October 31, 2025 • 33 mins
In this episode of The Eye-Q Podcast, Dr. Rudrani Banik speaks with ophthalmologist Dr. Ravi Goel about how sunlight, UV rays, and blue light affect our eyes. They break down myths about sun gazing and blue blockers, explore conditions like cataracts and pterygium, and share three easy ways to safeguard your eyes daily—without giving up sunshine or screen time.
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Ravi Goel’s family has lived in Southern New Jersey for more than 50 years. He graduated from Cherry Hill High School East and earned a B.A. in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale University. He earned his medical degree (M.D.) from the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He completed a medical internship at the Cooper Health System and an ophthalmology residency at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center. Dr. Goel completed an Advanced Refractive Surgery (LASIK) course with the pioneers of refractive surgery at the world-renowned Dr. Agarwal’s Eye Hospital in Chennai, India.
Dr. Goel is board-certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) and a member of the American Medical Association (AMA). He is an instructor at the Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia and a cataract surgeon at the Wills Eye Surgical Network in Cherry Hill, NJ.
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Ravi D. Goel, MD
Website: https://protectingsight.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ravigoelmd/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I remember when COVID first started and our practices were
closed and then we we slowly reopened our practices.
I saw more and more patients whohad eye strain, dry eye,
etcetera. And because what was happening
was everybody was working from home and all of a sudden they
were spending many more hours working on their computer,
(00:23):
working on their iPad, working on their iPhone, etcetera.
So it was causing much more eye strain.
And we would typically get the question about blue light,
blocking glasses, etcetera, bluelight, etcetera.
Just to let's just step back andsay when is sunlight helpful?
And we know sunlight is helpful throughout our life for mood
etcetera, but we need the sunlight in the morning, 20-30
(00:45):
minutes, 2-3 days a week to helpwith our circadian rhythm.
We need sunlight to help us withvitamin D production, etcetera.
Welcome to the IQ podcast. I'm Doctor Ronnie Banik, here to
help you boost your IQ with powerful insights that connect
your eyes, your brain, and your whole body Wellness.
(01:06):
This episode was recorded duringthe ihealth Summit, where the
world's leading experts shared breakthrough insights in vision
and holistic eye care. Hello, everyone, and welcome
back to the ihealth Summit. I'm your host, Doctor Ronnie
Bannock, and today I have the honor of speaking with Doctor
Ravi Goyal, who is an ophthalmologist based out of New
(01:28):
Jersey, who has a tremendous amount of experience taking care
of countless patients with eye issues.
Thank you so much, Doctor Goal, for joining us on the Eye Health
Summit. Thank you, Doctor Blanc, for the
opportunity to speak with you today.
Absolutely. I know you are a wealth of
information from base down of topics from cataract surgery to
(01:49):
dry eye to. But one thing I really wanted to
speak with you about today is light exposure for our eyes and
the various different wavelengths of light that our
eyes are exposed to, which are good, which are maybe not so
good and how we can best protectour eyes.
But before we get into all of those amazing topics, can you
(02:09):
just share with our listeners what interested you about eye
health that made you become an ophthalmologist?
Ronnie, if I may, I have. When I, when I was in medical
school, I thought that mentorship was a little bit
lacking and I felt I wanted to find a specialty which was
cutting edge, which was moving forward.
(02:30):
And I found ophthalmology. Ophthalmology really is the
primary care of the eye, of the ocular system.
Yeah. We deal with patients who have
chronic diseases, who have acutediseases.
And when I was in medical schooland when I was in residency, I
found that eye health was very important.
Just like you could think about high blood pressure,
hypertension, we think about something called glaucoma, just
(02:51):
as we think about diabetes affecting multiple organ
systems. Diabetes affects the eye, the
small vessels in the eye and there we see patients who have
macular degeneration, dry eye, lifestyle issues, etcetera.
So vision is important part of mobility.
Vision is a critical part of quality of life, and that's what
got me interested in eye health,eye safety, and protecting
(03:13):
sight. That's wonderful to hear.
And I think for many of us who are in eye care as providers,
just being able to give people the gift of sight is really so
impactful. To be able to help someone
function again and do all of theactivities they love, there's
really no better reward than to be able to do that.
So I'm in complete alignment with you on that, Doctor Goyle.
(03:35):
So let's talk a little bit aboutday-to-day.
Many of us spend time, whether it's outdoors or on screens, our
eyes are constantly exposed to light.
Can you review for us basically give us like a 30,000 foot view
of the different wavelengths of light that our eyes take in and
process, and where are those different wavelengths come from?
(03:56):
Like what are the main sources of those various wavelengths of
light? Most most of the wavelengths of
light come from the sun. And when we think about, if you
think about wavelengths of light, think about wavelengths,
the electromagnetic field, etcetera, you think about radio
waves, we listen to the radio inthe 40s, fifties and 60s and
that's one wavelength of light going all the way to infrared.
(04:19):
The other end of wavelengths of light, we think about something
called the vision, the visual length wavelengths of light that
we can see, something called ROYGBIV, red, orange, yellow,
green, blue, indigo, Violet. That was the old Roy G bib we
had to learn when we were in in grade school growing up.
But the last ones, Violet goes so the visible light is between
(04:41):
400 and 700 nanometers and we gobelow 400 nanometers.
That's where Violet is. Now Violet has ultraviolet ray
AB and C. And just to get a little
technical here, UVA goes from 400 to about 320 nanometers, UVB
goes from about 3:20 to 280 nanometers, and UVC goes from
(05:07):
280 down to 100 nanometers. Now those are different
ultraviolet wavelengths of light.
Now we think about what is can be damaging to the eye and to
the skin and to the body. We need to think about UVA, UVB
and UVC. Thankfully we can ignore UVC
because UVC is taken up by the ozone in the atmosphere.
(05:28):
Absolutely. So what I'm hearing from you,
Doctor Gaul, is that there are many different wavelengths of
light that we're exposed to. There's visible light, which is
the colors of the rainbow that we typically think of.
And then there's invisible light, which can be either
really short wavelengths, which are in the UV spectrum or really
long wavelengths that are in theinfrared spectrum.
And you're now talking about theUV spectrum, UVA and UVB perhaps
(05:51):
being the most risky to our eyes.
Is that safe to say, Doctor Gaul?
Doctor Vonnegut, as I was preparing for this talk, let's
look at what ultraviolet radiation can cause damage to
the body. It can cause damage all over the
body. And especially we think about
the skin. If you want to think about, hey,
skin cancer, skin screening, etc.
(06:12):
We're thinking about what does UV rays, what does UV damage
cause to the skin? And we understand that
conceptually the epidermis, the germis.
So as I was reviewing the damagethat UV rays can cause to the
eye, I went to the skin because we think about skin screenings,
dermatology friends who have Melanoma, basal cell carcinoma,
(06:33):
squamous cell carcinoma, etcetera.
All of these issues with ultraviolet radiation can cause
damage to the eye. We know about the skin when we
when I go golfing, I'm always putting on sunscreen.
And before I I really got into eye health, I wasn't as maybe I
wasn't as cognizant to use sunglasses and use hats,
(06:53):
etcetera to protect my eyes. But it's just as important it is
to think about the skin. You have to think about the eyes
and the potential for ultraviolet radiation to cause
damage to multiple layers of theeyes.
