Dry eye and fungal infections

[synes89]

Hi all,

I've posted about this before on this forum but here goes once more - maybe someone else will see it.
Have any of you with dry eye have or had any type of jock itch / athlete's foot or other fungal related infections somewhere on your body?

I have strong reason to believe that for those who do, this MAY be the reason.
Now I know this may not be a direct cause, but I have seen a correlation.

I first noticed some change in my eyes - light sensitivity - around the same time as when I had athlete's foot. That took a LONG time to cure, and never cured properly, so naturally it spread and got jock itch. That spread too, and I keep getting what LOOKS like geographic tongue, but it is not. I am 100% this is related to a fungal infection because there is a correlation in inflammation.

Now how this is related to my eyes: whenever I become aware of itch in a certain day, my eyes are worse the next day. When I don't itch and it subsides, my eyes feel better the next day. (Obviously this is because during the day my hands come in contact with my eyes).

So, two things:
1) For everyone with dry eyes: WASH YOUR HANDS and wash them regularly and OFTEN.

2) If you have a fungal infection, try to cure it as best as possible. This may take several weeks to cure completely. It may be the reason to your dry eyes. I'm still working on this. Powder sprays like Lotrimin and creams like Nystatin do a good job.

I haven't yet cured my fungal infections completely, and this may be why I still experience pain in my eyes. I thought that it came from wearing contact lenses for too long each day, but when I first started wearing them - 10 years ago - I used permanent contacts which I wore for years (same pair). It was ridiculous, but it did not affect my eyes in any way. This problem only started pretty recently - about a year and a half ago. And I was wearing monthlies by then.

I'm going to do the above as best I can and report back.

[bjornbjorn]

I need your help

I believe I have the same thing you do. I started getting fungal infections on my hand 2 and a half years ago and dry eyes shortly after. I thought the fungas was eczema and I just found out that it was fungas. What have you done to fix this. Any recommendations or ideas for me. Please help. I to believe the to are connected

[synes89]

Sorry about the late reply, haven't been on the site in a while. Have you noticed on your fingertips that they become scaly? Especially during a warm shower after your fingertips get the wrinkles, there are also very noticeable scales. This goes away when your fingers are dry, but it still feels like they're covered with some sort of dead skin cells or perhaps it's a related fungal infection...? This is what I have.

The only way that I reduce this is by using Lotrimin (I use the powder spray) on any jock/foot itch. Consequently, the scales on my fingers go away, and my eyes feel much better!!!

I believe this is ALL very much related. I am not sure what connects it all.. how it works, but I see this effect time and again. The more itches I have, the worse my eyes feel during the day.

[littlemermaid]

Antifungals

http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showt...0318#post60318 Posted in another thread; copied here just in case it's useful for you. She has some sebaceous dermatitis particularly between eyebrows; at puberty yellow flakes were very noticeable, this is when the meibomian gland dysfunction started. There was recurrent Tinea versicolor forehead and upper back. Tea tree shampoo cleared flaking on the scalp fast and permanently and we use tea tree soap on the body, assuming it prevents Tinea recurring. Dr Tseng in Miami is trialling tea tree around the eyes (for Demodex) but this would be dangerous for us to experiment with. I'm still not sure whether tea tree shampoo knocked out the MGs although it seems much less likely after 2.5 years of stopping using it on the head, and the main symptoms of the MGD are recurrent chalazion and no secretion. Coconut oil is said to be antifungal, as a safer alternative to prescription topicals, but I haven't looked into this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifungal_drug, bicarbonate of soda looks tempting. One problem with trying to clean face skin near the eye to reduce problem microbes is to get the pH right to avoid making the sore eye worse.

[littlemermaid]

Just met another case of ?seborrhoeic blepharitis, age 12 - all the eyelashes had fallen out, no sign of fungal growth or dandruff on scalp, face or around eyes at all. Mild tendency to cradle cap through childhood. Fully resolved with Nizoral shampoo, in hair only (!), eyelashes grew back straight away.

I would still think MGD would be multifactoral, including all these drops we have to use; certainly ours is complicated by bacterial infection and improves with antibacterials.