it's not bad it's not bad oh it's got the tears going though
hey howdy everybody this is dr Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy, and i do videos all about the eyes
to help you with your eyes and i really enjoy doing these videos specifically about dry eyes
dry eye treatments blepharitis and on my past videos almost without fail i tend to get somebody
that comments about manuka honey eye drops they state how amazing they are they almost make it
sound like it's the end-all be-all for dry eye treatments or blepharitis treatments and they
pretty much would tell me i'm pretty much wasting people's time explaining or educating about other
dry eye treatments or blepharitis treatments and so it kind of rubbed me the wrong way at first
but i finally got my hands on some manuka honey eye drops and the gel and i have to tell you i'm
actually really glad that i did because these just might be the best natural eye drops that you can
get for dry eyes and blepharitis let's focus in so let me go over exactly what manuka honey is
what it can treat what kind of drops you can get and how you can get it so what exactly is manuka
honey manuka honey is native to new zealand and it's made by the bees that pollinate the flower
on the manuka bush that's why it's called manuka honey the active ingredient manuka honey is called
methylglyoxal which has amazing antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties which sets it apart
from traditional honey and what's amazing when you actually apply this to the eye it creates
this micro environment on the surface of the eye and it actually inhibits growth of other organisms
and because it has these antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties it's amazing
at helping control the over population growth on the eyelids helping treat blepharitis it can help
control the overpopulation of demodex on the eyelashes or the eyelids it can help treat
meibomian gland dysfunction mgd which contributes to dry eyes it can help treat evaporative
dry eye disease aqueous deficient dry eye disease or the combination of any of those diseases now
as the natural benefits of manuka honey become more well known a lot of people would take that
manuka honey and actually make their own homemade eye drops to treat their dry eyes and blepharitis
now optimal has come along and made the first commercialized eye drops non-prescription eye
drops that you can get and actually use on your eyes the optimal manuka honey eye drop does have
less manuka honey in it it comes out to be about 16.5 percent of the eye drop and it actually does
have a preservative in the eye drop as well the optimal manuka honey fortified eye gel is a lot
more concentrated with about 98 of it being the manuka honey so pretty much all manuka honey
and it does not have a preservative in the eye gel form now because of the two different
concentrations i do think each one of them have a specific place in dry eye treatments
the eye drop i'd probably say is best for people to have mild dry eye disease
the eye gel will work great for people to have blepharitis mgd maybe more of a moderate or severe
dry eye disease or even mild dry eye the eye gel will work great if you can't tell by now i favor
the eye gel a little bit more it's preservative free and i noticed when i used both of these
the eye gel worked better for me now what's the best way to use these eye drops now let's go over
a few ground rules first if you have an allergy to honey you're definitely not going to want to
use these eye drops also wherever you read about manuka honey eye drops they're going to mention
that the eye drops will probably sting and that is true they could sting from five to ten minutes and
then your eyes should go back to normal in fact it should feel great now if it stings longer than
that or if you have a more severe reaction than that then definitely stop using the eye drops
definitely go into your eye doctor and that being said definitely want to be working with your eye
doctor especially if you have blepharitis mgd dry eye disease just so you and your eye doctor on the
same page especially when working with manuka honey eye drops also if you're a contact lens
wear you definitely do not want to use the drops or the gel when the contacts are in your eyes when
you put the drops or the gel in there you want to wait at least 30 minutes until you put the contact
lenses in so i'm going to walk you through how to put these in your eyes i'll put the eye drops in
one eye and the gel on the other eye if you're hesitant about putting eye drops or ointment
in your eyes i did make some videos some how-to videos how to put eye drops and ointment in your
eyes and i'll put that in the description below to help you out so you're going to open up the bottle
and you're going to put it right on the inside corner of the eye and make sure you bring the
eyelid down so you get the full drop in there and once you get it in there close your eyes and just
prepare yourself because it's going to sting a little bit so so here we go we got to do this live
do it alive here we go there we go in that corner yeah there we go yeah okay yeah not bad not bad
it's not bad it's not bad oh it's got the tears going though got the tears going
not bad not bad ah we got this so i'm gonna get a little up close
and personal for the eye gel just so you can see how i do it now you can
just like the eye drops put the gel in the inside corner of the eye and that is just
fine just make sure you're not touching the eye with the the bottle or the eye gel bottle but
what i like to do i actually like to use a cotton tip applicator to apply it on the eyelids and i'll
show you here in a second but if you want to do it this way i'll put a link in the description below
so you can get your hands on some of these because these are great so you're going to open up the
bottle and you're actually going to put a little bit right on the tip of the cotton tip applicator
cotton swab here and really it comes out like a gel almost looks like you're squeezing honey
out of a bottle because that's what you're doing now you can actually pull your eyelid way down
and actually put it right on the inside of the eyelid but i actually like to put it right on
the eyelid margin where the base of the eyelashes are because i want to try and target the meibomian
glands for meibomian gland dysfunction also you can target your blepharitis a little bit better
and so you're going to pull your eyelid down a little bit and you're going to just rub
right on the base of the eyelid and you can rub it almost like you're putting on putting on a makeup
i don't know what that's like but you can put it right on there
nice and smooth and right off the bat
hey all right off the bat it this one definitely stings more than the eye drop for sure
uh wow get that one that one gets the water works going
yeah right off the bat that's when that one's good still not bad still still not bad but uh
eyes are watering for sure still not that bad see it's already feeling way better but yeah
that that gel that that honey gel as your tears start flowing it will kind of dilute the gel a
little bit and spread it across your eye i like to move my eye look around a little bit and that
will coat the eye and create that little micro environment like i was talking about earlier
and yeah you can just feel it kind of coating the eye and yeah the sting the burn is already
getting way better uh so it can last up to five minutes but i mean just a few seconds with me
yeah eyes already feeling way better back the sting burn pretty much almost gone now
yeah it's great but yeah you can actually feel it just kind of dissolve almost melt in your eye and
then it coats the eye and then yeah after the sting and burns gone it actually feels
pretty good the drops are designed to be used up to three times a day 16 years and under
needed to be consulted with a doctor and once you open them you want to discard the bottle
after two months the gel is designed to be used twice a day and again you can use this directly on
the eyeball or the eyelids and again once you open the bottle two months later you're going to want
to throw the bottle away now i actually started noticing improvement pretty fast after i started
using the gel form in fact i was actually pretty surprised and so this is definitely something
that i do highly recommend at least trying getting your hands on manuka honey and trying
it in your eyes because it actually did shock me i'm glad people commented on my other videos
and told me and pushed me to get this because it actually does work really well at least it did
for me and it's something that i will definitely be recommending to my patients now where do you
actually get these drops and to be honest they can be tricky to get if you live in the united states
and i'll put links in the description below so you can definitely check those out you can get them
on amazon they're a little tricky there sometimes they're out of stock the shipping can take a while
sometimes it can be expensive the best place that i found and where i got my drops was irb.com
that's probably where i'd say go get these eye drops it's definitely the best place that
i found it's the cheapest and the shipping was crazy good way better than amazon i was
actually shocked and so i put that link in the description below if you're in the united states
check out iherb.com you can get these pretty easily actually now if you're looking for
more specific ways to treat your blepharitis you definitely want to check out my video right there
or dry eye treatments check out my playlist right there stay focused