I'm so glad that you made that analogy of UV damage to the skin
and UV damage to the eyes. A lot of people are, as you
(07:15):
said, cognizant of the skin. They go see their dermatologist
regularly, some every six months, even three or four
months, depending on what your skin issues are.
But for our eyes, let's talk about are there any protective
mechanisms that the eye naturally has to try to filter
out some of these rays that may cause problems?
Sure. What's interesting is that UV
(07:37):
radiation can cause damage to multiple layers of the eye.
For example, if you're sun gazing, if you're looking at the
at the sun intensely, you can cause photo damage to the
cornea. You can have like something
called sunburn. A patient who I had the worst
pain I've ever seen as a resident in ophthalmology was a
(07:57):
a gentleman who was doing it wasdoing blow torching on on a
Saturday night and he came in his eyes were just like like
severe pain. UV radiation cause can cause dry
eye and then we are it can also cause damage to the cornea and
also to the natural lens of the UVB can cause can change
something called oxidative stress, changing the proteins in
(08:19):
the natural lens causing a cataract or ultraviolet
radiation cause damage to the retina where things we think
about macular degeneration. If you're thinking about sun
gazing, you're talking about solar retinopathy etcetera.
So we do have some natural protection.
Ultraviolet rays can cause something called trisium's where
they can reprogram the tissue around the white part of the
(08:40):
eye, the sclare, something called the sclare of the
conjunctiva. You're reprogramming those
tissues and they're causing changes to the they're causing
stress to those cells and they're causing the cells to
grow. And that leads to how can we
protect the eyes? And I would, I have, I think
there are three things we can doto protect the eyes.
I love the power threes. 1 is sunglasses, one is brimmed hats,
(09:02):
and the third is something I call, we call the 2020 rule
where every 20 minutes you should look 20 feet away for 20
seconds. The 1st is sunglasses.
We think about that and when I think about when I speak to a
typical patient in the lane, they say hey Doctor Gol, can I
pick up these sunglasses over the counter?
Can you do this? Do that?
I say look, the sunglasses you want to look for should have one
of two designations. Either it should say 100% UVAUVP
(09:27):
protection or it should say UV400 then you should be You
should have reassurance that those types of sunglasses are
going to protect you as much as possible. 90 plus percent from
damages from ultraviolet rays. The second is getting.
Could I just interrupt? For a moment.
So if someone wears proper UV protection, is there still a
(09:50):
chance that they could develop some of these issues like dry
eye or corneal burns or terrigium or pinguacula?
Can that still happen? I think the risk goes down as
you have. Don't forget there's a
difference between wearing glasses which which I wear and
which have transitions in them which which have protection, or
wearing wrap around sunglasses like those.
(10:13):
Those wrap you can even when you're wearing.
And this is the same analogy I gave earlier with the nose
causing some natural protection or even the brow, etcetera.
Some natural protection to the eyes you still can have light
rays coming from the side that that are going to be your that
can cause issues. So there's never 100% protection
obviously with anything but I think that but I think that the
(10:34):
you still have to live your life.
So I think you still have to be as protected as possible.
I think that you can, I recommend if you someone who
there's a difference between somebody who's going out
day-to-day and somebody who's a postal worker, UPS driver, FedEx
driver, etcetera, who's out in the sun all day.
I just saw one of those patientsjust today, actually patient who
who drives trucks, you know, andthey're out all day.
(10:55):
So they they're at a higher risk.
They don't realize that in theirtwenty 30s or 40s.
If you think you're invincible and your lower 50s, early 60s,
you're getting earlier cataracts, you have Trusia, you
have pingueculum, etcetera, which can be a big risk factor
for overall eye health. Now I wanted to go back to this,
the topic of torridium that you brought up now, just to give a
(11:16):
visual for our listeners and ouraudience.
Terrigia typically happened as Doctor Gould was saying, on the
middle part, the inside part of the eye.
And it's like a little bit of anelevated kind of a growth,
right? And sometimes it may be a little
red. It can get inflamed.
And then sometimes it can grow over the cornea, like a little
triangular wedge that grows overand blocks the cornea.
(11:38):
Have you seen, I'm sure you musthave seen a lot of patients of
Teregia in your career, Doctor Gaul.
Oh yeah, I saw. I actually, it's funny, I saw
two or three today as I was preparing for the talk.
I took some videos just to to say, oh, you got Teregium.
Yes, those are gross. Point and then pinguecula which
you mentioned earlier. Can you explain what a
pinguecula is compared with a teregium?
Like what's the difference? Sure, the pingueculas are
relative, are commonly non malignant.
(12:00):
There's like these raised yellowwhite, we call them lesions of
the it's between the lids, so the interpalpebrole conjunctiva,
the nasal part and they're grossand they are they're called from
degeneration of collagen, sub epithelial collagen.
The fancy term is elastotic degeneration of sub epithelial
collagen, but you know it's. Light exposure typically like
(12:23):
lots of use exposure. OK.
You can have acute and you can have chronic, right.
So so we say, hey, this is long term, typically long term damage
activating cells sunlight that can cause these gross of these
this again, this yellow white lesion.
But yeah, it's from, it's from long term chronic exposure to.
(12:46):
Typically in my experience, it typically looks very different
than a terrigium because it typically looks like little
bubbles or round areas on the surface, whereas the terrigium
is more like a like a wing. Actually I think the origin of
the word terrigium comes from the word wing.
I don't know which language it is, Greek or Latin.
It's from Greek Greek trijios, meaning wing.
(13:06):
Yes. So it looks like triangular, but
I feel them. On the other hand, it's more
just like a bubbly around area. If somebody starts to develop
one of these two things from sundamage, can they reverse?
Can they just go away or is thatnot possible?
It typically doesn't go away. I typically counsel patients if
they come in and they're, they somebody sees, somebody sees it
(13:27):
for the first time, whatever, and they come in a panic.
I say, look, you know, you've had this from, you've probably
had this for many years now. Our, our smartphones are so
good. I say, why don't you take
pictures of it? We'll monitor it over time, take
pictures at home. But the, they, it's typically,
we typically don't remove them unless they're causing visual
(13:47):
symptoms. And what that means is typically
a pingueculum, which is that white yellow lesion that'll be
flat, it'll be a little elevated.
It's so common, I actually don'teven document it often in my
electronic medical records if I see it so commonly.
But if it's causing secondary symptoms, dryness, something
called Delen, all these sort of other symptoms where it's
causing damage to the cornea, damage to the visual system,
(14:10):
then we might address it. The tritium, typically it has to
grow on to the eye a fair amountor when patients come up for
cataract surgery, they have trigium and sometimes it can
affect the measurements. So somebody have something
called astigmatism where the best way to think about
astigmatism is you imagine bouncing a basketball, you
(14:30):
bounce a basketball up and down that has no astigmatism.
If you bounce your, if you imagine your eye being shaped
like a football, you bounce a football, it's going to bounce
off to the side a tritium as it,as you have that wing growing
onto the end, onto the cornea, it can sometimes cause a
secondary astigmatism effect. So you can have some distortion
(14:51):
not only from your cataract, from the natural lens of the
eye, you got some distortion from the tritium.
So typically those patients I may recommend that the tritium
be removed prior to cataract surgery, meaning three to six
months before cataract surgery because we want to have the best
data we have in is it gives us the best results going out.
