Feel Better and Play Better - Emma Bruntil’s ALTIUS® Story
Emma Bruntil, a wrestler for Team USA, first experienced debilitating migraines in December 2022. As many migraines sufferers experience, the reason behind her migraines wasn’t fully clear. It could be the injuries she’s suffered in her sport, including a neck injury that resulted in an uptick in anxiety. But no doctor could give her a real diagnosis for the cause of her severe migraines.
The biggest trigger for her migraines? Bright lights.
Due to her sport, Emma would spend hours in an extremely bright lit gym practicing and competing, which became a huge problem for her migraines.. She found herself suffering worse and more frequent migraines as she was constantly under some kind of bright light - weight lifting, practicing, competing. The light caused her not only to fall prey to another migraine, but also pulled her focus from what she really wanted to be concentrating on - her sport.
Her doctor prescribed her some medicine that seemed to help, but didn’t fully resolve the issue.
The only thing that started to help was wearing sunglasses. The sunglasses helped to remove some of the bright light that triggered her migraines, but she couldn’t wear sunglasses during practice or competition.
And she noticed that wearing the sunglasses before competing gave her a disoriented feeling. When she had to take the sunglasses off, bright lights felt harsher and overwhelming. She needed another solution to let her feel better and perform to her best abilities.
That’s when Dr. Mike Saxerud suggested that Emma give ALTIUS lenses a try.
As Dr. Saxerud explains, “Before the Altius lenses, we were able to reduce her migraine symptoms and improve her visual responses with a variety of neuro-optometric and vision therapy techniques. However, the bright lights in the weight room and gym were the obstacles that kept us from continuing to progress. Once the Altius lenses were employed, we have seen tremendous improvements in her visual function and comfort that has allowed her to see more progression and get the extra edge needed to compete and win at the highest level.”
She got a sample of our Amber lenses. As someone who had never worn contact lenses or needed any vision correction, inserting and removing the lenses did have a slight learning curve. Because our lenses are soft with a vivid tint, the process was easier than she expected. She adapted quickly to wearing them. Her first time wearing them in competition resulted in her feeling better than she had in a long time. In fact, she won that tournament, out scoring her opponents 32-2.
Emma continued to wear the Amber lenses during her training and competitions, when she knew she would be faced with bright lights that could cause a migraine. She found that her light sensitivity wasn’t the only thing that ALTIUS helped with.
The anxiety that she started having after her neck injury improved significantly. She felt the overall calming effect that many experience when wearing ALTIUS lenses. When our eyes are less stressed, our mind tends to find better focus and release the anxiety caused by visual noise and disturbance.
Her wrestling also improved. She competed against an opponent that had previously beaten her 3 of the 4 times. Wearing the Amber lenses, Emma beat her opponent in 2 of the 3 matches, taking the win. She felt more confident and controlled, which helped her focus on technique and responding quickly to her opponent’s moves.
At one point in the match, her opponent ripped one of the lenses out her eye. Eye injuries are quite common in wrestling, but because she was wearing the ALTIUS lenses, Emma’s eyes were protected from the bright lights AND her opponent’s fingers.
With less visual distraction, her mind was able to concentrate on the activity at hand, and her body responded with a quicker reaction time. Her opponent in the Final X competition, which determines the Senior World Team, had previously received points on her by hitting her single leg. While wearing the ALTIUS Amber lenses, her competitor didn’t get one leg hit.
The Amber lenses also provide a fun intimidation factor for the combat sport of wrestling. The bright orange tint of the lenses are hard to miss, and Emma has heard plenty of comments about her eyes with the lenses on - most of which are very positive with people mentioning how cool it looks, like she’s a vampire. ALTIUS lenses may not be cosmetic lenses, but they do change the look of your eyes, which is a fun additional bonus for competitive sports.
Living in Colorado, Emma takes advantage of the many outdoor activities and wears the Grey-Green lenses to protect her eyes and her brain from any exposure to the bright lights.
We’re excited to follow Emma on her journey as she prepares for Senior Worlds and for the 2024 Olympics.
