Computer usage v studying

[Anthony16]

hi there,
I was wondering if anyone knows why working on my own computer(screen resolution is very low and so is brightness),is much more comfortable than when i study.I just cant understand it.My eyes are in severe pain when studying but if im on my computer its like 50% better.Any advice??
Thanks

[jackolso]

Computer Usage Vs Studying

Anthony, you didn't put enough information in your post for any specific possibilities. It could be eye strain or something as dangerous as Glaucoma.

It sounds like you're having more eye strain reading than you are when you are focusing on intermittent distances. Eye strain can be caused by several factors. You may need reading glasses. If you already have them, your sphere correction may be wrong. You may be reading in low light conditions, which causes more eye strain. If you are studying late in the day, you've probably already had plenty of eye strain before trying to do more complex work.

You described the pain as severe, which is not good. Glaucoma can cause a lot of pain, especially if it is sudden onset. If you feel pain in the eyes when you rub them gently with your fingers, then you need to get to the emergency room or to an eye doc quickly. If your pain is from Glaucoma, then you are in danger of damaging the optic nerve. Primary open angle glaucoma is caused by drainage issues, but the eye pressure rises slowly. Often people feel very little pain early on. Narrow angel glaucoma is sudden and causes a quick rise in pressure, which is very dangerous. The pain is rapid onset. Delays of only a few hours in treating narrow angle glaucoma can result in partial or total blindness.

Eye infections can also cause pain when reading, especially if you are looking down as you read. Eye infections are usually easy to treat, but if they are ignored, they can cause permanent damage.

You should get an eye exam NOW! There are a lot of reasons studying and reading may be causing pain, so get it checked. When you call for an appointment, explain you're having eye pain. They'll get you in right away. If they don't, call another doctor. It's better to go to the emergency room and leave with a non-problematic diagnosis than it is to wait and cause damage to the optic nerve.

No one on this forum, or any other forum, can diagnosis your problems. It's going to take a comprehensive eye exam.

[Anthony16]

Anthony, you didn't put enough information in your post for any specific possibilities. It could be eye strain or something as dangerous as Glaucoma.

It sounds like you're having more eye strain reading than you are when you are focusing on intermittent distances. Eye strain can be caused by several factors. You may need reading glasses. If you already have them, your sphere correction may be wrong. You may be reading in low light conditions, which causes more eye strain. If you are studying late in the day, you've probably already had plenty of eye strain before trying to do more complex work.

You described the pain as severe, which is not good. Glaucoma can cause a lot of pain, especially if it is sudden onset. If you feel pain in the eyes when you rub them gently with your fingers, then you need to get to the emergency room or to an eye doc quickly. If your pain is from Glaucoma, then you are in danger of damaging the optic nerve. Primary open angle glaucoma is caused by drainage issues, but the eye pressure rises slowly. Often people feel very little pain early on. Narrow angel glaucoma is sudden and causes a quick rise in pressure, which is very dangerous. The pain is rapid onset. Delays of only a few hours in treating narrow angle glaucoma can result in partial or total blindness.

Eye infections can also cause pain when reading, especially if you are looking down as you read. Eye infections are usually easy to treat, but if they are ignored, they can cause permanent damage.

You should get an eye exam NOW! There are a lot of reasons studying and reading may be causing pain, so get it checked. When you call for an appointment, explain you're having eye pain. They'll get you in right away. If they don't, call another doctor. It's better to go to the emergency room and leave with a non-problematic diagnosis than it is to wait and cause damage to the optic nerve.

No one on this forum, or any other forum, can diagnosis your problems. It's going to take a comprehensive eye exam.

Thanks for ur help.Iv actually had many eye exams and saw dr latkany about 10 days ago.I have accutane induced dry eye.I guess when u study,u concentrate really hard and this reduces blink rate substantially.Surely dr L would have diagnosed glaucoma if he saw that was a problem?
Another thing i think is that the text size is really small in my textbook compared to my computer and the brightness from a white page compared to a dim screen doesnt help.
it sucks being student with this problem

[jackolso]

Accutane dry eye

Anthony,

Sorry to hear you have Accutane induced dry eye. It seems that dry eye from Lasik and Accutane use causes more extreme dry eye than typical.

