Dry Eyes? Your Body May Be Trying to Tell You Something
Dry Eyes? Your Body May Be Trying to Tell You Something
The weather on your wedding day. The track right before the Kentucky Derby. The paint on the park bench where you sit to drink your morning latte. With all of these, dry is good, but such is not the case when it comes to your eyes.
About 33 million Americans suffer from dry eye syndrome. The condition does not discriminate on the basis of sex, age, or ethnicity. That said, by the age of 65 you have a three in four chance of having problems with dry eye. Symptoms can include feelings of grittiness, irritation, and burning. You might have difficulty reading for long periods of time, and, as contradictory as it sounds, it's common to experience excessive tearing or watering of the eyes.
As with many other eye conditions, the source of a problem like dry eye may lie not in the eyes themselves. You may have to look to health of the rest of your body for both the cause and the solution. After all, the eyes are not only the windows of the soul; they are also windows that reveal the state of your overall health.
In many ways, dry eyes are just a part of getting older, especially for women during menopause. But, they can also be indicative of serious systemic conditions like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, or Sjogren's syndrome. Diabetes, asthma, and thyroid disease, can all be associated with dry eyes as well.
While we can't stop the clock or control the genetics that may predispose us to autoimmune diseases, we generally do have a choice about the medications that we take. Birth control pills, antihistamines, antidepressants, some blood pressure medicines, and certain drugs prescribed for Parkinson's disease can all cause or exacerbate dry eye.
LASIK surgery, which severs up to 70% of the superficial nerve fibers in the cornea, compromises corneal sensation. When we can't feel the surface of the eye, we blink less and our vital protective tear layer breaks down. Post surgery, people can suffer from mild to severe dry eye. The condition usually clears up eventually. (If you are someone suffers from dry eyes you probably know enough to be concerned about conditional terms like "usually" and "eventually.")
So, what can you do about it? Sometimes freeing yourself from dry eye us as easy as moving your chair. Air conditioning or heating vents in your home or office can zap the moisture from your eyes. While you're sitting in that desk chair be sure to blink regularly and take frequent breaks. Dry eye can be a sure sign that you are suffering from computer eyestrain.
But, sometimes you might need to move your chair to a different city or even a different state. The National Women's Health Resource Center published a list of the top 100 dry eye hot spots in America. While Las Vegas topped the list, Texas has five of the cities in the top 20 including Dallas/Forth Worth. And just in case you decide to pin all of these problems on the Southwest, Honolulu and Boston both make the list at 10 and 16, respectively.
When you walk into the pharmacy seeking a solution to soothe those baby blues (or browns or greens), steer clear of eye drops that promise to "get the red out." These drops work by reducing circulation to the eye and actually decrease the production of tear film, making your eyes even dryer. Many formulas that you find in the drugstore also contain preservatives that can worsen your condition and even kill corneal cells. The preferable preservative-free products will be marked as such. In reality, the majority of eye drops on the market are just a temporary fix since they are not getting to the root of the problem: an underlying systemic condition, bad habits (including long hours spent staring at the computer screen), or environmental factors.
But what if you are a native of El Paso who designs Web pages for a living and can't imagine life without air conditioning? There are steps you can take to improve your diet and change your lifestyle habits to alleviate your condition.
- Trade in your contacts and treat yourself to a pair of glasses that you love. Contact lens wearing is a major factor in the development of dry eye
- Cut back on or eliminate completely: smoking, caffeine, sugar, artificial sweeteners, and toxic fats found in processed foods and hydrogenated oils.
- Drink lots of water: 8-10 glasses per day is optimal.
- Eat your veggies: rich in vitamin A and other key nutrients, leafy green vegetables are the real powerhouses that will help your dry eye condition
- Invest in a humidifier to keep the air moist in your home and office, especially in the wintertime.
- Remember to blink! And, at least a few times a day, gently massage your upper and lower eyelids to stimulate your tear glands.
Learn about how others have beat their dry eye syndrome symptoms - naturally!
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