Moving to the tropics - did it help

[giraffes1703]

Has anyone found that moving to a more humid area of the world helps?

[Rebecca Petris]

Depends how much time you spend in an air-conditioned home or office, or with the ceiling fan on.

I lived in Tampa (OK it's not the tropics but it's humid) for a couple of years. Tampa was easy on the eyes in the winter, really rough the rest of the time. Up here in the Pacific Northwest it's the opposite. On balance I am much better off here.

[Guest]

I think Rebecca is right on. As long as it's hot and humid, my eyes feel awesome (well, not pre-LASIK awesome, but awesome compared to my usual new-normal), BUT, if because of that heat and humidity I ended up in a dry air-conditioned indoor space, my eyes would totally suck. The ceiling fan I could get away with if needed by wearing my Wiley's, but A/C not so much!

On my last trip to a humid tropical spot, I was even able to get by with no moisture chambers indoors. Heavenly!

Now, if only I could find a hot humid place to move to where I could spend my time outdoors in the heat and humidity! lol

[Rebecca Petris]

Are there any old-timers here who remember, oh geez, I think I may even have forgotten what it was called now. Was it SE Island? I think it was Brian S's idea, back in the SurgicalEyes website days. It was a mythical Caribbean island designed for people with post LASIK type complications (dry eye and poor low-light vision).

Every place in its idyllic description ended with, "...Well-lighted and moist.". And there were coin-operated PF artificial tear dispensers everywhere.

[Guest]

Every place in its idyllic description ended with, "...Well-lighted and moist.". And there were coin-operated PF artificial tear dispensers everywhere.

I love it!!!! And of course, I assume the only immigration requirements would be that oneself or an immediate family member be afflicted with this scourge we know as "dry eye?" Maybe we can all pool together and BUY ourselves such an island haha

[farmgirl]

Sorry to burst your bubbles guys but I live in the tropics 6 month of the year, Panama to be exact. In fact I am here as I write this. At times my hygrometer reads as high as 95%. The rest of my time is spent in good old Calgary, Alberta. My hygrometer there reads 35% much of the time. The lowest it ever has gone here was 75% and that was after a 2 month dry spell. Believe it or not my eyes were WORSE here last winter than they were in Calgary. Why?

Even thought we are only 8 degrees off of the equator Panama is never really hot 92 degrees max where I am (unless of course you are downtown on the pavement) but would average high 80's with an average of 78 degrees in the house day or night so no need for air conditioners. The wind hardly ever blows where I am (not true of the rest of the country). Sounds like an idyllic situation for eyes wouldn't you say? It is not....the reason?

Heat plus humidity makes you sweat, and sweating makes you uncomfortable and so to be really comfortable you need fans. Every room has a big fan in the middle and if you are in the room it needs to be on after 9:00 AM to feel really comfortable....ergo air movement constantly, even if you are not near it. In the car it is air conditioning. Every place of business is air conditioned and honestly you need to carry sweaters because they keep them as cold as meat lockers. It just seems like I am surrounded by constant air movement. I am very, very comfortable, capris and sandals and short sleeved T shirts day or night but my eyes are no better here than at home, in fact my problem first reared it's ugly head here.

The other problem is that the light is very bright here and during the dry season (our winter) it shines almost all day every day. Sometimes I need to wear sunglasses on the sunglasses.

Don't get me wrong, I am not about to move out and go back home for the winter BUT for sure I cannot say that I fare any better here than at home. Maybe if I lived on the beach, but o-o-o-h that creates it's own set of problems as a homeowner...no thanks....cheers F/G

[poppy]

Long holidays in extreme humidity do absolutely nothing for me. And that also means I am not spending 50 hours a week in front of a computer in air conditioning.

For me making changes to my environment does absolutely nothing. As long as I'm not doing something really dumb like taping my eyes open and blasting them with a hairdryer, it doesn't really matter if I spend all day in front of my PC or with my eyes closed in my bedroom. At the end of the day, my eyes feel the same.

For this reason I haven't pursued trying to find moisture chamber glasses that actually fit (hard with my small head)

[Colin P]

Right strap yourselves in Boys 'n' Gals!!..

Humidity: Warm air carries more moisture than Colder air.
In the Winter, you can breath out and create a Vapour, this is you adding Moisture to the COLD dry air with your warm(moister than outside air) breath..
In low tempratures with heavy cloud cover, humidity can rise to say 90%; but unfortuantly 90% of nothing(well very little) is still nothing!.
Ideally the best atmosphere would be Hot and sweaty(ooh-err!) with lots of cloud cover, like a storm brewing.. WITH NO AIR CONDITIONING !!!....
A bright hot day with not a cloud in the sky, Humidity will fall to below 50% but the warmer air is carrying more moisture than cold air..
So it is a case off 50% humidity in warm (moist air) enviroment Vs 90% humidity in colder less moist air...