If you are off of the Accutane, you may want to try Long Chain Polyunsaturated fatty acids. In your case you're going to have to use higher doses in 2 gram to 3 gram per day level and you'll have to have a blend of LCP's to reduce the dryness from lack of oils in your skin and other glands.

I've posted a lot of information on LCP's at this link.

http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showthread.php?t=12810

There are three posts in that thread which explain a lot about LCP function in the body. In your case I would definitely try to find a compounding pharmacy that could make you a 0.2% sterile solution of alpha linolenic acid drops you can use directly into the eyes. I think you probably have corneal epithelial cell damage along with other things. Corneal epithelial cell damage is like having a large corneal abrasion that never heals. That can cause a lot of pain, especially if it is over a significant portion of the cornea, which it is likely to be after Accutane use.

If you have E cell damage, moving your eyes up or down can increase the pain. In addition, any eye strain will increase the pain.

Vitamin E, D and C are also important to healing E cell damage. Vit E 400 mg a day for a month, and then 200 mg a day after. About a 1000 mg of Vit C a day is adequate at your age. And 2000 mg of Vit D a day is also adequate in your age group.

It will take 20 weeks for the oral LCP's and vitamins to reach their effective levels. LCP's don't have a half life like a vitamin or medication. They are stored in the cells and it takes time for the cells to accumulate maximum levels.

The eye drops work faster, if you can get a compounding pharmacy to make it for you. They have to have the ability to sterilize solutions and that requires expensive hoods, etc so not many compounding pharmacies are around that can do that now days. If you live near a pharmacy school, one of the professors might be able to help you get some, but be prepared for a lot of frustrating brush offs.

Some Accutane users have had success with GenTeal Lubricant eye gel used at night. If it causes burning, it's probably from the E cell issues.

Another thing that seems to help is spending time in wet steam rooms. The moist heat helps the cells rehydrate and that helps them heal. It also reduces inflammation. If you have access to the wet steam room, give it a try in the afternoon or evening maybe a half hour before you study.

I hope some of that works for you.

[Anthony16]

Well,i wouldnt say accutane caused many peoples problems on this site.It seems to be quite rare to get permanent dry eye from it and i have only met about 8 people on this site who can truly blame accutane.
Are u a doctor??u seem very knowledgeable on the subject of dry eye and i appreciate ur help.
Why,in your opinion though did dr latkany tell me that pushing my eyes with studying would not cause long term damage??He also said that my glands are not completely closed over like quite a few of his accutane patients and he said that is good news.he says i need to do everything possible to restore the function to my glands and that it will be difficult but its possible.I really value his opinion.However,id like to know what u think about his assesment as u have demonstrated a lot of knowledge.
Thanks

Anthony,

Sorry to hear you have Accutane induced dry eye. It seems that dry eye from Lasik and Accutane use causes more extreme dry eye than typical.

If you are off of the Accutane, you may want to try Long Chain Polyunsaturated fatty acids. In your case you're going to have to use higher doses in 2 gram to 3 gram per day level and you'll have to have a blend of LCP's to reduce the dryness from lack of oils in your skin and other glands.

I've posted a lot of information on LCP's at this link.

http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showthread.php?t=12810

There are three posts in that thread which explain a lot about LCP function in the body. In your case I would definitely try to find a compounding pharmacy that could make you a 0.2% sterile solution of alpha linolenic acid drops you can use directly into the eyes. I think you probably have corneal epithelial cell damage along with other things. Corneal epithelial cell damage is like having a large corneal abrasion that never heals. That can cause a lot of pain, especially if it is over a significant portion of the cornea, which it is likely to be after Accutane use.