68 kg1st - Emma Bruntil, Titan Mercury
You might have just heard about ALTIUS® performance tinted contact lenses, but we’ve been in the making for a long time! Perhaps you’ve heard of a product called Nike MaxSight? MaxSight found success in athlete performance vision in the early 2000’s.
Remember seeing these lenses on your favorite athletes? Well, they’re back and better than ever! Let’s dive into the history of ALTIUS and how we went from MaxSight to where we are today.
It all started back in 1990 when ALTIUS Founder, CEO, and Chief Science Officer Dr. Alan Reichow, OD, MEd, FAAO, and colleagues at Pacific University College of Optometry began research on eye glare black. That’s the smear of black you’ll find athletes wear under or around their eyes. Their research showed Eye Glare Black can help to improve an athlete’s vision by reducing the sun’s glare reflected off skin. Turns out, there is an even better option.
Dr. Al and colleagues continued research on sports performance vision for another 8 years before embarking on creating performance tinted contact lenses, a potential solution for the ultimate in performance eyewear. Dr. Al, with his partners at Paragon Vision Sciences, determined the ideal tints to include in a contact lens which absorbed harmful UV, virtually all harsh Blue Light, and transmitted right Quantity (Visible Light Transmission) and Quality (Spectral Transmission Curves) for maximal visual comfort, clarity and quickness.
All that means is that they think they engineered the right tints for athletes to see the game better AND protect their eyes. Over the next several years, they started testing the tints on athletes at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon.
In 2000, longtime Pacific University baseball coach, Greg Bradley, became the first coach to try the lenses that were called SportsSight. His immediate reaction…
“I’ve never seen the ball and seams that distinctly before. You can put those lenses on all my players.” And they did!
Over the next few years, the team continued to study the lenses and the experience of the Pacific University baseball team using them. This garnered some local media attention… which sparked the interest of a very large local company.
This began a partnership between the team at SportsSight, Nike, and Bausch + Lomb. SportsSight became MaxSight… a vision performance solution for anyone, even those not needing any vision correction.
In 2005, MaxSight was officially launched at the American Optometry Association Annual Convention in Dallas, Texas. MaxSight was a monthly replacement lens, which meant that it required proper cleaning, disinfection and storage between uses. It didn’t take long for eye care professionals to see the value in this product.
In fact, MaxSight made such a big splash that it was recognized by TIME magazine as “One of the Most Amazing Inventions of 2005.”
Interestingly, in spite of the “Hassle Factors” of Maxsight, over 60% of MaxSight users were those that did not require vision correction, and had never worn contact lenses before.
Despite great success, outstanding testimonies, and media coverage, MaxSight came to an early end. Due to a contact lens solution contamination issue at Bausch + Lomb, completely unrelated to MaxSight, Nike didn’t feel comfortable continuing the product. There was too much risk in the endeavor to continue.
But that didn’t stop the team that would become ALTIUS, which means “Higher” in Latin.
With continued demand for performance tinted contact lenses, and all the science behind it, the team knew this product could stay alive… and get better! So, the team embarked on a new mission to create a single-use disposable lens that would be far easier and safer for users.
After almost a decade of research and development, the new and improved ALTIUS brand was created, with a product that would provide all the amazing benefits of MaxSight with even more convenience, protection, and visual clarity. It was designed with a much improved lens material and with parameters that provided improved ease of handling and comfort when applied to the eye, especially important with all the first time contact lens users who had no vision correction need.
Today, we’re proud to continue the mission of providing the best in vision performance for athletes and anyone that wants to See Better, Feel Better, and Play Better!
The ALTIUS team continues to conduct research on the lenses, including how they can support relief from photosensitivity often associated with migraines, concussions, and traumatic brain injuries. With a growing focus by eye care practitioners on these conditions, ALTIUS is gaining use as a new and improved solution to light sensitivity symptoms.
Stay connected with us as we continue to evolve and try ALTIUS for yourself!
Check out our provider page to find an eye care professional close to you, or contact us for more information on how you can benefit from using ALTIUS.
