that blue light from technology will affect your sleep cycle. The blue lights coming off screens this day and age will disrupt your sleep patterns, especially if you are in front of a screen before bed. That’s why many of you may have noticed on your cell phone or computers that they have technologies to change the color of the screens later in the evening. There are many different terms for this because they’re all what different brands want to call these technologies. A lot of people do not like using these features because the screens look more yellowish. That is because if you take the blue light away from the screen there is more of a yellow hue to it. But if you really think about it what would you prefer, would you prefer to not get to sleep as easily, to have your eyes feel tired, and to increase your risk of going blind? Or would you prefer to get a few different options on your glasses and change the settings on your computer so that your eyes feel better, you sleep better, and you have less risk of going blind?
In our continued effort to improve your life, your Jenks Eye Doctor wants to take the time to discuss these different treatment options for you. Your Jenks eye Doctor stays on the forefront of all the new technologies, helping decide what things will make your life better. If you would like more information about blue light technologies, how they can improve your life, and how to best get them, contact us at Insight Eyecare. We treat many eye problems beyond blue light technologies such as dry eyes, macular degeneration, diabetes, and even simple things such as nearsighted, farsightedness, and astigmatism. At Insight Eyecare, your Jenks eye doctor performs eye exams on patients of all ages. We do eye exams on grandparents, senior citizens, and infants. We will perform baby eye exams and children’s eye exams. We work very hard to maintain a schedule that has open appointments to get you a same-day eye exam or a next-day eye exam for your convenience. Your Jenks Eye Doctor wants you know we are here for you today and in the future. Thank you guys, God bless, have a great day.