So we want to have the best ocular surface before we we
(15:12):
before we consider cataract surgery and that plays in the
dry eye and other issues that can that a patient can be
susceptible to throughout their life, but also during the time
of surgery. Absolutely.
Now just for our listeners, thisis the kind of a fun fact about
becoming an ophthalmologist. Terrigium surgery is one of the
first surgeries we learn when we're doing ophthalmology
(15:33):
residency and we're actually very cautious about deciding
which patients undergo the surgery.
We actually don't recommend it for the vast majority of cases
like doctor goal was saying, only select cases.
And when we do surgery we use specific techniques, but one of
the risks is that they can grow back.
Have you, have you seen that in your practice, Dr. Gold?
(15:53):
You take off a trigium or maybe the patient had surgery 1015
years ago and there it is, it's back again.
Yeah. So, yeah.
And we have we, there is the risk of recurrence of trigium
and that can be addressed. And I think that we can use
different techniques, different modalities, some just some,
sometimes you can use something called amniotic membrane grafts
or you could use different sort of chemicals hopefully to
(16:14):
decrease the risk of the recurrence.
But that's why you should see anophthalmologist in your local
community, you know who is dedicated protecting site and,
and to address those issues. But as ophthalmologists, we're
trained to be conservative, right?
So we don't, we try not to, we're not going to remove a
trigium unless it's causing symptoms.
It can have some cosmetic effectfor a patient.
(16:37):
We're really looking at, hey, how's it affecting your quality
life? How's it affecting your
activities of daily living? And how in in the case of
cataracts and secondary effects,those are those can be very
important also to determine should we address this surgery,
should we remove it to help the patient?
Yeah. Just to share a story with you.
So I did my residency out in California, in Southern
(16:57):
California at UC Irvine. And our facility was very close
to Disney, Disneyland. And so we oftentimes saw some of
the Disney princesses come in with these terrigia because
they're out in the sun all and they have these growths on the
surface of the eye from chronic sun exposure.
And for those patients, even though it may not have been
impacted their vision, they wanted it removed for cosmetic
(17:20):
reasons. So yes, sometimes we do it for
cosmetic reasons, but the vast majority of patients is because
they have a visual disturbance because of their terrigium.
Doctor Gaul, what are the other risks of too much UV exposure?
Could be something more serious on the surface of the eye.
Could you explain a little bit more about what could happen
when people don't wear sunglasses or large wide brimmed
(17:42):
hats? Sure, Doctor Bonaghi, as I as I
would recommend, the patients undergo screenings by their
dermatologist to look for skin cancers throughout their whole
body. And that's very important,
especially for the folks who spend many hours outside in the
sunlight unprotected. However, we are particularly
concerned with eyelid periocularmalignancies, skin cancers
(18:05):
including, I'll bring up two points. 1 is basal cell
carcinoma. Basal cell carcinoma is the most
common eyelid cancer and it encompasses about 90% of eyelid
malignancies. And there's a strong link to
chronic UV exposure, which and which causes damage to basal
skin cells. Also, there's a disease called
(18:27):
squamous cell carcinoma of the eyelid that is less common, but
it's more aggressive than basal cell carcinoma.
And that can spread to nearby tissues also, which requires
early interventions. But if you have it sort of a non
healing growth on the eyelid, ifyou have something called
crusting or ulceration or bleeding lesions or if you have
loss of eyelashes in the affected areas, you can be at
(18:50):
risk for basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma,
Melanoma. When we think about, so
something called when we think about ocular Melanoma, we think
about something in, in the back of the eye, the choroid,
something called croital Melanoma, which is behind the
retina, deep to the retina. Patients when you think about
the skin's the largest organ in the body, there is skin around
the eyes and we are very concerned about eyelid
(19:12):
malignancies. So patients should be checked by
their ophthalmologist and in thecase of the skin, by their
dermatologist. Yeah, and I want to echo what
you just said. If there's anything suspicious
that's growing that's not healing, get it checked out, go
to your eye doctor, get it checked out.
And then also some of these growths may actually happen or
these malignancies may actually happen on the surface of the
(19:34):
eye. Isn't that correct?
Doctor goal. Yes, you can have CIN.
It's called so different malignancies that can occur on
the surface of the eye or as I mentioned we're most we're very
concerned about deep retina, croital melanomas, cancers
around the eye or in the eye that can be that can cause
vision loss, cause decreased quality of life that might be
(19:57):
metastatic etcetera. So patients should be certainly
checked by the age of 40 and then they should be checked
appropriate intervals when they see their ophthalmologist.
So again, there can be growths on the surface of the eye that
are malignant on the conjunctiva, which is like the
skin part of the eye, but also in the back of the eye.
And that's why dilated exam is so important.
I always tell my patients, please do not skip that annual
(20:19):
dilated exam because without that, we sometimes may miss
something that could be potentially not just vision
threatening, but life threatening.
This has been such an interesting discussion so far.
Doctor Gaul, I've learned a lot from you and we've shared a lot
of insights. We're going to take a very short
break here from one of our sponsors and we'll be right back
with more on the ihealth Summit,so stay tuned.
(20:42):
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(21:06):
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(21:27):
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(21:49):
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(22:34):
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(23:17):
Welcome back to the Eye Health Summit, everyone.
Today we're chatting with DoctorRavi Goal, a leading
ophthalmologist based it out of based out of New Jersey, and
we're chatting about different light wavelengths that it may
impact our eyes. Now, Doctor Goal, I wanted to
ask you about, we've talked about sunlight and the various
wavelengths and what it can do to our eyes, but let's talk
(23:37):
about artificial light. Now that most of our world is on
screens, many of us spend 8/10/12 or more hours a day in
front of a screen. We're constantly getting
bombarded by blue light that's coming from our screens.
Tell us more about this blue light.
Is it bad? Is it good?
What are some of the potential consequences of this excessive
blue light exposure? Doctor, that is a great
(23:59):
question. I remember when COVID first
started and our practices were closed and then we slowly reopen
our practices, I saw more and more patients who had eye
strain, dry eye, etcetera. And because what was happening
was everybody was working from home and all of a sudden they
were spending many more hours working on their computer,
(24:22):
working on their iPad, working on their iPhone, etcetera.
So it was causing much more eye strain.
And we would typically get the question about blue light,
blocking glasses, etcetera, bluelight, etcetera, just to let's
just step back and say when is sunlight helpful?
And we know sunlight is helpful throughout our life for mood
etcetera, but we need the sunlight in the morning 20-30
(24:45):
minutes, 2-3 days a week to helpwith our circadian rhythm.
We need sunlight to help us withvitamin D production etcetera.
And so that is where sunlight can be helpful.
Now when you talk about like blue light and blue blocking
glasses, etcetera, like I'm guilty where I will use my, my,
my iPad and my iPhone, all my devices up until the time I go
(25:07):
to sleep. And I think that I got a, in
terms of melatonin production, etcetera, the recommendations to
like not be on your systems for at least an hour or two before
you go to sleep. But in terms of blue light
blocking glasses, the science simply isn't there for me to say
that they have benefit where people should invest a lot of
money to them. I do think that that for
generally, for generally when patients come to me with these
(25:29):
types of symptoms, I say look 20/20/20 every 20 minutes, look
20 feet away for 20 seconds. That's going to help your eye
strain, etcetera. And it's actually funny because
I have family, nieces and nephews in high school who know
about the 20/20/20 rule. So I think in terms of this goes
into the whole like the mists ofsun gazing, Is there a huge
benefit from sun gazing? And I'm like, Oh my God.
