dry eye syndrome is becoming an epidemic with more and more people experiencing
dry red burning stinging eyes which can lead to blurred vision and fluctuating
vision and it gets even worse here in the wintertime so in this video I'm
gonna be sharing with you five tips that'll help you with your dry eye
symptoms let's take a look hello and welcome this is dr. Allen here from the
doctor Eye Health show helping you learn all about the eyes and vision and if
you're new here to the channel consider hitting that subscribe button down below
so that you don't miss any of my future videos also at any point throughout
today's video if you want to check out additional information and links about
all of the pro tips that we're mentioning here include those in the
video description below. now dry eye syndrome can affect people at any time
throughout the year but it gets particularly worse here in the winter
time as the winter time air is very dry the humidity is very low and that allows
the tears on your eye to evaporate much faster so tip number one is to consider
getting a humidifier keeping a humidifier nearby whether that be in
your living room your bedroom or in your office next to your desk is gonna help
increase the humidity in the room that you're in and that's going to decrease
how fast your tears are going to evaporate from the surface of the eye I
personally keep a humidifier in the bedroom next to where I sleep so that
when I wake up in the morning my eyes aren't burning and stinging there many
different brands of humidifiers out there but they do recommend you invest
in one that's a little bit nicer one that has a low sound output otherwise
the motor that comes out can become a little distracting and a bonus pro tip
is that if you are using a humidifier make sure you're using distilled water
and not just tap water as tap water will have minerals and different particulate
matter that will get vaporized and that will end up in the air you could breathe
that in and it can even clog the furnace which is actually happened to me before
tip number two is to pay attention to where moving air is coming from
particularly if it's from a window a furnace or a fan as moving air will
brush across the surface of the eye and therefore increase the amount of
evaporation from the surface of the eye this is really important for somebody
who maybe has an office with a vent above them it's blowing directly into
their eyes and for anybody that's driving a long period of time especially
here in the winter when you have a defrost on that defroster can thrower
that air right into your eyes same thing if you're
someone who sleeps with a fan blowing directly into the eyes make sure to turn
that a little bit away so that air isn't drying out your eyes at nighttime tip
number three is that if you are going to be outside and it's very windy out
thankfully right now there's really no wind but if it was windy out you want to
make sure that you're wearing sunglasses or regular glasses some sort of eye
protection that blocks from the side as air that brushes across the eye again
it's gonna cause that evaporation so if you can have a pair of glasses or
sunglasses with a face wrap around them that's gonna add extra protection from
any wind coming from the side tip number four is that if you're somebody with
moderate to severe dry eye then consider them getting a pair of moisture goggles
now this is a really cool brand of moisture goggles that I found called
Ziena, Ziena is a brand that makes like these cool little side shields for a
pair of glasses that not only looks more stylish but also comes with a
prescription lens where most moisture goggles out there they're just plain old
lenses and they frankly don't look very attractive one thing I'd mention is that
you do want to find a frame where these silicone insert fits very snugly along
the side of your face otherwise the air is just going to evaporate through the
size of the frame anyway so if you can't find an optical near you that has these
frames you can try them out that'd be the best otherwise the website does
offer a free trial program that way they can send you a few pairs that you can
try on at home and figure out what your size is gonna be the best for you and
they actually reached out to the Ziena brand and they offered a special
discount for my viewers if you want to check them out you can use this code at
checkout to save 10 percent. tip number five is that if you're somebody who is
very reliant on using artificial tears to keep your eyes moist throughout the
day then make sure you're using a high quality artificial tear best to be using
the one that is recommended to you by your local eye doctor as they know the
surface of your eye and which one is gonna probably work the best if you're
using eye drops more than four or five times a day it's often recommended to
use a non preserved artificial tear as these don't have preservatives that can
over time maybe cause a ludic reactions and other problems to the surface of the
eye here in the winter I often like to recommend gel drops or something that's
a little bit thicker that can stay and last longer on the surface of the eye
rather than just again drying out really quickly the only real downside to these
thicker drops is that they can cause blurred vision a little bit if you want
a little bit more but my favorite dry eye drop
do have another video going over that if you want to check that out I'll hook
that up here in the YouTube card of a buff on a final note dry eye syndrome or
keratoconjunctivitis sicca which is the medical term is often part of much more
complex issues going on with the entire anterior surface of the eyes and even
systemic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or Sjogren's syndrome if
you've been suffering from burning red irritated eyes or having really just bad
dry eye symptoms make sure you talk to your eye doctor
get seen by either an eye doctor who specializes in cornea anteaters segment
or specializes in dry eye disease in general thankfully now we have a lot of
different treatments including medications and in-office procedures
that can help so I have question of the day which one of these five tips was
your favorite and do you have any other dry eye tips of your own go ahead and
connect in the section below if you got value out of this video go ahead and
smash that like button for me and if you'd like to learn more about dry eye
and different dry eye treatments I have a whole dry eye video series and I'll
hook that up over here to the side so you can check that out
otherwise I'm collect is the other cool video some doctor eye health go ahead
and clip it up the screen just down over here again thanks for watching and we'll
see you in the next video