How To Prevent Cataract Blindness

The relationship between sunlight and skin cancer is well known. Which is why any smart person would apply a sunblock before sun exposure. That way, you need not pay a hefty price for your love for the sunny outdoors.

While sunblock protects your skin, sunglasses protect the eyes. Sunglasses are often worn for the cool factor. Movie stars might wear them to avoid being recognized in public. To the point that wearing an expensive pair of designer sunglasses gives people the impression that you might be someone famous hiding from overeager photographers or reporters.

Then again, sunglasses should be one by every one who goes out in the sun to protect the eyes from cataracts and the eventual blindness that comes from these changes in your eye lens.

Notice how some of the elderly have eyes that are clouded out. The clear lens of the eyes have become opaque due to the change in structure of the protein found in those natural lenses. These changes happen as a reaction to the UVB rays of the sun over time. With cataracts, the originally clear lens of the eye becomes opaque with time. Instead of clear vision, your vision gets blurry and if left untreated, you can go blind.

No one is immune to cataracts. There is no such thing as a safe level of UVB exposure for the eyes. Even small doses of UV rays give you the risk of developing cataracts and cataracts are the leading cause of blindness in the United States. Granted. Cataracts are also related to diabetes and to radiation exposure, but exposure to the sun's UVB rays can cause cataracts.

Your best bet to avoid going needlessly blind in your senior years is to wear sunglasses all the time. Not merely decorative sunglasses but sunglasses with real UV protection. Invest in quality sunglasses that have UV filters.