Pataday is probably the best out there for allergies. It will take a few days of usage before you see an improvement, but once working it does a great job. d00d, if you've got much astigmatism, there's nothing out there that works WELL for a multifocal. You can do monovision (one eye for near and one for distance), but if you're type A about your vision, you won't be satisfied with your vision. The multifocals work well for many patients, but they need to be regularly tweaked for optimum vision. If you're taking off your glasses all the time to read, why not do a pair of distance contacts and use a pair of readers when you need to see up close? You could even do a daily dispoable contact for your distance (it MAY work for your astigmatism), so you'd only wear them when you ride. Relatively inexpensive and no solutions to worry about AND they work well for patients with allergies.
A transition lens won't get real dark, no matter what you do with it. The transitions of yesteryear could be forced to get darker some by the freezing method, but it's short lived. The new ones don't respond to this treatment. A good dark polarized lens will allow you to see whatever you want in full sunlight- except the damn lcd screens! ANY flat surface reflects light, so the polarization will also cut the glare coming off the road surface as well as windshields, hoods, water, etc, etc. You do have to "learn" that slick spots won't be necessarily shiney, but you can STILL see them just fine. Some people like a little yellow tint at night, as it does slightly cut on coming headlight glare.
Visine Allergy has naphazoline hydrochloride in it to reduce redness. This is an epinephrine analog, which works by simply shrinking the diameter of your blood vessels. The problem with this is repeated usage can cause a "rebound" affect, where your blood vessels need the drug to keep them normal sized! It also uses benzalkonium chloride (BAK) as a preservative. This is probably the MOST allergy causing preservative on the market to day. It's the preservatives that we're all allergic to, so you should try to stay away from anything with a preservative if you're fighting allergies already. Prolonged usage can lead to an allergy to the preservative, thus making things worse than if you hadn't used the product at all. Unfortunately, MOST of the antiallergy drops out there use BAK as a preservative, so it's tough to get away from. Pataday also uses it, but it works well enough to not cause a problem AND you're only taking it once a day, so the chance for an allergic reaction to BAK is very slight. If your allergies are slight, then a simple artificial tear (non-preserved or disappearing preservative, preferably) and cool compresses will do as much AND you don't run the risk of a preservative allergy reaction.
Keeping you eyes lubricated while riding (re:all the time) will help reduce you allergies. Spending lots of time on the computer, as most people do now, will dry your eyes out terribly, so good lubrication will make you more productive and more comfortable. There are a couple of good ones out there, such as Refresh Endura or Similsan Computer Eyes both work very well and don't require frequent instillation.
jm.04
Author
Topic: dark sunglasses question (Read 25842 times)