(25:51):
Like I remember when we had the solar eclipse in 2017, I was
doing research for my blog and Ifound AUS Soldier who was it's
there's actually a case report in the from the 1940s who was
sun gazing in the 1940s and he caused damage to his retina
solar retinopathy. So I think that I think that we
have to try to debunk miss if it's part of the I health summit
(26:14):
and the I Health summit, my, my take would be that blue blocking
glasses may not be worth the investment.
I think. I think they're taking frequent
breaks from working, respecting the last hour or two before you
go to sleep. I think that would help your
your sleep cycles with circadianrhythm, etcetera.
And I think that that would be my feedback.
Thank you for those insights. I think debunking myths is very
(26:34):
important and that's one of the reasons why we're talking about
some of these topics on the I Health on the I Health Summit.
To get expert advice. I'm going to share something
with you, a study that I read about blue blockers.
So basically Consumer Reports, which is pretty reputable
company, they have a magazine where they review different
products. So this is pre pandemic.
(26:55):
They reviewed several of the leading blue blockers on the
market and they looked at three of the top selling blue blockers
and what they found was that onewas like a very light yellow
tint and one was a little bit darker yellow, and 1 was really
deep orange, amber and color. So the really lightest one only
blocked about 10 to 20% of the blue light.
The middle one only blocked about 30 to maybe 40% of the
(27:17):
blue light. The deeper 1 blocked the
majority of the blue light. So the truth is.
Most blue blockers. This is my take.
The most blue blockers on the market don't really block
significant amounts of blue light, 10 to 30% Max.
And most of them are light in color, but some of them even
look clear. Those clear ones are hardly
blocking any of the blue light. But if you feel like you want to
(27:38):
block blue light, if it's interfering with your sleep, if
you're using devices at night and can't go to sleep, If you
feel like you're having a lot strain, get the really deeply
pigmented blue blockers, the redones, the dark orange, the amber
ones. What are your thoughts about
that doctor goal like? I mean, I, Doctor Vaneka, I have
to defer to the fellowship trained neuro ophthalmologist
(27:58):
from Johns Hopkins Hospital. You are the expert on, on, on,
on these issues and on quality life.
So I think, yeah, I think the patients, the nice thing is that
yeah, there there can be a placebo effect for some of these
devices. And I think that some patients
swear by them. And I certainly maybe time will
will change our minds on some ofthese technologies.
But I do agree that I, I think that if you're going to go in,
(28:19):
you should go all in respecting the safety, etcetera.
And I think that I think that certainly I sleep is so
important for 500 days. I was watching a Ted Talk a day
during the pandemic. I was trying to make myself a
little more educated on like these high yield topics and I
got really into the value of sleep and, and especially for
the eyes in terms of in terms ofrespecting sleep.
And I think that is one of the great wonders of the world is
(28:40):
the value of sleep. Absolutely.
And we can go back and forth about some of these topics.
But the one thing I wanted to ask you, Doctor, goal is with
all this blue light exposure, isthere any evidence that it
actually does any permanent damage to our eyes?
Are we hurting ourselves being on screens for 1012 to 14 hours
a day? I think that I'm not sure about
(29:00):
the evidence, but I think that in terms of eye strain,
headaches and that sort of thing, I think that on a
day-to-day basis, I think that we, we should be cognizant of,
you know, of the, the stresses to the system that can occur
from being on our devices. I know we can go to the sort of
like the, the 20 twenties is themyopia pandemic we have around
the world. These sort of we want to make
sure I think China like different countries that that we
(29:24):
want to get kids outside for oneor two hours a day to decrease
the amount of myopia and earsidenear sightedness over time.
Because we have shown that near sightedness where the eye gets
longer, it has more, you can have more we call morbidity
more, more issues later in life.So I think that I think that I
think that this goes back to what I was saying, going saying
earlier where we want to make sure that folks go outside, go
(29:47):
outside safely and for vitamin Dproduction for circadian rhythm
etcetera, especially in younger kids spending an hour or two
outside air per day with UV protection, but still hopefully
decrease the incidence of myopiaover the course your lifetime.
I think it's very important. This, and we're not sure.
The studies have definitely shown that's important for kids
to be outdoors and to playing ornot on screens.
(30:08):
Basically you're not looking at doing your work for two hours a
day. But we're not yet sure.
Is it the sunlight that's reducing the risk of myopia?
Is it the the type of the distance that the child is
focusing at that's making the difference?
We don't yet know. But the general recommendation
is get outdoors, do some physical activity, rest your
eyes from screens, and get thosehealthy habits started in
(30:30):
childhood. Don't wait until it's too late,
until you're very myopic and at that point you can't.
Like, as Doctor Goal was saying,there could be other
complications of myopia, especially high myopia, which is
near sightedness. This has been such an
enlightening conversation. Doctor Golav enjoyed talking
with you and learning from you. Again, we're dispelling a lot of
myths here on the ihealth Summit.
(30:51):
Is there one myth or misconception about our eyes
with relation to light that you would really just love to dispel
today for our audience? Well, I want to go back.
I think about safety 1st and I remember when we had the solar
eclipse in 2017 and I was fearful over what the risk was
of people gazing the sun intensely for those for those
(31:14):
few moments. So I think sungazing blue,
blocking those sorts of risks I think I think we typical
patients should be mindful of. But I think going back to my top
three pearls, 1 is sunglasses, 2nd is wearing a nice trimmed
hat. You either can wear this or if
you're down in, if you're down in Mexico or down somewhere
else, you can wear a nice good brimmer hat, especially if
(31:35):
you're playing golf. And the third is the 2020 twenty
rule, which I love. We think about to the Stellen,
the old Stellen visual cutie chart from the 1860s 2020, which
is the letters on the chart in 9mm for 2020, but 20/20/20 every
20 minutes look 20 feet away for20 seconds.
That'll give you help to relax your eyes, help you to decrease
(31:55):
your your dryness, help to decrease eye strain, and help
you to live a healthier life. Absolutely.
First of all, Doctor Gould, I love your hats.
I love your very stylish, very stylish.
But you know what Doctor Gould just shared?
Those are truly words of gold. One of the other themes of our
Eye Health Summit is an ounce ofprevention is worth a pound of
(32:17):
cure. And when it comes to light
exposure, UV exposure, healthy screen habits, it's really so
much better to prevent issues from happening than to wait
until they happen, then try to chase after the consequences.
Wouldn't you say? Doctor goal?
Like it's 100% frustrating for us as eye care providers to try
to chase after something once it's already started.
So try to prevent it as best as you can.
(32:39):
Absolutely. Thank you, Doctor Go for sharing
your insights with us and spending some time with us here
on the ihealth Summit. If anyone wanted to learn more
from you, perhaps follow your blog or follow you on social
media or even become a patient, how could they find you?
They can go to my professional website or they can just follow
me, find me on it's very easy, protectingsite.com, which is or
(33:02):
just my first name, my last name, md.com.
They'll hit one of my they'll get to my blog and they can they
can follow me and find links to my practice, etcetera.
Wonderful. We will share all of those links
right below the interview and please anyone reach out to
Doctor Goal. He is again a wealth of
information and so experienced. So again, thank you for joining
us and thank you all for sharingsome time with us on the I
(33:22):
Summit and we will see you all soon for the next interview.
