Moving to the tropics - did it help

[L8rgator]

I don't know if humid places help, but I can definitely say that less humidity hurts. It's been an awful winter here in WI, and I pretty much tell what the temperature is outside just by my dry eye. When it's below zero, having the eye bandaged shut with water on the bandage and tape over it doesn't even do the trick. I'm miserable. Under 20 degrees, and just wearing a sealed moisture chamber just isn't enough. The humidifier can only get the gauge up to 34% when it's that bad. Summer was not good, but was FAR better than winter. I can NEVER take off the moisture chamber in winter.

[chrcoluk]

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?....

I must be unusual, as consistently summers are worse for me, especially when they are hot and humid. Humid I tend to associate with sweating, if the weather is hot enough to sweat then thats big alarm bells for my eyes. In winter things are much easier, central heating been an exception tho. If its hot and sunny outside I generally have to stay indoors as well, a few secs in the sun can cause absolute agony for me.

[bakunin]

Bakunin.
Why did you move to the drier city, and why canīt you move back? I SO wish there were somewhere in this country where th humidity all year round was like it is now i August. My eyes are doing much better - of course it is due to vacation, humidity around 60% and no cumputer work (except dry eye talk ) and I am nowhere nerar any AC or places with circulating air (not much shopping this year!) Instead I stay outside in the warm sunny climate and it makes such a difference. it took me untill a bought the hygrometer until I realized my good and badf eye days (and hours) where so linked to humidity in the environment. But as you say - if the inflammation is there then there is pain also in humid days.

Hi sunshine, I saw your post only today.

I can't move back because I'm in a new job as public servant and it takes 3 years to have the right to ask to move to other city.

Humidity has been what really makes a difference to me (of course moisture chamber glasses help very much). I'm on the fourth day of Restasis and I think it has been good to my eyes. I hope it works. In my dream after some months using it I will have my eyes back to normal like 13 months ago e I won't need any drops, goggles and sunglasses anymore

That kind of Split AC (at least is how we call them in brazil) is my number 1 enemy (an AC that is a fan at same time). I just can't stand in a place with that kind. Even with goggles it is tough.

Yes, the sun on my face gives me such a relief either!

[Nancy Derby]

I moved to Florida last October from Missouri and previously from Wisconsin. Winter's were hard on my eyes. Dry air outside, and couldn't get outside. Good humidity (40-50) in the house helped alot. Now living in Florida I could get outside all winter. There was a big difference in the winters and I felt alot better. I say humidity did make a difference for me.

[Joseph]

I think it depends on what is the reason for your dry eyes.. I have ocular rosacea and hot and humid days seem to be a trigger for my rosacea.

[sunshinelover]

For me, I can feel almost normal if humidity is around 80% and it is WARM. I tend to feel the best when it is warm and humid so I am sweating. Also good with sunshine on the face...may be does something with the blood circulation and the fluids, lipids flowing better, I don't know...

[Anthony16]

I was in texas recently and my eyes were much better there.Funny enough i couldnt go outside for long as i wasnt used to that kind of heat.Even though the air con was on in my room all the time my eyes still felt very good.

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

[sunshinelover]

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%.

Bakunin.
Why did you move to the drier city, and why canīt you move back? I SO wish there were somewhere in this country where th humidity all year round was like it is now i August. My eyes are doing much better - of course it is due to vacation, humidity around 60% and no cumputer work (except dry eye talk ) and I am nowhere nerar any AC or places with circulating air (not much shopping this year!) Instead I stay outside in the warm sunny climate and it makes such a difference. it took me untill a bought the hygrometer until I realized my good and badf eye days (and hours) where so linked to humidity in the environment. But as you say - if the inflammation is there then there is pain also in humid days.

[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%.

[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.

[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.

[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."

[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.

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!

[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.