If you have E cell damage, moving your eyes up or down can increase the pain. In addition, any eye strain will increase the pain.

Vitamin E, D and C are also important to healing E cell damage. Vit E 400 mg a day for a month, and then 200 mg a day after. About a 1000 mg of Vit C a day is adequate at your age. And 2000 mg of Vit D a day is also adequate in your age group.

It will take 20 weeks for the oral LCP's and vitamins to reach their effective levels. LCP's don't have a half life like a vitamin or medication. They are stored in the cells and it takes time for the cells to accumulate maximum levels.

The eye drops work faster, if you can get a compounding pharmacy to make it for you. They have to have the ability to sterilize solutions and that requires expensive hoods, etc so not many compounding pharmacies are around that can do that now days. If you live near a pharmacy school, one of the professors might be able to help you get some, but be prepared for a lot of frustrating brush offs.

Some Accutane users have had success with GenTeal Lubricant eye gel used at night. If it causes burning, it's probably from the E cell issues.

Another thing that seems to help is spending time in wet steam rooms. The moist heat helps the cells rehydrate and that helps them heal. It also reduces inflammation. If you have access to the wet steam room, give it a try in the afternoon or evening maybe a half hour before you study.

I hope some of that works for you.

[jackolso]

Accutane dry eye

No, I'm not a doctor Anthony, and I'm not giving you medical advice.

Dr. Latkany is your best source of medical information regarding dry eye. I assume Dr. Latkany was talking about your meibomain glands. He may have called them the trasal glands. Those are a type of sebaceous gland, similar to the ones that secrete sebum oil, which is one of the causes of acne. Accutane shrinks sebaceous glands by 30% to 60% and reduces sebum oil production by 80%. It also dramatically slows down the production of new skin cells.

You are very lucky that your meibomain glands are still open.

You said you have not met very many people with permanent dry eyes that have taken Accutane. Somewhere around 15 to 18 million people have taken Accutane, or Isotretinoin (generic form), since 1982. It is one of a few drugs that has a black box warning required by the FDA. In 2004 the FDA said it was one of the five most dangerous prescription drugs on the market. No wonder Roche stopped selling it.

Based on the estimate of 15 to 18 million (patented and generic) total present and past users, as many as 1.5 million of them may have substantial dry eye problems. The total number complaining of dry eye in all forms is probably around 7 million. So you're no where close to being in a small group. I don't have an estimate of how many people resolve their dry eye after stopping Accutane. My best guess is it isn't more than about 50% of them.

No one knows why when people stop using Accutane some of the side effects don't reverse themselves. However, there are several reports that suggest as many as 50% to 60% of the Accutuan users that stop using the drug find their acne does not come back. Why is subject to debate but one reason could be permanent reduction in oil production and permanent shrinkage of the sebaceous glands. If that's true, it explains a lot about why certain side effects persist after stopping the Accutane.

If you read my posts on omega 3, you know that ALA is an important LCP for dry eye problems. In addition to the fish oils like Krill Oil, you may want to add 1 tablespoon of Flaxseed oil daily to the fish oil. You can take flaxseed oil supplements, I do, but the oil is more effective. For the first two or three months, the liquid Flax oil might be more helpful. Then you could switch to a supplement. For dry eye, it really is necessary to use both flaxseed oil and fish oil. It takes 20 weeks for the full effect to take place, so you'll need patience. Improvements are very slow, and sometimes they are so gradual people think the oils aren't working. Give it six months before you decide the effectiveness

Rather than doing research on dry eye and Accutane, look at research on sebaceous gland functioning and what supplements encourage and support their function. Don't worry about whether the research is focued on the skin, hair or other things. Whatever helps the sebaceous glands in general is likely to help the meibomain glands work better also.