So stay tuned. Thank you.
Thank you for tuning in to the IQ Podcast.
I hope you enjoyed today's episode and learn something new
to help you boost your IQ. Leave us a review and share the
podcast with your family and friends.
Stay connected with me for more eye opening insights on ihealth,
(33:46):
nutrition and lifestyle. Until next time, keep your
vision clear and your IQ sharp.
I remember when COVID first started and our practices were
closed and then we we slowly reopened our practices.
I saw more and more patients whohad eye strain, dry eye,
etcetera. And because what was happening
was everybody was working from home and all of a sudden they
were spending many more hours working on their computer,
(00:23):
working on their iPad, working on their iPhone, etcetera.
So it was causing much more eye strain.
And we would typically get the question about blue light,
blocking glasses, etcetera, bluelight, etcetera.
Just to let's just step back andsay when is sunlight helpful?
And we know sunlight is helpful throughout our life for mood
etcetera, but we need the sunlight in the morning, 20-30
(00:45):
minutes, 2-3 days a week to helpwith our circadian rhythm.
We need sunlight to help us withvitamin D production, etcetera.
Welcome to the IQ podcast. I'm Doctor Ronnie Banik, here to
help you boost your IQ with powerful insights that connect
your eyes, your brain, and your whole body Wellness.
(01:06):
This episode was recorded duringthe ihealth Summit, where the
world's leading experts shared breakthrough insights in vision
and holistic eye care. Hello, everyone, and welcome
back to the ihealth Summit. I'm your host, Doctor Ronnie
Bannock, and today I have the honor of speaking with Doctor
Ravi Goyal, who is an ophthalmologist based out of New
(01:28):
Jersey, who has a tremendous amount of experience taking care
of countless patients with eye issues.
Thank you so much, Doctor Goal, for joining us on the Eye Health
Summit. Thank you, Doctor Blanc, for the
opportunity to speak with you today.
Absolutely. I know you are a wealth of
information from base down of topics from cataract surgery to
(01:49):
dry eye to. But one thing I really wanted to
speak with you about today is light exposure for our eyes and
the various different wavelengths of light that our
eyes are exposed to, which are good, which are maybe not so
good and how we can best protectour eyes.
But before we get into all of those amazing topics, can you
(02:09):
just share with our listeners what interested you about eye
health that made you become an ophthalmologist?
Ronnie, if I may, I have. When I, when I was in medical
school, I thought that mentorship was a little bit
lacking and I felt I wanted to find a specialty which was
cutting edge, which was moving forward.
(02:30):
And I found ophthalmology. Ophthalmology really is the
primary care of the eye, of the ocular system.
Yeah. We deal with patients who have
chronic diseases, who have acutediseases.
And when I was in medical schooland when I was in residency, I
found that eye health was very important.
Just like you could think about high blood pressure,
hypertension, we think about something called glaucoma, just
(02:51):
as we think about diabetes affecting multiple organ
systems. Diabetes affects the eye, the
small vessels in the eye and there we see patients who have
macular degeneration, dry eye, lifestyle issues, etcetera.
So vision is important part of mobility.
Vision is a critical part of quality of life, and that's what
got me interested in eye health,eye safety, and protecting
(03:13):
sight. That's wonderful to hear.
And I think for many of us who are in eye care as providers,
just being able to give people the gift of sight is really so
impactful. To be able to help someone
function again and do all of theactivities they love, there's
really no better reward than to be able to do that.
So I'm in complete alignment with you on that, Doctor Goyle.
(03:35):
So let's talk a little bit aboutday-to-day.
Many of us spend time, whether it's outdoors or on screens, our
eyes are constantly exposed to light.
Can you review for us basically give us like a 30,000 foot view
of the different wavelengths of light that our eyes take in and
process, and where are those different wavelengths come from?
(03:56):
Like what are the main sources of those various wavelengths of
light? Most most of the wavelengths of
light come from the sun. And when we think about, if you
think about wavelengths of light, think about wavelengths,
the electromagnetic field, etcetera, you think about radio
waves, we listen to the radio inthe 40s, fifties and 60s and
that's one wavelength of light going all the way to infrared.
(04:19):
The other end of wavelengths of light, we think about something
called the vision, the visual length wavelengths of light that
we can see, something called ROYGBIV, red, orange, yellow,
green, blue, indigo, Violet. That was the old Roy G bib we
had to learn when we were in in grade school growing up.
But the last ones, Violet goes so the visible light is between
(04:41):
400 and 700 nanometers and we gobelow 400 nanometers.
That's where Violet is. Now Violet has ultraviolet ray
AB and C. And just to get a little
technical here, UVA goes from 400 to about 320 nanometers, UVB
goes from about 3:20 to 280 nanometers, and UVC goes from
(05:07):
280 down to 100 nanometers. Now those are different
ultraviolet wavelengths of light.
Now we think about what is can be damaging to the eye and to
the skin and to the body. We need to think about UVA, UVB
and UVC. Thankfully we can ignore UVC
because UVC is taken up by the ozone in the atmosphere.
(05:28):
Absolutely. So what I'm hearing from you,
Doctor Gaul, is that there are many different wavelengths of
light that we're exposed to. There's visible light, which is
the colors of the rainbow that we typically think of.
And then there's invisible light, which can be either
really short wavelengths, which are in the UV spectrum or really
long wavelengths that are in theinfrared spectrum.
And you're now talking about theUV spectrum, UVA and UVB perhaps
(05:51):
being the most risky to our eyes.
Is that safe to say, Doctor Gaul?
Doctor Vonnegut, as I was preparing for this talk, let's
look at what ultraviolet radiation can cause damage to
the body. It can cause damage all over the
body. And especially we think about
the skin. If you want to think about, hey,
skin cancer, skin screening, etc.
(06:12):
We're thinking about what does UV rays, what does UV damage
cause to the skin? And we understand that
conceptually the epidermis, the germis.
So as I was reviewing the damagethat UV rays can cause to the
eye, I went to the skin because we think about skin screenings,
dermatology friends who have Melanoma, basal cell carcinoma,
(06:33):
squamous cell carcinoma, etcetera.
All of these issues with ultraviolet radiation can cause
damage to the eye. We know about the skin when we
when I go golfing, I'm always putting on sunscreen.
And before I I really got into eye health, I wasn't as maybe I
wasn't as cognizant to use sunglasses and use hats,
(06:53):
etcetera to protect my eyes. But it's just as important it is
to think about the skin. You have to think about the eyes
and the potential for ultraviolet radiation to cause
damage to multiple layers of theeyes.
I'm so glad that you made that analogy of UV damage to the skin
and UV damage to the eyes. A lot of people are, as you
(07:15):
said, cognizant of the skin. They go see their dermatologist
regularly, some every six months, even three or four
months, depending on what your skin issues are.
But for our eyes, let's talk about are there any protective
mechanisms that the eye naturally has to try to filter
out some of these rays that may cause problems?
Sure. What's interesting is that UV
(07:37):
radiation can cause damage to multiple layers of the eye.
