confusion on humidity and impact on eyes

[chrcoluk]

ok so my eye problems started about 3 summers ago (might be 4 cannot remember clearly).

The first summer which is when my problem started was brutal, I couldnt keep my eyes open for long and I spent much of the day with them shut.

Since the things improved and I thought I was getting better to a degree, I have still got affects of eye infection and dry eyes but nowhere near as serious as that first summer.

The last 2 summers have been mild tho, both summers had 1-2 weeks of sunny weather start of june and then a lot of cool/cloudy weather for rest of summer and as such my symptons werent too severe.

However this summer after a mild start a heat wave has started, the symptons which plagued me the first summer are returning, not quite as bad as I now react different to the problems but defenitly have hit me.

Basically last week I was ok.

Last week temps outside in day were mainly high 60s. I wasnt sweating, slept under covers etc. In morning eyes felt moist.

http://www.accuweather.com/en/gb/ayl...weather/717175

Now this.

http://www.accuweather.com/en/gb/ayl...monyr=7/1/2013

So now mid to high 70s basically an extra 10C or so faranheit.

What seems to have also changed is its high humidity (if I understand right). So basically tons of sweat even when no clothes on, cant sleep under cover otherwise be swimming in sweat and even some sweat sleeping on top of cover.

I have been running a humidifier all week thinking this was helping me.

However after some reading it seems high humidity = moist air? if so why is it hurting my dry eyes? In particular I can feel my glands are blocked again. Now when I wake up they are dry and burning right off, I am scared to go out again (after built up some confidence last 2 years) as I know when I do reduce the burning its only borderline, probably 10 secs out in sun exposed and it kicks off having to shut eyes due to pain.

As of now I am looking at dehimidifiers but see you guys talk about humidifiers. I have the symptons of high humidity with the sweat and stuffy air, yet this seems to be making my eyes worse.

Any advice here would be greatly recieved, and I have to go dentist thurs morning just know my eyes will play up even with it been the morning.

What I do currently is when the burning gets too bad (to point eye wants to close due to pain) I shut the eye, massage it with a wet flannel (told this also stimulates glands) and then whe I open the eye if lucky it will just open with no pain, but in this weather what usually happens is then a burst of intense pain, I then hold the eye open with a wet bud during that pain, and it will die down after a min or two, then its usually a bit more moist and I get 1-2 hours before it flares up again. This is indoors of course. The dryness sensation returns much quicker then that tho just 5 mins or so it can start feeling dry, Whilst before this heatwave I would get away with doing this procedure once a day and thats it and even some days none at all, plus my eyes would be not so dry after sleep whilst now sleep is doing nothing for me due to the glands I think are now blocked.

[soaps]

Umm do u have ac on?
My eyes r better now in winter but this may b healing.

I found too hot environment cause flare ups because of possible ocular rosecea with heat being a trigger .
I had to find a right balance in summer. e.g. keeping cool in my non ac house in coolest place possible. humidifier at night but not too many clothing etc.

I recently had dentist too. He kindly turned ac off . Doesn't hurt to ask.

U can buy cool mist humidifier.

[chrcoluk]

I have no a/c and I cannot afford it, am poor.

Also to add on mon night something weird happened, some clouds appeared about 8pm. At the same time the air went very fresh and the muggyness etc. went away. I opened my window which improved my room to no end, this improvement however was according to weather news 3 hours out of the 2 week period, and sure enough on tues the clouds were out of sight.

Trying to understand whats going no I think this is related to high pressure weather, high pressure is clear calm hot weather, low pressure is cool, cloudy, rain type weather. Western europe is high pressure and a heatwave currently.

To better describe my symptons they are burning (on centre part of eye), stinging, itching. I have not had any noticeable itching issues since the first summer this started, this is another sure sign of the regression.

When the humidity is lower the symptons are more like burning/discomfort only at lower corner of eye (sensitive centre part remains ok). As well as occasional sensations of things in the eye causing flinching. Far more manageable.

The symptons now also feel like the eye is sometimes flooded yet also feels dry I think this related to the non working glands. If I can get the burning bearable its very borderline eg. closing my eyes, sneezing or something can easily set it off.

So sweat, the humidiy itself, heat is triggering my problem. Sunlight maybe but I am indoors with curtians shut.

In winter when central heating is on I have had symptons as well occasionally but in that case it can go away simply by turning the heating off, doesnt affect my recovery during sleep and isnt anywhere near as bad as is now.

My coolest rooms are probably, my kitchen. The window faces the direction of least sunlight, that window is always in shade as when the sun is that side its night time. The kitchen is a small narrow room tho if I stay in there all day I wont be doing much. also the bathroom, that is facing the same way as kitchen but also actually has no window at all, this room i least affected by climate, enviornmental conditions, eg. warmest in winter, coolest in summer (unless had hot shower or bath). Again tho a small room and not meant to use eletrical ewquipment in bathrooms. I have sat thinking what happens if I eg,. sleep in my kitchen will I wake up ok, but it be impossible to get a bed in there.

So you saying even tho humidity is triggering my condition, a humidifier is more likely to help than a dehumidifier?

[soaps]

Sorry for late reply bad eye week.

If ur glands rnt great than ur tears would evaporate faster so increased humidity should help. i don't think a dehumidifier is a good idea . but everyone is different.
My room is like 80% humid and that's due to humid winter.

Yes wen all this started i put a bed in lounge and eventually moved rooms. family was nice about it.
No bed in kitchen would b no good as think of the heat of cooking etc.

The heat may b triggering ur eyes. but then think of other things that could b possible triggers. after a year of this my triggers r constantly changing. do you have a hydrometer to measure humidity ? The weather on news might b different to your suburb house. a hydrometer might help u monitor humidity better.

[chrcoluk]

I have one now yes, brought the other week.

Not sure how accurate it is tho and is cheap.

It reports that my humidifer/moisteriser is having just about no impact. The humidity % stays the same with it on.

I was at 50% humidity for 2 weeks, then 2 nights ago was a storm, the % didnt really change during the storm but the next day when I woke up was at 59%. This is relative humidity not absolute humidity so 59% in summer is much more humidity than 59% in winter.

June was warm but not humid yet was ok. So you say humid = good, then why june better than july? Had soe cool days this week 2 days, june temps but humid, worse than june.

If I open door (window seems crap at air circulation) at night when air is cool (not all nights are cool many stay hot and sticky) then room temp falls a lot and helps eyes but then they start itching which I think is me letting the pollen in.

With this moisturiser off for 2+ days and since the storm things feel a bit better tho. As soon as people started calling the weather humid tho is when problems kicked off.

What I seem to like is wet cool weather. At the moment the weather is very unpredictable, all the forecasters are changing their minds every day, the jet stream is moved down towards us which in theory is great yet the forecasts for relief keep been pushed pack, was at one point the 26th but is now the 3rd august. Whatever is causing the hot sticky air with no wind is refusing to budge. Even during the storm it felt very hot, it didnt cool things down it just increased the humidity in my room.