Dr. Alan Mendelsohn, an Ophthalmologist, explains how blue light affects our eye sight and the options we can take to protect ourselves.
Interview conducted by Ivanhoe Broadcast News in January 2018.
Everyone from three years old or ninety years old are all on IPads, phones, TVs, we’re at computers all day. Is this damaging our vision?
Dr. Mendelsohn: Yes. What happens is there is blue light that’s emitted from digital devices. That blue light that’s emitted can cause one of two things. By far the most common is what’s called digital eye strain. We have a lot of high school students, collegiates, young adults. But people middle aged even senior citizens who are pushing hard on digital devices many hours a day are getting the digital eye strain. What’s that, vision becomes blurry, eyes become fatigued, sometimes red. It’s very frequent to start getting headaches. We just start feeling kind of crummy, vision is blurring up. The individual on their own knows what to do, they stop and take a break. The tricky part is they stop and take a break what do they do, they pull out their cell phone to check their e-mail, to do some text, get caught up on some things but they’re still getting the digital eye strain.
Have you been seeing in your practice a lot of this issue due to this blue light?
Dr. Mendelsohn: I see patients every day with digital eye strain number one, absolutely yes. The other issue which we didn’t get to through is we worry about macular degeneration. There is something called drusen, what happens is drusen are age spots in the back of the eye kind of like a precursor to the macular degeneration. So those who are on digital devices many hours a day it’s a definite concern. So most researchers feel if someone is on thirty minutes or less on the digital devices cumulatively probably not that big of a deal. But every single patient I have they’re on way more than that. Most at work six, seven, eight hours a day, they go home they’re doing other work; they’re on their cell phones so it’s a very big problem.
In other words anything over thirty minutes a day puts you at risk for digital eye strain?
Dr. Mendelsohn: Correct. Of course the longer the duration, anything over thirty minutes but certainly if someone is one hour a day compared to an individual on the computer ten hours a day that’s a profoundly large difference. Those on many, many, many hours it’s a high likelihood they’re going to come in with digital eyestrain.
Digital eyestrain is a direct correlation to this blue light emission?
Dr. Mendelsohn: That is correct.
And blue light is basically what, anything that comes out of these devices?
Dr. Mendelsohn: It’s an excellent question. What happens is light goes from zero nanometers to a thousand nanometers. From zero to four hundred are the ultraviolet light rays which we can talk about in a minute. From four hundred to a thousand is the visible light that you want to see. It’s the violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, we want that light to come through. We want to have the colors we want to have the clarity so that’s important. So zero to four hundred we definitely want to block. Four hundred to a thousand we want the light to come through. Where we were incorrect in the past is people always thought, ophthalmologist always thought, optometrist included they’re almost like an invisible force field the zero to four hundred is bad. Bad because of eyelid cancers, pinqueculas, pterygium, melanomas, macular degeneration. But we kind of felt that at 400 nm, that there was like an invisible force field, and then from 400 to 1,000 nm. But that has been proven to be incorrect. So it’s kind of a startling revelation that uh-oh, at 400, 450, and even up to 500 nm that’s there’s some blue light that’s high energy visible light but it’s harmful. And that’s what causes the digital eyestrain. That’s what can lead to the macular degeneration. Our previous conception that four hundred after that we were fine, that’s factually incorrect.
What can we do to prevent digital eyestrain or reduce digital eyestrain and the risk of macular degeneration when it comes to blue light?
Dr. Mendelsohn: Number one something that everyone can do right away right off the bat, I’m going to just reach and grab my cell phone. Back in high school physics we all had in physics there was an equation, exposure equals one divided by distance squared. So let’s keep the numbers simple. Let’s say I hold the cell phone one foot from my face. One over distance squared, the distance is one foot, one over one square is one. That’s one unit of exposure. But if I were to make the font a little larger and just hold it two feet from my face that exposure from the blue light is one over two square which is one fourth. There is only one fourth of the exposure holding it two feet versus one foot. So what everyone should be doing is scooting devices whether it’s a cell phone, an Ipad, any of the digital devices scoot it further away. Yet another example, if a youngster is going to be watching video games or watching a movie if they have the Ipad or they have the device three feet away, that’s one over three square, that’s one ninth. It’s only one ninth of the exposure. But the problem is a lot of youngsters hold the digital devices right smack under their face when really everyone should be scooting it back. The first thing that anyone can do right now starting today you should be holding devices further away.
So distance is a good.
Dr. Mendelsohn: Distance is crucial.
What’s the next one?
Dr. Mendelsohn: The next is to have glasses with the blue blocker. If somebody already wears glasses it’s easy. Just going forward you want to make sure your glasses have blue blocker. So what’s blue blocker, specifically it’s something called yellow chromophore pigment that’s embedded within the lens. With the yellow chromophore pigment embedded within the lens somebody could be on their desktop, lap top, Ipad all day long they’re safe, they’re protected. But you need the yellow chromophore pigment to be embedded. Unfortunately people know about the blue light emissions being a problem but unsavory characters what they’re doing if you have glasses for example, putting tape over the glasses and saying oh, well this blocks blue light and coatings but they really don’t work. The protection has to be embedded internal in the lens. But that works, it works beautifully.
And so when you go to get your prescription what do you need to ask for?
