How Allergies Affect Your Eyes

How Allergies Affect Your Eyes

How Allergies Affect Your Eyes

Eyes red or itching? Suffering from seasonal allergies? If you're like me, you fled to your local drug store this weekend to stock up on allergy medicine, and found many of the shelves empty. Did you know between 30-50% of Americans suffer from allergies? Moreover, 75% of those allergies affect the eyes! That's a lot of red, itchy, watery eyes in this country.

What causes them? Most allergies are airborne, and that's where they come in contact with your eyes and nose. They are triggered by particles from substances like pollen, ragweed, mold, dust, and pet dander. Some other causes include reactions to preservatives in lubricating eye drops, or from cosmetics. If your eye drops are irritating you, you may want to switch to a kind without preservatives.

Eye allergies are often hereditary, and they occur as a result of other allergic processes. For example, if your eyes are excessively watery as a result of allergies, it's because your body is releasing histamines. Those histamines are making your eyes water, not the allergen. Sometimes the reactions in your eyes are actually over-reactions. If a non-threatening substance gets into your eyes, your eyes can perceive it as harmful. For example: dust. Dust is relatively harmless in small amounts, but if a person is especially susceptible to eye irritation, he or she may experience major tearing, mucous, itchiness, or redness. While that can be extremely annoying, it doesn't mean your vision is being affected.

Allergies can lead to other health problems, too. Specific to the eyes, your allergies can cause asthma symptoms to flare up or other upper respiratory problems. That, in addition subconsciously scratching your nose and eyes back and forth can cause conjunctivitis, or pink eye.

We cannot control the changes of the seasons and the allergies that come with them, so we have to avoid and treat. If you are affected by pollen, you can try to stay inside in the air conditioning on especially high pollen days. If you are going outside, you can wear wraparound sunglasses to keep pollen and other particles out of your eyes. Avoidance can be hard though, especially during the week when you have to be out and about, so you can treat your allergies with either prescription or over-the-counter treatments. Speak with your doctor to find out what's right for you. If your eyes are really suffering, eye drops with antihistamines may be best for you. Always consult your eye doctor before beginning to use medicated eye drops regularly.

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