eye health

The 3D trend may be great for the movie and television industries, but it's literally making some moviegoers sick. In five percent of the population, moves in 3D can actually induce motion sickness. The cause lies in your eyes; 3D movies impose two slightly different images on top of one another, creating depth perception. Both of your eyes have to work together to create the proper three-dimensional image, and when this doesn't happen properly, you can experience side effects.

Though most people aren't likely to experience motion sickness from a 3D film, as many as 30 percent of the movie-going population suffers from a milder vision issue, causing side effects like headaches and eye strain. "The problem comes in with people who have 3D vision but have a weak fusional mechanism. Your eyes are having to work harder. The brain is sending extra impulses to keep the eyes in alignment," says a spokesman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. When forcing your eyes to view 3D images for an extended period of time, viewers can start to feel eye strain, fatigue, or in extreme cases, motion sickness.

Conflicting messages to your brain add to your body's confusion. When you're watching an extremely realistic movie in 3D, but sitting still, your brain processes a false sense of movement. In sensitive viewers, this is leads to the nausea and headaches associated with motion sickness. If watching movies in 3D makes you queasy — but not queasy enough to give up your beloved flicks — an over-the-counter motion sickness medication should give you some relief.

After a Winter of being cooped up indoors, daylight saving has arrived, the weather is warming up, and I can't wait to get outside for regular runs in the sunshine! But besides being dangerous for your skin, increased time in the sun can be bad for your eyes, too — UV exposure can lead to cataracts and glaucoma. I wear sunglasses while I'm walking to work or outdoors on the weekends, but I completely space when it comes to wearing them on a run. To tell the truth, I dislike wearing them when I'm out on a run — plus, a good pair can cost just as much as a good pair of running shoes! Besides, I wear contact lenses that advertise UV-A and UV-B protection, so I'm set, right?

Wrong. After a recent trip to the eye doctor, I found out my contacts aren't enough protection because they only protect the part of the eye they cover, leaving the rest exposed to the harmful rays. A closer look at my lenses' packaging revealed this:

"UV-absorbing contact lenses are NOT substitutes for protective UV-absorbing eyewear such as UV-absorbing goggles or sunglasses because they do not completely cover the eye and surrounding area."

I wear a hat when I run on super-bright days, but since sun still gets in my eyes, I figure it's not providing me with 100 percent protection. Aside from running in the dark (which isn't the safest option), it looks like I'm resigned to learning to deal with sunglasses. And if you have a suggestion for a great pair to try, let me know!

Staring at a computer all day can take a toll on your peepers. Chances are if you're reading FitSugar you're on a computer a fair bit, so I thought I'd share these helpful tips my optometrist gave me on dealing with the eyestrain that accompanies office work.

• Take eye breaks. Be sure to look away from your screen every 15 minutes — if not more. Look at something close up (check out your cuticles) and something far away, to help exercise your depth perception. It’s especially smart to look out a window when searching to focus your eyes on something in the distance.
• Remember to blink! When staring at a computer screen we tend to blink about five times less than usual. Blinking might seem like an unimportant activity, but it lubricates eyes so they work smoothly.
• Eye-cercise. Eye exercises look silly, but they help. A private place to do them is in the bathroom; take a minute to do eye circles, diagonals, and long blinks. Yep, you can alleviate some eyestrain by working out your baby blues. Unforch, these moves don't count as strength training.

Hope your eyes don't feel too strained because I have plenty more tips, so continue reading.

We are just beginning to understand how working on a computer all day long is detrimental to the body. From wrist pain to weight gain, staring at a screen all day long has been fingered as the culprit, and now it appears we can add eye problems to the list: nearsightedness is on the rise.

Nearsightedness, clinically referred to as myopia, means that objects in close range appear normal, but objects at a distance are blurry. According to the National Eye Institute, around 41 percent of Americans are now myopic, up from 25 percent in the early '70s. The most popular theory for the steep rise in nearsightedness is that more and more people are doing "close work" at computers and desks, and more and more people, children included, are spending their free time with digital devices from Game Boys to iPhones. Others think we may be becoming genetically more susceptible to the condition, correctable with lenses or surgery.

Regardless of the reason, give your eyes break. Take a walk outside and look out into the distance. Do you wear glasses? Are you nearsighted or far?

You only get one pair of eyes so it's important to care for them as best you can. If you wear contact lenses, here's one thing you can do to keep your lenses clean and prevent eye infections. Every three months (at least) replace your case with a new one. In between replacements, disinfect the case after every use by rinsing it with your sterile contact lens solution. Then leave it open to air dry to prevent bacteria from growing. When was the last time you changed contact cases?

If your vision isn't perfect, and you're an active person, contact lenses are essential in my book. Contacts don't fog up when you're running, or fall off when you're biking. And you can wear them when swimming, you just have to wear goggles or keep your eyes shut. If you're a contact lens wearer like me, here are some things you should keep in mind.

• Always wash your hands before inserting or removing your lenses. Touching your eye with germy fingers is a great way to get sick or contract an eye infection.
• If you suffer from allergies, wearing contacts can make your symptoms worse since allergens can stick to the lenses. Wear glasses if your symptoms are really bad, and if you can't part with your contacts (I don't blame you), be sure to clean them thoroughly or replace disposable lenses more often. Also, look for drops containing antihistamines that may help relieve watery or itchy eyes.

For more tips and to see what that photo is all about keep reading

Sunshine in your eyes can do more than make you cry; UV rays, both A and B, can cause serious damage to your baby blues. Since you can't put sunscreen on your eyelids or cover your cornea with zinc oxide, you need to protect your peepers with quality shades that are UV rated. It is recommended that you wear shades the provide 99 percent UVB protection and 95 percent UVA protection, but many sunglasses offer 100 percent protection from both. When shopping for shades skip any labeled "cosmetic" — these darkened lenses are just for looks. Also note, that polarized glasses decrease glare and do not provide UV protection unless they specify that they do.

You don't have to spend a fortune to protect your eyes at the beach when biking. Here are some great picks ranging from $30 to $60.