For example, if you're sun gazing, if you're looking at the
at the sun intensely, you can cause photo damage to the
cornea. You can have like something
called sunburn. A patient who I had the worst
pain I've ever seen as a resident in ophthalmology was a
(07:57):
a gentleman who was doing it wasdoing blow torching on on a
Saturday night and he came in his eyes were just like like
severe pain. UV radiation cause can cause dry
eye and then we are it can also cause damage to the cornea and
also to the natural lens of the UVB can cause can change
something called oxidative stress, changing the proteins in
(08:19):
the natural lens causing a cataract or ultraviolet
radiation cause damage to the retina where things we think
about macular degeneration. If you're thinking about sun
gazing, you're talking about solar retinopathy etcetera.
So we do have some natural protection.
Ultraviolet rays can cause something called trisium's where
they can reprogram the tissue around the white part of the
(08:40):
eye, the sclare, something called the sclare of the
conjunctiva. You're reprogramming those
tissues and they're causing changes to the they're causing
stress to those cells and they're causing the cells to
grow. And that leads to how can we
protect the eyes? And I would, I have, I think
there are three things we can doto protect the eyes.
I love the power threes. 1 is sunglasses, one is brimmed hats,
(09:02):
and the third is something I call, we call the 2020 rule
where every 20 minutes you should look 20 feet away for 20
seconds. The 1st is sunglasses.
We think about that and when I think about when I speak to a
typical patient in the lane, they say hey Doctor Gol, can I
pick up these sunglasses over the counter?
Can you do this? Do that?
I say look, the sunglasses you want to look for should have one
of two designations. Either it should say 100% UVAUVP
(09:27):
protection or it should say UV400 then you should be You
should have reassurance that those types of sunglasses are
going to protect you as much as possible. 90 plus percent from
damages from ultraviolet rays. The second is getting.
Could I just interrupt? For a moment.
So if someone wears proper UV protection, is there still a
(09:50):
chance that they could develop some of these issues like dry
eye or corneal burns or terrigium or pinguacula?
Can that still happen? I think the risk goes down as
you have. Don't forget there's a
difference between wearing glasses which which I wear and
which have transitions in them which which have protection, or
wearing wrap around sunglasses like those.
(10:13):
Those wrap you can even when you're wearing.
And this is the same analogy I gave earlier with the nose
causing some natural protection or even the brow, etcetera.
Some natural protection to the eyes you still can have light
rays coming from the side that that are going to be your that
can cause issues. So there's never 100% protection
obviously with anything but I think that but I think that the
(10:34):
you still have to live your life.
So I think you still have to be as protected as possible.
I think that you can, I recommend if you someone who
there's a difference between somebody who's going out
day-to-day and somebody who's a postal worker, UPS driver, FedEx
driver, etcetera, who's out in the sun all day.
I just saw one of those patientsjust today, actually patient who
who drives trucks, you know, andthey're out all day.
(10:55):
So they they're at a higher risk.
They don't realize that in theirtwenty 30s or 40s.
If you think you're invincible and your lower 50s, early 60s,
you're getting earlier cataracts, you have Trusia, you
have pingueculum, etcetera, which can be a big risk factor
for overall eye health. Now I wanted to go back to this,
the topic of torridium that you brought up now, just to give a
(11:16):
visual for our listeners and ouraudience.
Terrigia typically happened as Doctor Gould was saying, on the
middle part, the inside part of the eye.
And it's like a little bit of anelevated kind of a growth,
right? And sometimes it may be a little
red. It can get inflamed.
And then sometimes it can grow over the cornea, like a little
triangular wedge that grows overand blocks the cornea.
(11:38):
Have you seen, I'm sure you musthave seen a lot of patients of
Teregia in your career, Doctor Gaul.
Oh yeah, I saw. I actually, it's funny, I saw
two or three today as I was preparing for the talk.
I took some videos just to to say, oh, you got Teregium.
Yes, those are gross. Point and then pinguecula which
you mentioned earlier. Can you explain what a
pinguecula is compared with a teregium?
Like what's the difference? Sure, the pingueculas are
relative, are commonly non malignant.
(12:00):
There's like these raised yellowwhite, we call them lesions of
the it's between the lids, so the interpalpebrole conjunctiva,
the nasal part and they're grossand they are they're called from
degeneration of collagen, sub epithelial collagen.
The fancy term is elastotic degeneration of sub epithelial
collagen, but you know it's. Light exposure typically like
(12:23):
lots of use exposure. OK.
You can have acute and you can have chronic, right.
So so we say, hey, this is long term, typically long term damage
activating cells sunlight that can cause these gross of these
this again, this yellow white lesion.
But yeah, it's from, it's from long term chronic exposure to.
(12:46):
Typically in my experience, it typically looks very different
than a terrigium because it typically looks like little
bubbles or round areas on the surface, whereas the terrigium
is more like a like a wing. Actually I think the origin of
the word terrigium comes from the word wing.
I don't know which language it is, Greek or Latin.
It's from Greek Greek trijios, meaning wing.
(13:06):
Yes. So it looks like triangular, but
I feel them. On the other hand, it's more
just like a bubbly around area. If somebody starts to develop
one of these two things from sundamage, can they reverse?
Can they just go away or is thatnot possible?
It typically doesn't go away. I typically counsel patients if
they come in and they're, they somebody sees, somebody sees it
(13:27):
for the first time, whatever, and they come in a panic.
I say, look, you know, you've had this from, you've probably
had this for many years now. Our, our smartphones are so
good. I say, why don't you take
pictures of it? We'll monitor it over time, take
pictures at home. But the, they, it's typically,
we typically don't remove them unless they're causing visual
(13:47):
symptoms. And what that means is typically
a pingueculum, which is that white yellow lesion that'll be
flat, it'll be a little elevated.
It's so common, I actually don'teven document it often in my
electronic medical records if I see it so commonly.
But if it's causing secondary symptoms, dryness, something
called Delen, all these sort of other symptoms where it's
causing damage to the cornea, damage to the visual system,
(14:10):
then we might address it. The tritium, typically it has to
grow on to the eye a fair amountor when patients come up for
cataract surgery, they have trigium and sometimes it can
affect the measurements. So somebody have something
called astigmatism where the best way to think about
astigmatism is you imagine bouncing a basketball, you
(14:30):
bounce a basketball up and down that has no astigmatism.
If you bounce your, if you imagine your eye being shaped
like a football, you bounce a football, it's going to bounce
off to the side a tritium as it,as you have that wing growing
onto the end, onto the cornea, it can sometimes cause a
secondary astigmatism effect. So you can have some distortion
(14:51):
not only from your cataract, from the natural lens of the
eye, you got some distortion from the tritium.
So typically those patients I may recommend that the tritium
be removed prior to cataract surgery, meaning three to six
months before cataract surgery because we want to have the best
data we have in is it gives us the best results going out.
So we want to have the best ocular surface before we we
(15:12):
before we consider cataract surgery and that plays in the
dry eye and other issues that can that a patient can be
susceptible to throughout their life, but also during the time
of surgery. Absolutely.
Now just for our listeners, thisis the kind of a fun fact about
becoming an ophthalmologist. Terrigium surgery is one of the
first surgeries we learn when we're doing ophthalmology
(15:33):
residency and we're actually very cautious about deciding
which patients undergo the surgery.
We actually don't recommend it for the vast majority of cases
like doctor goal was saying, only select cases.
And when we do surgery we use specific techniques, but one of
the risks is that they can grow back.
Have you, have you seen that in your practice, Dr. Gold?