Dr. Mendelsohn: You specifically have to say that I want blue blocker built in to my lenses. Now there are some people who don’t need glasses but there are lenses now where you can get the blue blocker without a prescription. And it’s a good idea. If you have a high school student who is pushing, now more and more computers are being used in the classroom. If they’re using a computer at school and then at home they’re doing homework on the computer, they’re using their cell phone, on social media; they should have the lenses that have the blue blocker even if they don’t need a prescription.
Even if they don’t need a prescription?
Dr. Mendelsohn: Correct.
You can get this in your regular glasses or in your sunglasses?
Dr. Mendelsohn: Absolutely. Now a third option, this is very interesting, the better quality sunglasses besides blocking 0 to 400 nm, they now block the blue light in addition. It’s going to sound funny but the truth is that high school kid they’d be better off wearing their sunglasses in the classroom because that way they have the blue blocker as well. And then in the evening they’d be wearing their sunglasses. But of course the teacher unions are saying no we don’t want the kids wearing sunglasses in the classroom even though that would be very helpful to their eyes.
For their vision that’s a good thing?
Dr. Mendelsohn: For their vision it’s a good thing and employers the same thing. If you have someone pushing hard on the computer eight, ten hours a day if they don’t need a prescription besides holding things further away actually if they were to wear their sunglasses for their eyes it would be a very good thing.
With the blue blocker?
Dr. Mendelsohn: With the blue blocker.
Was there a third tip? You said distance.
Dr. Mendelsohn: Let me go back to the sunglasses just for second. Unfortunately ninety percent of sunglasses have zero to negative protection. And that’s a big problem in the United States. So one has to be really, really careful that a lot of people are very cognizant of the designer names but even with the designer names the vast majority have no protection. Someone literally is naked when they’re outside thinking that the protection from the sun. Besides digital devices we do have the blue light emissions from the sun itself. The sunglass manufacturers are putting in the blue blocker as well. The ones’ who are making better quality sunglasses. And price is not indicative. There are some glasses that are very, very pricey and shamefully basically the people wearing them are naked; there’s no protection. They don’t have the UV-400 blocker, polarization, and they don’t have the blue blocker.
So you should ask for the blue blocker?
Dr. Mendelsohn: You have to specifically say, I want to make sure I have blue blocker built in to my lenses.
Is it an extra charge when it comes to that?
Dr. Mendelsohn: The better quality lenses have the blue blocker put in. Some of the more economic lenses do not and that’s yet another problem is that it’s not a pricey add on but to me it’s very, very important between the digital eye strain and the worry down the road of macular degeneration.
And some insurance companies do cover that?’
Dr. Mendelsohn: That is correct.
So check with your insurance company.
Dr. Mendelsohn: Check with your insurance company. It’s a smart recommendation.
And the extra charge, a hundred?
Dr. Mendelsohn: I think that would be probably typical, a hundred possibly could it be a hundred fifty. Depending on whether its single vision lenses, whether it’s a progressive lenses to have the blue blocker in. But there’s no doubt the productivity of people wearing, besides the protection, the productivity without having the headaches, the eye strain, quit working every two, three hours, taking long breaks or the absenteeism economically it’s really a no brainer to have the blue blocker.
And this is just not going to go away, this problem. Because we’re not going to stop using our digital devices.
Dr. Mendelsohn: If somehow, someway we stop using digital devices and that. Since this whole issue has come out I approach the subject with every single patient. I have not had a single patient who has said, oh I’m on less than thirty minutes a day or I don’t use digital devices, nobody. And that’s from youngsters to patients who are ninety eight years old, everyone’s on digital devices more than that thirty minutes a day.
And TV’s too.
Dr. Mendelsohn: Televisions it’s not the same issue. That’s because it doesn’t have the blue light emissions because we’re far away. The screens are different. The TV’s aren’t applicable but desk top, laptop the cell phones; it’s very important.
We should get blue block screener for screen protectors.
Dr. Mendelsohn: You brought up the blue screen protectors. They actually do not provide the full protection. The 0 to 400 nm that you want to block. A subject that comes up pretty often, people say, why don’t they just put it in the cell phone, why don’t they put it in the desktop, why don’t they put it in the IPad. That’s a great question. The problem is this, so the wave length that it’s the high energy visible blue that’s bad it’s a narrow band. Right now today the technology exists to block all blue. But if they block all blue, the colors of videos and movies is going to be totally thrown off no one is going to buy them. And so the manufacturers could do it and they’re saying, we’ll go out of business. There’s no way we’re going to take a hit. In the future we would love to have it where we can just selectively block blue. But they can’t selectively select the harmful blue.
What is your website address if people wanted to learn more.
Dr. Mendelsohn: So the website is wwwmyeyesurgeons.com and on the website there’s some specific areas. For example, you can read under the optical where there’s a lot more information. Another section under macular degeneration where we talk about this in detail. But the key of course is we want to prevent the macular degeneration, it’s a preventable thing.
END OF INTERVIEW
This information is intended for additional research purposes only. It is not to be used as a prescription or advice from Ivanhoe Broadcast News, Inc. or any medical professional interviewed. Ivanhoe Broadcast News, Inc. assumes no responsibility for the depth or accuracy of physician statements. Procedures or medicines apply to different people and medical factors; always consult your physician on medical matters.
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