One of the things that helps me keep inflammation down in my eyes is Pomegranate juice. One eight ounce cup a day has a major impact on inflammation. I've kept track of its effectiveness by doing a variety of blood tests a couple of times a year. It has cut my inflammation markers down by 50%. For most people, the number of factors I test for would be prohibitively expensive, but it's easy enough to just try it for 3 months. It takes around 12 weeks to reach it's full impact. I don't drink the expensive brands like POM Wonderful. However, I do drink (and this is very important) 100% pure juice. I don't do combination juices, etc because all of the research on Pomegranate juice was done using 100% pure juice. You have to watch out for weak concentrations of Pom where there's a lot of water in the mix, and the Pom only constitutes a 20% concentration. Stick with 100% concentration! I mostly buy Langer's 100% juice because it's good quality and half the price of Pom Wonderful.

Here are links to a couple of research paper abstracts you can read yourself.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21045648

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20874497

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20202804

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20105404

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18268213

Good luck with your dry eye. Explanations of the supplements is really all I can contribute.

[jackolso]

Anthony How are you doing?

Anthony, how are you doing?

[Anthony16]

Anthony, how are you doing?

Hi jackolso,thanks for your concern.
Im pretty much the same at the moment.My dry eye is not etremely severe.I can go outside in the wind and play sport(i know some people have it worse),but the problem still has a major impact on my life.I will be trying a rosacea diet soon as Dr L feels i have some ocular rosacea which is why i flared up on accutane and havent recovered.Also,i can only find 30% concentration pomengranate juice,which is a little annoying.
Also,i take lots of fish oil but doesnt seem to help.I wonder if the quality of supplement might be a problem?
Thanks a lot

[Súil Eile]

Hi Anthony,

I'm a fellow student For me the opposite is usually the case, as the glare from my computer screen causes a huge amount of discomfort.

What normally sets my eyes off when reading printed text is small font size. Many books are hugely condensed to save paper and weight, with the result that there is very little 'white space' on the page, and that the text becomes very difficult to read.

I also know that some font styles are impossible for me to read for any length of time! I've skipped articles because it just wasn't worth the eye-strain of reading them.

Something else I've noticed is that my posture and my position in relation to the page changes when I move from computer to print. Maybe you are leaning too close to the page? I also tend to move a lot less when reading print, so perhaps you are the same and your eyes are under extra pressure than when they are moving around a computer screen?

If you are photocopying text, it might be worth enlarging it a little so it's easier to read. Some photocopiers are terrible though, and I'd imagine even normal healthy eyes would have a problem reading the copies!

My favourite gadget is my Kindle. It's easier to read than either my computer or print. I transfer PDF articles etc to my Kindle, and I can change font size there easily. Not an option for everyone, but if you have a Kindle it might be worth having a go.


I hope you find something to ease the eye strain, and good luck with you studying!

[jackolso]

Pomegranate

My wife drinks Langers brand 100% juice. It's the best priced alternative. Whole Foods usually has it and other brands.

http://www.langers.com/Products/Juices/allPome.htm

I take gel caps to avoid the carbs and sugar in Langer's. These gel cap concentrates work equally as well. These are high quality.

http://www.brownwoodacres.com/pomegranate_softgels.php

These guys sell juice, syrup, gel caps and fruit bars that are 100% pom.

[jackolso]

Omega 3 Not Working

Anthony, Here's a link to one of the posts I did on Omega 3.

Your dose of EPA and DHA might be high but it's the ALA that matters with dry eye. You could try Krill oil or Efalex.

http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showt...ght=#post57513

[Anthony16]

Cheers.
When u mention efalex,does that contain omega 6 fish oil(GLA),which would promote inflammation aswell as the omega 3 portion?
Iv been taking 1800 epa and 1500 dha for 6 weeks now as per Dr Langes advice but yet to see any benefit and doubt i will(sigh)
i appreciate the links and advice

Anthony, Here's a link to one of the posts I did on Omega 3.

Your dose of EPA and DHA might be high but it's the ALA that matters with dry eye. You could try Krill oil or Efalex.

http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showt...ght=#post57513

[bp77]

Anthony, Here's a link to one of the posts I did on Omega 3.