(15:53):
You take off a trigium or maybe the patient had surgery 1015
years ago and there it is, it's back again.
Yeah. So, yeah.
And we have we, there is the risk of recurrence of trigium
and that can be addressed. And I think that we can use
different techniques, different modalities, some just some,
sometimes you can use something called amniotic membrane grafts
or you could use different sort of chemicals hopefully to
(16:14):
decrease the risk of the recurrence.
But that's why you should see anophthalmologist in your local
community, you know who is dedicated protecting site and,
and to address those issues. But as ophthalmologists, we're
trained to be conservative, right?
So we don't, we try not to, we're not going to remove a
trigium unless it's causing symptoms.
It can have some cosmetic effectfor a patient.
(16:37):
We're really looking at, hey, how's it affecting your quality
life? How's it affecting your
activities of daily living? And how in in the case of
cataracts and secondary effects,those are those can be very
important also to determine should we address this surgery,
should we remove it to help the patient?
Yeah. Just to share a story with you.
So I did my residency out in California, in Southern
(16:57):
California at UC Irvine. And our facility was very close
to Disney, Disneyland. And so we oftentimes saw some of
the Disney princesses come in with these terrigia because
they're out in the sun all and they have these growths on the
surface of the eye from chronic sun exposure.
And for those patients, even though it may not have been
impacted their vision, they wanted it removed for cosmetic
(17:20):
reasons. So yes, sometimes we do it for
cosmetic reasons, but the vast majority of patients is because
they have a visual disturbance because of their terrigium.
Doctor Gaul, what are the other risks of too much UV exposure?
Could be something more serious on the surface of the eye.
Could you explain a little bit more about what could happen
when people don't wear sunglasses or large wide brimmed
(17:42):
hats? Sure, Doctor Bonaghi, as I as I
would recommend, the patients undergo screenings by their
dermatologist to look for skin cancers throughout their whole
body. And that's very important,
especially for the folks who spend many hours outside in the
sunlight unprotected. However, we are particularly
concerned with eyelid periocularmalignancies, skin cancers
(18:05):
including, I'll bring up two points. 1 is basal cell
carcinoma. Basal cell carcinoma is the most
common eyelid cancer and it encompasses about 90% of eyelid
malignancies. And there's a strong link to
chronic UV exposure, which and which causes damage to basal
skin cells. Also, there's a disease called
(18:27):
squamous cell carcinoma of the eyelid that is less common, but
it's more aggressive than basal cell carcinoma.
And that can spread to nearby tissues also, which requires
early interventions. But if you have it sort of a non
healing growth on the eyelid, ifyou have something called
crusting or ulceration or bleeding lesions or if you have
loss of eyelashes in the affected areas, you can be at
(18:50):
risk for basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma,
Melanoma. When we think about, so
something called when we think about ocular Melanoma, we think
about something in, in the back of the eye, the choroid,
something called croital Melanoma, which is behind the
retina, deep to the retina. Patients when you think about
the skin's the largest organ in the body, there is skin around
the eyes and we are very concerned about eyelid
(19:12):
malignancies. So patients should be checked by
their ophthalmologist and in thecase of the skin, by their
dermatologist. Yeah, and I want to echo what
you just said. If there's anything suspicious
that's growing that's not healing, get it checked out, go
to your eye doctor, get it checked out.
And then also some of these growths may actually happen or
these malignancies may actually happen on the surface of the
(19:34):
eye. Isn't that correct?
Doctor goal. Yes, you can have CIN.
It's called so different malignancies that can occur on
the surface of the eye or as I mentioned we're most we're very
concerned about deep retina, croital melanomas, cancers
around the eye or in the eye that can be that can cause
vision loss, cause decreased quality of life that might be
(19:57):
metastatic etcetera. So patients should be certainly
checked by the age of 40 and then they should be checked
appropriate intervals when they see their ophthalmologist.
So again, there can be growths on the surface of the eye that
are malignant on the conjunctiva, which is like the
skin part of the eye, but also in the back of the eye.
And that's why dilated exam is so important.
I always tell my patients, please do not skip that annual
(20:19):
dilated exam because without that, we sometimes may miss
something that could be potentially not just vision
threatening, but life threatening.
This has been such an interesting discussion so far.
Doctor Gaul, I've learned a lot from you and we've shared a lot
of insights. We're going to take a very short
break here from one of our sponsors and we'll be right back
with more on the ihealth Summit,so stay tuned.
(20:42):
Hello, I'm Doctor Ronnie and I'mhere to talk about something we
often take for granted, our vision.
In my book Beyond Carrots best foods for ihealth A to ZI delve
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(21:06):
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(21:27):
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(21:49):
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(22:11):
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(22:34):
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(23:17):
Welcome back to the Eye Health Summit, everyone.
Today we're chatting with DoctorRavi Goal, a leading
ophthalmologist based it out of based out of New Jersey, and
we're chatting about different light wavelengths that it may
impact our eyes. Now, Doctor Goal, I wanted to
ask you about, we've talked about sunlight and the various
wavelengths and what it can do to our eyes, but let's talk
(23:37):
about artificial light. Now that most of our world is on
screens, many of us spend 8/10/12 or more hours a day in
front of a screen. We're constantly getting
bombarded by blue light that's coming from our screens.
Tell us more about this blue light.
Is it bad? Is it good?
What are some of the potential consequences of this excessive
blue light exposure? Doctor, that is a great
(23:59):
question. I remember when COVID first
started and our practices were closed and then we slowly reopen
our practices, I saw more and more patients who had eye
strain, dry eye, etcetera. And because what was happening
was everybody was working from home and all of a sudden they
were spending many more hours working on their computer,
(24:22):
working on their iPad, working on their iPhone, etcetera.
So it was causing much more eye strain.
And we would typically get the question about blue light,
blocking glasses, etcetera, bluelight, etcetera, just to let's
just step back and say when is sunlight helpful?
And we know sunlight is helpful throughout our life for mood
etcetera, but we need the sunlight in the morning 20-30
(24:45):
minutes, 2-3 days a week to helpwith our circadian rhythm.
We need sunlight to help us withvitamin D production etcetera.
And so that is where sunlight can be helpful.
Now when you talk about like blue light and blue blocking
glasses, etcetera, like I'm guilty where I will use my, my,
my iPad and my iPhone, all my devices up until the time I go
(25:07):
to sleep. And I think that I got a, in
terms of melatonin production, etcetera, the recommendations to
like not be on your systems for at least an hour or two before
you go to sleep. But in terms of blue light
blocking glasses, the science simply isn't there for me to say
that they have benefit where people should invest a lot of
money to them. I do think that that for
generally, for generally when patients come to me with these
(25:29):
types of symptoms, I say look 20/20/20 every 20 minutes, look
20 feet away for 20 seconds. That's going to help your eye
strain, etcetera. And it's actually funny because
I have family, nieces and nephews in high school who know
about the 20/20/20 rule. So I think in terms of this goes
into the whole like the mists ofsun gazing, Is there a huge
benefit from sun gazing? And I'm like, Oh my God.
(25:51):
Like I remember when we had the solar eclipse in 2017, I was
doing research for my blog and Ifound AUS Soldier who was it's
there's actually a case report in the from the 1940s who was
sun gazing in the 1940s and he caused damage to his retina
solar retinopathy. So I think that I think that we
have to try to debunk miss if it's part of the I health summit
(26:14):
and the I Health summit, my, my take would be that blue blocking
glasses may not be worth the investment.
