The fix for dry eyes

There are two unopened boxes of contact lenses in the cabinet under my sink. I’m not using those tiny disposables anymore; wearing them makes my eyes so dry they feel like they’re being sucked out of their sockets. Actually, it’s not the contacts — those have many benefits, and I’ve worn some version of them since my teens. But as a middle-ager now, the contacts aggravate a condition I have that’s apparently pretty common: dry eye syndrome. “I’d say at least a quarter of my patients have some degree of complaint about dryness,” says Dr. Matthew Gardiner, an ophthalmologist with Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. The eyes have it Our eyes have a few sources of moisture. One is the lacrimal gland in the upper outer quadrant of the eye. That’s the gland that produces buckets of tears if you cry or something gets in your eye. Other sources include a network of glands embedded in the conjunctiva (the white surface of the eye and the undersurface of the eyelids) that produces water and mucus glands at the edge of the lids that produce an oily substance. The cocktail of water, mucus, and oil from these last two sources make up the tear film on the eye surface. We need it to see properly. “Each time you blink, you reapply a new wet surface,” explains Dr. Gardiner. No more tears? As we age, our tear production slows. If the lacrimal glands don’t make as many tears, you’ll have a problem with tear quantity. If some of the other glands ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Eye Health Worplace health Source Type: blogs