relative humidity and geographic location, associated with DES

[HOSADOS]

my personal experience proved in my eyes lol, that that correlation exist, and it makes a lot of sense it term of hard science. Hence, location could have a huge impact about DES patient life.

I started a new thread about this topic in the Travel forum, and added some good info : The worst and best U.S cities for Dry Eyes patients
use this link for more info about the subject
http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showthread.php?t=4998

it would be great if folks could share their own experience about different location -please include the properties of this location: pollution, altitude, relative humidity, temperature, extreme winter/summer, winds , etc...

My personal experience suggest that the east coast is horrible for DES, Boston, MA and NJ in particular. I found location with high temperature and high RH (relative humidity) be very horrible for my condition as well- I realized that the combination of heat and high RH is not good for me, I speculate that one reason could be because encourage Bacterias to reproduce, other reason reason is the heat load/ heat index. However, high RH location such as Florida could work well for DES when the using AC which offset the heat and high RH to a more comfortable level.

I found that the main problem, is that heating used in the winter, so location with cold winter are also not recommended. I'm still looking for the optimal location and currently considering FL/ SF /LA, well job is also a factor in my decision as you may be suprised....lol so I am not looking at this stage for 'I never hear about it' locations, lol...rather financial centers..hopefully in the future that would changed and I could factor only environmental parameters and avoid polluted areas..

[Mimi]

Humidity makes my eyes feel better

I am surprised that no one else has responded to this post...the topic is of VERY high interest to me!!! I've had dry eye for 2 yrs now and I have definitely felt relief when visiting cities/countries with high humidity. In fact, I am heavily considering relocation to a more humid city so that I may feel more consistant relief.

I live in a very hot, dry town. When I visited Germany for a week during June my eyes felt at least 60-65% better. It was pretty humid (I can't recall exactly how much, but I'm thinking it was around 70-80%, if not more) but it did not feel humid or too wet. There was very little pollution. The temperature was in the 60's and 70's (Farenheit). I'm not too sure about elevation.

Unfortunately, I can't move to Germany but when I visited other cities in my state that have higher humidity than my town, I felt better then too..and by better I mean that I was using less drops, and felt less itch/burn. Therefore I am considering moving. I hadn't put much though on elevation but now I am very curious about the role it plays in all of this.

[rosye]

Well, the thread is old, but I can talk a little about these correlation between external conditions and DES. It varies from person to person, even with medication to medication. For me, after lasik, my eyes hurt but I didn't put much tought to that since I was told I was on "recovery". It was september, beggining of spring in Brazil, the air was going from dry to moist and it's basically hot all the time. In december, when it's very rainy and moist (summer), I was feeling a little better at home, but I began in a new job, and just one week of computer stare under the AC completely "destroyed" my cornea, it was hurting like never before and I developed an ulcer. That's because the AC dries up the environment. That's when I was diagnosed with DES and my "real" treatment began. I felt immediatly better every time I stepped out of the office into the damp air of Rio in the summer. In march the job ended (it was temporary), I stayed free-lancing at home and started to feel better again. Then I got single-plugged in both eyes and began to feel like I was "cured". Then july and winter came, the humidity levels naturally stays at 40% or below and now no plugs, no drops or anything prevent me from having really bad eye days. I turn on my humidifier and it helps me to cope.

So, what's the conclusion? For me, if outdoors the weather is dry, I suffer. Then indoors I can try and use a humidifier. If outdoors the weather is damp, I'm fine, and indoors too. But then if I step into AC or heaters I suffer. So it's all about managing the conditions around you. I believe the damper the environment, the easier it is to go by with less management. Rio isn't the driest place here in Brazil, I growed up in Sao Paulo (higher altitude, farthest from the sea) and it was worse. Back then I didn't have DES, but my lips cracked all winter long. But as I am suffering now, I believe I'd be happier living inside the Amazon forest!!

[rosye]

Forgot to mention about pollution, I can't really talk much about this since I do not travel a lot, but like every big city, Rio's very polluted. Relative humidity goes from 30%-40% in winter (no rain, pollution descends from upper atmosphere and concentrates on ground level) to 90%-100% in summer (it rains a lot). Temperature gets up to 40șC (104F) on summer, to less than 15șC (59F) on winter. Don't know if colder locations would be better or worse for my eyes (I believe they'd be worse for me in general, 'cause I hate cold).

[alisonW]

Unfortunately, humidity has little to no bearing on the dryness of my eyes. I've even been in the tropics and my eyes were as bad as ever.

[thistledown]

juggling with humidity!

i'm in the insane position of running two de-humidifiers downstairs, and one humidifier upstairs!

downstairs is a stone-flagged floor, with scant coverings, and these flags are laid directly on the earth - and when the weather is damp (as it is at the moment, in showery UK) the moisture comes up round the stones, and in patches on their surfaces. so i run de-humidifiers to normalise the humidity.

but at night i like to run my humidifier to 'moisturise' the bedroom, before sleeping. i turn it off once i get into bed. i made the mistake of sleeping with it on, a while ago, and woke up coughing and coughing, with a trachea lined with wet cottonwool! so now i just dampen the bedroom nicely, as an extra bit of help for my eyes overnight.

however, i bought a little 'weather station' this week, and now i find that the humidity inside my bedroom - without the humidifier having been on for a couple of days - is almost 70% !! and apparently this is pretty high. don't know if it'll be different in winter, with the central heating on, but obviously at the moment i shouldn't run the humidifier - in fact i'm wondering whether to run the de-humidifier instead!

aaarrrrgggghhhhh!!!