Since I'm a borderline idiot, I went my first 28 years without wearing sunglasses. Sure, I bought fake Oakleys in the eighth grade to look cool, but I never found sunglasses entirely helpful. I could squint my way through any bright days while avoiding the dreaded sunglasses tan. That is until I started getting a headache for 30 minutes every time I saw a camera flash. To this day, four years later, I still dread an indoor, low-light photo opp. It means I need an ibuprofen, or a stiff drink or two. All because I didn't wear sunglasses for the first 28 years of my life. Or so says my eye doc.
Sunglasses look cool, or at least they should, since there are billions to choose from. But aside from all that, why do you actually need sunglasses? Isn't it enough to wear a ball cap and shield the eyes from the sun, or just put your hand over your brow anytime you look in the sun's general direction?
I called on the expertise of ophthalmologist Lisa Park, MD at Columbia University Medical Center, to get some intel on exactly why sunglasses are important for us (apart from the obvious fact that you don't squint so much when it's sunny as hell). Heed her advice. Don't be dumb like me. It's always worth the sunglasses tan, trust me.
Park says first and foremost that there are three reasons we must protect the eyes. "The first is the retina inside the eye," says Park. "With age people can develop macular degeneration (which is the light-sensitive nerve tissue in the eye), and using sunglasses may protect these photoreceptors from UV damage." This prevents vision loss. Score one for sunglasses.
"The second is the lens of the eye; everyone eventually will develop clouding of the lens which is what you know as a cataract," says Park. "Protecting the eye from sunlight may slow the progression of cataracts." The score is Sunglasses 2, No Sunglasses 0.