Your dose of EPA and DHA might be high but it's the ALA that matters with dry eye. You could try Krill oil or Efalex.

http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showt...ght=#post57513

hi, I want to thank u for this link, and ur post. I have been taking lovaza for afew monthes epa 465 mg, dha 375. 4 capsules a day and baby asprin. I also take flaxseed oil 1000 mg, ALA 500 mg. I take NAC 500 mg once a day. what is ur opinon about this combo? should I add something else too? krill oil maybe? I am looking for some thing to bring down the inflammmation on my eyelids and sever dry eye. thanks.

[jackolso]

Inflammation

hi, I want to thank u for this link, and ur post. I have been taking lovaza for afew monthes epa 465 mg, dha 375. 4 capsules a day and baby asprin. I also take flaxseed oil 1000 mg, ALA 500 mg. I take NAC 500 mg once a day. what is ur opinon about this combo? should I add something else too? krill oil maybe? I am looking for some thing to bring down the inflammmation on my eyelids and sever dry eye. thanks.

Lovaza is an expensive form of Omega 3. I don't see much advantage to it.

Krill oil is better at reducing inflammation than regular fish oil. I like the Arctic Pure Krill from the source naturals catalog. Source Naturals makes high quality supplements. Krill oil contains phospholipids and astaxanthin. The phospholipids bind to the Krill and help it pass through the digestive system easier. Essentially, if someone wants to take 3 grams of Omega 3 fish oil a day, they would only need to take 2 grams of Krill to reach the same level of Omega 3 and 6 in the blood.

Krill is recommended by a lot of gyno's for the pain and inflammation women experience with PMS. Regular fish oil does not work. Several studies have shown Krill to be effective at alleviating arthritis pain by reducing inflammation. You could substitute the Krill of the Lovza.

In addition to the Krill you can take Pomegranate either by drinking two 6 to 8 oz cups of the PURE juice a day or taking 3 gel caps. Brownwood acres (FastFruit) has the best gel caps in terms of quality on the market in my opinion. Pomegranate has also been researched for inflammation reduction effectiveness and it's very good.

The next thing that will help your inflammation is Turmeric. You can do your own research on Turmeric. It works best when combined with black pepper and a bit of fat like coconut oil. Turmeric tablets aren't water soluable so hardly any of it gets through the digestive system. The research on Turmeric suggests that mixing the power into a liquid with a small bit of black pepper and a little fat helps it survive the digestive process. I mix some of the powders that don't taste so good like turmeric or vitamin C with Citrucel and water. Citrucel has a strong orange flavor that masks a lot of lessor flavors. You can also mix turmeric and the pepper with flavored cod liver oil for the fat. Just a little cod liver oil is good enough.

I take all three of those supplements and they've cut the inflammation makers in my blood by two thirds. In my case I have stubborn inflammation so that's huge for me. I have no idea how they will work on you. Of course you should research any side effects and the best methods for taking these.

I don't have time to post all the research studies I have on these, you'll have to hunt those down. It sounds like amount of Flax is a bit high but it shouldn't hurt.

[jackolso]

Efalex the most complete combination of Omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids

Cheers.
When u mention efalex,does that contain omega 6 fish oil(GLA),which would promote inflammation aswell as the omega 3 portion?
Iv been taking 1800 epa and 1500 dha for 6 weeks now as per Dr Langes advice but yet to see any benefit and doubt i will(sigh)
i appreciate the links and advice

Here's a link to Efalex. You can see what's in it. There are other combinations of Efalex that have different Long Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (LCP's) in them. This is the one I've used.

http://www.efalex.net/

Efalex is a complete mix of the LCP group. Omega 3 only contains 3 of the LCP's. Most of the original research was done using Efalex because it has all the LCPs in it and it's very pure.

Read my post on inflammation. If that's the goal, to reduce inflammation, fish oil isn't exactly the way to go.