With the controversy over performance-enhancing drugs quieted for now, a new performance-enhancing substance is hitting the baseball field—contact lenses. And with both kids and adults seeking an athletic edge, the question is: will these new lenses be the safe and legal advantage they are looking for?
Developed by Nike, the new high-tech contact lenses are designed to give both amateur and professional athletes an enhanced view of their playing field. The tinted, soft contacts, called MaxSight, filter out 95 percent of UV light, and highlight the objects an athlete most needs to see.
Older color contacts merely change the color of the eye, but MaxSight is among the first contacts to have a UV-protective tint covering its entire surface, shielding the entire pupil and iris from sun damage. While contacts do leave the white of the eye exposed, a region less prone to damage, sunglasses can't even claim to protect your entire eye, as light can enter through the top and sides of glasses.
The amber lens used for fast-moving sports blocks out the &visual noise& surrounding a ball, highlighting the red seams of a baseball and giving hitters and fielders a better view of their target. If a slower-moving game like golf is more your speed, the gray-green lenses help to highlight the various shades of green in a course and eliminate glare.
Copyright 2009 NBC Health
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