Are Your Glasses Getting In The Way Of Your Active Lifestyle?

Most would agree that 50 is the new 40. 60 is the new 50 and so on. With our increasingly active lifestyles we don’t want anything to get in our way – least of all, poor vision.

We are living for longer, working for longer and as we challenge the boundaries of age, it is more important than ever that we take care of ourselves and our bodies.

Many of us exercise more, choose a healthy diet, and are living life to the full.

And that exercise, which is so essential for our overall health and wellbeing, can be a key enjoyment. We want to make the most of it.

So, if you have glasses balanced on your nose as you try to play golf, contact lenses irritating your eyes as you play squash, specs steaming up as you jog in the rain…enjoyment of active pastimes can certainly be disrupted.

Thanks to great advances in technology, there are now some fantastic treatment options to solve this dilemma.

Whether you love the Park Run or are a World Champion at your chosen sport, here at Optegra we have helped thousands of active, sporty types to stop glasses getting in their way.

Judd Trump, World Champion and No 1 Snooker player had worn contacts since his teenage years. He refused to wear glasses and as a result wore contacts for far too many hours a day, especially in heavily air-conditioned snooker halls. His eyes became dry and irritated and he says he lost games as he just could not focus properly.

Judd, age 30, had laser eye surgery with Optegra, and says: “I realized that if I really want to be at my very best in my profession, I had to get it done.  For long shots the margins can be really tight and getting the angles perfect is critical for success. The confidence you secure with perfect vision means I can always go for the shots I want rather than playing safe.

“The procedure was just like going to the dentist.  It all felt quite simple really, everyone makes you feel welcome and it was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be.  Now I think, what was I worried about? Before you know it, it is all done and you have perfect vision.

“The consistency of my vision now is brilliant – in contacts, it changed day to day and there was the stress of one falling out.  But now I can focus on my game all day, every day without having to worry.  I know I’ve always got perfect vision.”

You don’t have to be a World Champion to appreciate the benefits of excellent vision.

For Tej Thacker, age 31, who has a passion for triathlons, glasses and contacts were a challenge every step of the way. From swimming ‘blind’ to contacts falling out when cycling in the wind, to cycling with rain steaming up his glasses. While training for Ironman contests, he realised he had to see better to achieve his best times.

Tej had LASIK laser eye surgery at Optegra, and is delighted with the result.  He says: “For triathlon, this is revolutionary! Each of the three different sports were negatively affected by my sight and reliance on glasses or contact lenses…this operation has solved the problem once and for all!  The recovery was super quick, though I could not swim for two weeks, so serious athletes may want to think about timings so it does not affect their training and lead up to important races.”

Golf enthusiast Sandra, aged 59, had suffered with short sight since her 20s, and having discovered her love of golf, was frustrated by steamed up glasses stopping her focus on the ball and set up her shot, to adjusting glasses to read the score card. Let alone when her contacts got lost behind her eye.

Her husband had lens replacement at Optegra a year previously and she realised how this could make such a difference for her and her sport:

“My vision is fantastic now, and at my recent check up I was told I have better than 20/20 vision.  I did ask my surgeon if he could guarantee it will improve my golf! Sadly he couldn’t do that!  But I can certainly see the ball much more clearly and am enjoying the sport so much more now.”

So whatever your sport of choice, if you are not reaching your full sporting potential due to poor vision, contact Optegra to find out more about the full range of vision correction options that would improve your game.