have you ever been to an optometrist because you  felt like your eyes were changing but it turns  

out you have some sort of dry eye syndrome  that causes your vision to fluctuate well  

i see this on a daily basis and  i feel that if a lot of people  

knew just a few little tricks then i feel like  most of their vision problems would go away  

so today we'll be talking about number  one why this happens in the first place  

number two how you can properly manage it and  number three what products i would recommend  

for this to begin the type of dry eye  that i'll be talking about today is  

posterior blepharitis also known as meibomian  gland dysfunction which is when our oil glands  

don't function properly and it's estimated to  affect about 35 percent of the global population  

there are many things that contribute to causing  an mgd which include hormonal changes meibomian  

glands have hormonal receptors on them so major  changes to hormones can affect its production  

systemic medications like roaccutane for  skin which can change the oil production  

physiology diet something that i talked about in  my omega-3 video right here prolonged computer use  

and contact lens wear as a result of these risk  factors the following two things happen number  

one hyperkeratinization normally functioning cells  will proliferate live its life and then when their  

time is up they will shed off when there's a  chronic irritation on the eyelids a process  

called hyperkeratinization occurs where the life  cycle of the skin is disturbed because of a higher  

rate of proliferation excess keratin formation and  accumulation of skin due to a lack of shedding in  

case you're wondering i am not swearing this is  just my accent i know it sounds funny i am saying  

shed ding not (naughty word) hyperkeratinization  will cause the mebomian glands to block up  

and therefore your tear layer will not receive  the necessary oils it needs to function properly  

resulting in quicker evaporation of tears which  can also lead to further inflammation and number  

two bacterial colonization love this stuff they  can break the waxes and esters into triglycerides  

and free fatty acids which diffuse into the mucin  layer making it more hydrophobic this means that  

the cornea will repel water which is the exact  opposite of what you want because you want your  

eyes to be moisturized the abnormal meibum due to  the bacteria will now have a higher melting point  

something that's higher than our natural body's  temperature and therefore it will solidify  

here are two examples of meibomian glands  blocked due to solidification here on this  

picture we can see that the meibomian glands are  not providing the eye with meibum because the oils  

have completely solidified due to the bacterial  lipases and on this picture the same thing is  

happening but on the lower eyelid if we zoom out  we can also see that on the palpebral conjunctiva  

there are some bumps which are called papillae and  this is exactly how your eye doctor knows whether  

your eyes are happy or not now that we've talked  about the underlying mechanism let's actually  

talk about the treatment optometrists will often  tell you to do hot compresses or artificial tears  

but no one really sits down with you and teaches  you how to do it properly hot compresses are very  

similar to flossing your teeth the more you do it  and the more consistently you do it the happier  

your dentist will be likewise with hot compresses  the more you do it and the more consistently you  

do it the happier your optometrist will be however  unlike flossing there doesn't seem to be any major  

brands like colgate or oral b selling these really  nice products in the supermarket and for the  

longest time i've heard various stories about how  people do hot compresses from using a warm flannel  

all the way to using used tea bags but i recently  stumbled across this product called Opti-Soothe  

which is what i'll be using for this demonstration  full disclaimer this is not a sponsored post  

opti-soothe or whoever makes this stuff don't even  know i exist this is just something i found to be  

effective and i bought mine from the pharmacy  the other day which leads me to another point  

anterior blepharitis and blue which is used for  posterior blepharitis or what we're talking about  

today meibomian gland dysfunction if you can't  find this product where you are then don't worry  

you can just use wheat bags that you have lying  around the house or you can just easily get one  

from amazon or somewhere to do this properly you  want to essentially heat the mask up so that we  

can melt away the blocked oil glands the heat  will make the oil more runny and therefore your  

eyes will have a much easier time distributing it  on the box it says to microwave for 25 seconds but  

if you read the instructions on the mask itself  it tells you exactly how many seconds you have  

to microwave it for depending on your wattage i  have a 1000 watt microwave so in the instructions  

it says to microwave for about 15 seconds but  from my testing i find that about 20 seconds  

is what i find almost optimum but there is no hard  and fast rule when it comes to heating this up  

if you feel that it's hot enough then it's  probably hot enough my suggestion is to heat it  

up until you can comfortably hold it in your hand  without it feeling too hot to touch after heating  

you want to apply it on your eyes while you have  your eyes closed for about five to seven minutes  

if it feels way too hot then allow enough time to  cool before reapplying for the next five minutes  

stay calm and think about how happy your eyes will  feel after this i like to just shut off my brain  

for a few minutes and think about nothing after  the five minutes are up for an added benefit you  

can massage your eyelids this is somewhat similar  to squeezing toothpaste you want to squeeze out  

all the oils out of these glands one thing that  i noticed is that people massage their eyes in  

all the wrong ways you want to massage upwards on  the lower eyelid and downwards on the upper eyelid  

you don't want to massage in a circular motion  after massaging blink a few times and your eyes  

should immediately feel amazing do this  anywhere from once a day to once a week  

and your optometrist will love you for it but  more importantly your eyes will love you for it  

you can now work on the computer and go on your  phone for hours without feeling so irritated  

well there you have it how to do hot compresses  properly if you learned something new or at least  

found something useful then yay thumbs up to  you if you want to thumbs up back then they'll  

be greatly appreciated subscribe if you haven't  already and i'll see you in the next video you