Judi, I wanted to thank you for your tip about FL-41 glasses.
I have a very good ophthalmologist here in Seattle and she “knew” about them, but even had to do some research with her lab to really de-confuse the issue.
But thanks to her research, I now have 3 new pairs of glasses (all different) and I think they really do make a difference in my brain health. My headaches have decreased significantly.
I will come back here to re-post the exact specifications on these glasses, but I wanted to post some pictures first.
The deal is that MOST eyeglass places will tell you “Oh, yes, we have blue blocking.” And they will charge you about $150 extra to add that to your prescription.
But here at Wallingford eye care they had a little blue light flashlight. They shone this blue light through the lens on my old computer glasses with the coating. The blue light went right through the lenses with the blue light coating.
Then she took some lenses with the blue light filtering “baked in” to the lens. THE GOOD LENSES WILL ALWAYS HAVE A TINT TO THEM! (See the pictures. They are not just “tinted” they are made from a composite with the blue light filtering baked in.)
She shone the light through these lens and it was very easy to see that the good lenses stopped the blue light completely.
Here are pictures:
Above: on the left is a pair of glasses with both blue light filtering AND FL-41 (Fluorescent light filtering BAKED-IN, not just a “coating”. On the right are my computer glasses with JUST the blue light filtering. If your glasses don’t look like this, you don’t really have blue light filtering or fluorescent light filtering. If your lenses are clear, you just have a “coating” and not the really effective filtering.
Here is my third pair:
Above; on the left again if the FL-41 plus blue light filtering. On the right on my reading glasses which I really like. The reading glasses, which have sort of a smoky tint to them are also blue blocking, but a lens manufacturer which my eyeglass place discovered at the last minute.
All of these glasses have to be special ordered and I had to wait a couple of months while the lab made them.
I’m will return to this post and post the exact brand names, because there are only a few labs in the country that make them. They only make them to order, and I believe they only sell to ophthalmologists. You can’t buy them yourself (not in a prescription lens.)
The idea with the FL + Blue blocking (the glasses on the right above) was to help me with the glare from driving but ALSO for going to grocery stores or places where I got stuck with florescent lights (e.g., libraries). I DO really like the FL-41 + Blue blocking combination. The way the FL-41 sharpens things is mind-blowing.
However, I am less satisfied that these “walking around glasses” are progressive lens. Progressive means sort of like bi-focals: different areas in the lens have different prescriptions. The progressive aspect does NOT seem to be good for my brain. My eyes just can’t get figure out which part of the lens to look through.
These progressive lenses are not bad when sitting in a group I and looking at people across the room, but in another place I wanted them for, doing dishes in my fluorescent-lit kitchen – they give me a headache. There is something about looking up and down at the dishes that kills my brain, even though they do a great job of blocking my overhead light.
So I am thinking of returning to the store to get the exact same kind of lenses, but in a non-progressive version.
So I will try to dig up the brand names of these lenses and I will return to this post.