Do i win a prize?....

[bakunin]

I lived in very humid city til last april (always between 75-100%). Now I live in the most polluted state capital of Brazil (a city even more polluted than Sao Paolo). And it is a very dry city (last winter doesn't even rained and the humidity went down to 12%). I can say that living in a humid place helps a lot. But i'm better now (due to ayurvedic medicines) than i was when i was living 50 meters from the sea.

But if you live in a humid city and work in a place with a speedy our very cold AC, it can be better live in a dry city with no AC at the workplace.

"Normal" dry eyes (not the severe to moderate one like ours) appears mostly in the summer, because living in a hot or very hot place means people face AC and fans everywhere.

So, living in the coast, in a city with much rain and no very hot, and working at home or outdoors, is the better picture i can figure out for dry eyes sufferers.

[Guest]

I guess we're all different in what helps humidity-wise. For me here at home, in the summer the humidity is always above 40%, and my eyes love it. In winter, the indoor humidity in most places drops to the 20's, and my eyes suffer for it. It seems 35% is the bare minimum for me, or else my eyes get dried out waaaaay worse then usual. Needless to say, our winter vacations to a warm humid climate are heavenly for me - eyes feel awesome compared to home in the winter!

[spmcc]

Summer is better for me even though we have little/no rain. Winter is worse for me even though we have TONS of rain.

The difference is absolute versus relative humidity. This webpage explains it a little (ignore the product information!): http://www.naturestears.com/articles...e_Humidity.php

All year round, I avoid "treated" air, whether it's artifically heated or cooled, and moving air by wearing my moisture chambers.

[bakunin]

Summer is better for me even though we have little/no rain. Winter is worse for me even though we have TONS of rain.

The difference is absolute versus relative humidity. This webpage explains it a little (ignore the product information!): http://www.naturestears.com/articles...e_Humidity.php

All year round, I avoid "treated" air, whether it's artifically heated or cooled, and moving air by wearing my moisture chambers.

Relative humidity does play a role in Dry Eyes. Relative humidity gives a scale of the drying power of the air. Relative humidity and the air speed are the two factors that influence the time of evaporation. Low relative humidity means that our tears will evaporate faster.

That is one of the few things i remember fairly well from my undergrad chemical engineering classes. An easy, but not the best one, reference about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drying

"Air heating increases the driving force for heat transfer and accelerates drying. It also reduces air relative humidity, further increasing the driving force for drying."

"Natural air drying takes place when materials are dried with unheated forced air, taking advantage of its natural drying potential. The process is slow and weather-dependent, so a wise strategy "fan off-fan on" must be devised considering the following conditions: Air temperature, relative humidity and moisture content and temperature of the material being dried."

[sunshinelover]

Humidity means a lot to me - I can actually feel almost immedeately when humidity is going down. I just spent one week out in an island in the Stockholm archipelago, by the sea, old house without any fans etc, and the hunidity was never under 70%, rather 80%, and I feltalmost normal!!! But back in town with humidity in the 40s eyes are lousy acnd dry again, not to mention if it dropeed below 40... then it immeadeately hurts! Indoors with office ventilation it doesn't matter if I use a humidifier, I can't get the humidity up high enogh.... It seems the climate control is to good! I am thinking of moving to the tropics in future if this persists.
And then stay away from ACs and fans of course.

[spmcc]

I have a hygrometer in my bedroom and it's the first thing I check in the morning. It reads 77% today! But in the winter (when it's colder with a lot of rain), it reads 25%. Absolute humidity is important, but I also avoid artificial heat, a/c, moving air, strong lights and strong scents.

[bakunin]

Humidity means a lot to me - I can actually feel almost immedeately when humidity is going down. I just spent one week out in an island in the Stockholm archipelago, by the sea, old house without any fans etc, and the hunidity was never under 70%, rather 80%, and I feltalmost normal!!! But back in town with humidity in the 40s eyes are lousy acnd dry again, not to mention if it dropeed below 40... then it immeadeately hurts! Indoors with office ventilation it doesn't matter if I use a humidifier, I can't get the humidity up high enogh.... It seems the climate control is to good! I am thinking of moving to the tropics in future if this persists.
And then stay away from ACs and fans of course.

sunshine,

we definitely have a lot in common. What you have described happens to me too. My eyes is better than any tech-device to know the humidity or pollution in the air. Humidity makes a lot of difference to me. But when i was worse, even living in a city with 80% all days was terrible.
I wish move to a city on the coast again. But i will have to wait at leats 3 years for that. For while i need to cope with a six months of low and very low humidity fall and winter, with less than 30% of relative humidity everyday in winter.
I bought a humidifier, but it makes a real difference only if i close the door of the room and the relative humidity is below 40%.