I think. I think they're taking frequent
breaks from working, respecting the last hour or two before you
go to sleep. I think that would help your
your sleep cycles with circadianrhythm, etcetera.
And I think that that would be my feedback.
Thank you for those insights. I think debunking myths is very
(26:34):
important and that's one of the reasons why we're talking about
some of these topics on the I Health on the I Health Summit.
To get expert advice. I'm going to share something
with you, a study that I read about blue blockers.
So basically Consumer Reports, which is pretty reputable
company, they have a magazine where they review different
products. So this is pre pandemic.
(26:55):
They reviewed several of the leading blue blockers on the
market and they looked at three of the top selling blue blockers
and what they found was that onewas like a very light yellow
tint and one was a little bit darker yellow, and 1 was really
deep orange, amber and color. So the really lightest one only
blocked about 10 to 20% of the blue light.
The middle one only blocked about 30 to maybe 40% of the
(27:17):
blue light. The deeper 1 blocked the
majority of the blue light. So the truth is.
Most blue blockers. This is my take.
The most blue blockers on the market don't really block
significant amounts of blue light, 10 to 30% Max.
And most of them are light in color, but some of them even
look clear. Those clear ones are hardly
blocking any of the blue light. But if you feel like you want to
(27:38):
block blue light, if it's interfering with your sleep, if
you're using devices at night and can't go to sleep, If you
feel like you're having a lot strain, get the really deeply
pigmented blue blockers, the redones, the dark orange, the amber
ones. What are your thoughts about
that doctor goal like? I mean, I, Doctor Vaneka, I have
to defer to the fellowship trained neuro ophthalmologist
(27:58):
from Johns Hopkins Hospital. You are the expert on, on, on,
on these issues and on quality life.
So I think, yeah, I think the patients, the nice thing is that
yeah, there there can be a placebo effect for some of these
devices. And I think that some patients
swear by them. And I certainly maybe time will
will change our minds on some ofthese technologies.
But I do agree that I, I think that if you're going to go in,
(28:19):
you should go all in respecting the safety, etcetera.
And I think that I think that certainly I sleep is so
important for 500 days. I was watching a Ted Talk a day
during the pandemic. I was trying to make myself a
little more educated on like these high yield topics and I
got really into the value of sleep and, and especially for
the eyes in terms of in terms ofrespecting sleep.
And I think that is one of the great wonders of the world is
(28:40):
the value of sleep. Absolutely.
And we can go back and forth about some of these topics.
But the one thing I wanted to ask you, Doctor, goal is with
all this blue light exposure, isthere any evidence that it
actually does any permanent damage to our eyes?
Are we hurting ourselves being on screens for 1012 to 14 hours
a day? I think that I'm not sure about
(29:00):
the evidence, but I think that in terms of eye strain,
headaches and that sort of thing, I think that on a
day-to-day basis, I think that we, we should be cognizant of,
you know, of the, the stresses to the system that can occur
from being on our devices. I know we can go to the sort of
like the, the 20 twenties is themyopia pandemic we have around
the world. These sort of we want to make
sure I think China like different countries that that we
(29:24):
want to get kids outside for oneor two hours a day to decrease
the amount of myopia and earsidenear sightedness over time.
Because we have shown that near sightedness where the eye gets
longer, it has more, you can have more we call morbidity
more, more issues later in life.So I think that I think that I
think that this goes back to what I was saying, going saying
earlier where we want to make sure that folks go outside, go
(29:47):
outside safely and for vitamin Dproduction for circadian rhythm
etcetera, especially in younger kids spending an hour or two
outside air per day with UV protection, but still hopefully
decrease the incidence of myopiaover the course your lifetime.
I think it's very important. This, and we're not sure.
The studies have definitely shown that's important for kids
to be outdoors and to playing ornot on screens.
(30:08):
Basically you're not looking at doing your work for two hours a
day. But we're not yet sure.
Is it the sunlight that's reducing the risk of myopia?
Is it the the type of the distance that the child is
focusing at that's making the difference?
We don't yet know. But the general recommendation
is get outdoors, do some physical activity, rest your
eyes from screens, and get thosehealthy habits started in
(30:30):
childhood. Don't wait until it's too late,
until you're very myopic and at that point you can't.
Like, as Doctor Goal was saying,there could be other
complications of myopia, especially high myopia, which is
near sightedness. This has been such an
enlightening conversation. Doctor Golav enjoyed talking
with you and learning from you. Again, we're dispelling a lot of
myths here on the ihealth Summit.
(30:51):
Is there one myth or misconception about our eyes
with relation to light that you would really just love to dispel
today for our audience? Well, I want to go back.
I think about safety 1st and I remember when we had the solar
eclipse in 2017 and I was fearful over what the risk was
of people gazing the sun intensely for those for those
(31:14):
few moments. So I think sungazing blue,
blocking those sorts of risks I think I think we typical
patients should be mindful of. But I think going back to my top
three pearls, 1 is sunglasses, 2nd is wearing a nice trimmed
hat. You either can wear this or if
you're down in, if you're down in Mexico or down somewhere
else, you can wear a nice good brimmer hat, especially if
(31:35):
you're playing golf. And the third is the 2020 twenty
rule, which I love. We think about to the Stellen,
the old Stellen visual cutie chart from the 1860s 2020, which
is the letters on the chart in 9mm for 2020, but 20/20/20 every
20 minutes look 20 feet away for20 seconds.
That'll give you help to relax your eyes, help you to decrease
(31:55):
your your dryness, help to decrease eye strain, and help
you to live a healthier life. Absolutely.
First of all, Doctor Gould, I love your hats.
I love your very stylish, very stylish.
But you know what Doctor Gould just shared?
Those are truly words of gold. One of the other themes of our
Eye Health Summit is an ounce ofprevention is worth a pound of
(32:17):
cure. And when it comes to light
exposure, UV exposure, healthy screen habits, it's really so
much better to prevent issues from happening than to wait
until they happen, then try to chase after the consequences.
Wouldn't you say? Doctor goal?
Like it's 100% frustrating for us as eye care providers to try
to chase after something once it's already started.
So try to prevent it as best as you can.
(32:39):
Absolutely. Thank you, Doctor Go for sharing
your insights with us and spending some time with us here
on the ihealth Summit. If anyone wanted to learn more
from you, perhaps follow your blog or follow you on social
media or even become a patient, how could they find you?
They can go to my professional website or they can just follow
me, find me on it's very easy, protectingsite.com, which is or
(33:02):
just my first name, my last name, md.com.
They'll hit one of my they'll get to my blog and they can they
can follow me and find links to my practice, etcetera.
Wonderful. We will share all of those links
right below the interview and please anyone reach out to
Doctor Goal. He is again a wealth of
information and so experienced. So again, thank you for joining
us and thank you all for sharingsome time with us on the I
(33:22):
Summit and we will see you all soon for the next interview.
So stay tuned. Thank you.
Thank you for tuning in to the IQ Podcast.
I hope you enjoyed today's episode and learn something new
to help you boost your IQ. Leave us a review and share the
podcast with your family and friends.
Stay connected with me for more eye opening insights on ihealth,
(33:46):
nutrition and lifestyle. Until next time, keep your
vision clear and your IQ sharp.
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