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7 causes of dry eye syndrome and how to treat it
Instagram has absorbed you and me so much that, firstly, it has created a new profession – instablogger. And secondly, it led to the appearance of occupational diseases. Dry eye syndrome – sooner or later every professional blogger who runs his own account faces it.
Ophthalmologist, ophthalmic surgeon, candidate of medical sciences.
Why does this disease occur? It would seem that the answer is obvious – we sit on the phone for a long time. But in fact, dry eyes have as many as 7 reasons.
Let’s take a look at them in detail. Check if you have any of these reasons.
1. Smartphones and other gadgets
Bloggers spend hours staring at the screen while posting or responding to comments. What happens then? Bright light, moving picture – it makes us peer. We are so focused on the process that we forget to blink. Of course, by and large a person blinks involuntarily, but this reflex slows down when attention is riveted to something.
When we don’t blink, the eye is not washed with a moisturizing tear and dries up. Over time, you start to feel it – the eye stings, cuts, there is a feeling of dust and sand, and sometimes you start to tear for no reason. This is dry eye syndrome.
The situation is aggravated if you wear lenses. Despite careful hygiene and daily lens changes, they still dry out the eyes. I think that those who have been using lenses for a long time have experienced dry eyes.
The fact is that lenses violate the quality of the tear, it loses its moisturizing properties, as a result of which the eye dries out.
3. Laser vision correction
Now more and more people are doing laser vision correction. And I think this is correct. After all, modern devices allow an operation to be performed accurately and in just 20 minutes to get rid of both glasses and lenses. The only thing to look out for is the doctor’s approach.
A competent specialist should prescribe you a Schirmer test before the operation – this is a special test that determines the dryness of the eye and the quality of tears. If the test results in a diagnosis of dry eye syndrome, then it must first be cured, and only then get rid of glasses. Moreover, to treat not with drops, but with a modern and more effective method – circulatory laser stimulation of the sebaceous glands. This is a kind of physical therapy.
Otherwise, after laser correction, dry eye syndrome may worsen, the eye will constantly itch, the feeling of dust will never go away. It will be very difficult to get rid of such dryness.
Of course, hormones are one of the reasons. In a woman, they are responsible for almost all problems, including dry eyes.
The hormonal background is disrupted – metabolic processes in the body are also disrupted, and the consistency of the tear changes. There is less fat in it, which should, as it were, protect the eye with a film. The tear becomes too thin and can no longer hold on to the eye. In this case, lacrimation may occur.
Moreover, we are talking about fairly popular drugs – these are antidepressants and oral contraceptives. They affect our hormonal balance, and then according to a well-known scheme. Hormonal imbalance disrupts the quality of tears, the tear film loses stability, and there is a feeling of sand, dust, irritation, redness.
Therefore, if you are taking these drugs, then as a preventive measure it is better to use the so-called artificial tear – these are drops.
And of course, ecology. Air quality affects a lot in our body, eyes are no exception.
Dry air can lie in wait for us everywhere: at home and in the office. Moreover, in the summer the air dries out from the heat, in the winter – from the heating. And such air simply dries out a tear, which should moisturize the eye. Did you know that our cornea (the transparent outer lining of the eye) feeds on tears? It is the tear that delivers oxygen to her. The less oxygen and nutrients the cornea receives, the worse its condition.
Sometimes dry eye syndrome is not related to work or lifestyle, but to a health condition. There are a number of conditions that can dry out the eyes. These are diabetes mellitus, conjunctivitis and blepharitis.
1. Buy a humidifier.
2. Set yourself an alarm on your phone. And every 10 minutes, take your eyes off the screen.
3. Make laser vision correction if you have no contraindications.
1. Of course, the simplest thing is to buy an “artificial tear”, that is, moisturizing drops, and constantly bury them. This is not very convenient, because it is easy to ruin your makeup with them.
You also need to take into account that it is very difficult to choose drops for yourself. What suits one person will be useless for another.
2. A more modern method of treating dry eyes is circulatory laser stimulation of the lacrimal glands. This is a physiotherapy procedure that improves the quality of tears. Moreover, unlike drops, one course of this procedure is enough for at least six months.
3. Treat comorbidities that can cause dry eyes.