Eating makes me feel better!!

[Martins88]

I've noticed that while eating, be it cold food or hot food or anything at all, my eyes feel very fine.. Infact, i can watch a movie while eating.. The good feeling lasts a couple of minutes after i've finished eating...

I've wondered if anyone else has also noticed this, or is it only me? I've searched the internet to see if someone has made such statement anywhere on the net but the only post i found was on this forum way back in 2007. The link to the thread is
http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showt...tion-any-ideas

This discovery has made me gain alot of weight because i eat everything i come across..
So, last week i wanted to study and since i wasn't at home, i decided to try chewing gum, and to my greatest surprise, it worked.. Since then, i've been chewing lots of gum and my fear is that at the rate which i'm going, my teeth might fail someday..

So, i'm just wondering if i'm the only one who gets fine when eating(and a couple of minutes after eating)?

Also, could this be related to something else?

[LaDiva]

Yes, there are a number of us who have noticed the same thing. I too feel better while eating, but when done, the relief is gone. I have wondered if it has to do with chewing and working the muscles in the face. Also, food often causes me to warm up, and my glasses to steam, which also helps briefly.

[Martins88]

Yes, there are a number of us who have noticed the same thing. I too feel better while eating, but when done, the relief is gone. I have wondered if it has to do with chewing and working the muscles in the face. Also, food often causes me to warm up, and my glasses to steam, which also helps briefly.

I feel relieved knowing that i'm not the only one.. Thought maybe i was becoming an alien

[Spoon]

Me three. I think this is because chewing food (or even the thought or smell of food) causes the body to salivate as saliva is critical to digestion. It has been established that the salivary gland and the lacrimal gland which produces tears are stimulated by at least some of the same chemicals (called secretagogues e.g Pilocarpine). Therefore it makes sense to me that there would be some bonus tears secreted while eating as the chemicals released to stimulate the salivary glands would also up-regulate the lacrimal gland. I haven't seen any science on this, just my own conclusion.

Also I think chewing gum or eating even though you're not hungry is okay to get some relief at the worst times but I wouldn't be doing it every day for obvious reasons.

[Colin P]

I'm another one,. And raised this very topic on here about 12 months ago. As I recall , on that occasion I got only 2x replies maybe.
One of whom was Rebecca, who said she had reports of members, who had discovered that chewing gum was beneficial
Sjogrens sufferers reported that in there mouth, chewing it was stimulating the saliva glands. Andpossibly getting the brain to stimulate tear/lacrimal gland also. Are you all like me aqueas defficiency?.
I don't know why?. But I do suspect food especially fatty is somehow beneficial. I've been hit twice with anxiety and depression thanx to dry eyes.
The anxiety got that bad it gripped my stomach, it does happen, causing loss of appetite, and in turn worse symptoms due to no ffood/fuel inside me. And cold sweats keeping me up all night, sweating losing more fluid. OMy dog never seems to drink, so perhaps your food only will get broken down to fluids?.

Oh. And don't worry about chewing gum, it has a few benefits. Calms you down, producing usaliva is the best thing for your teeth. And chewing gum makes you hungry, which as you report helps.
I suspect its, as mentioned above- face muscles being used.

[patrick]

eating definitely offers relief. especially spicey foods.
no aqueous deficiency here. just mgd....

[PotatoCakes]

I find that exercise helps me. I've wondered if the increase in seratonin and / or adrenalin has something to do with it?

[Martins88]

I find that exercise helps me. I've wondered if the increase in seratonin and / or adrenalin has something to do with it?

Same here.. Don't know if its because of the exercise or just because i'm not thinking about my eyes at that period

[NotADryEye]

Eating definitely has helped me too, though thankfully I don't need to do it so much any more to relieve pain. Maybe eating helped because of increased lacrimal secretion. Or maybe because the brain's focus is on something else when you eat or chew gum. You experience the taste or mouth-feel more then you experience the eye pain. Being in the shower also helps me, maybe because of the humidity, but maybe also because the body is feeling the shower/water more then the eyes feel pain. I don't really know, just guessing.

I've posted my 'tight shoes" theory here before.

Two peasants.
One says to the other, "do you know what the best thing in the world is?"
The other says, "no, what is the best thing in the world."
"Tight shoes."
"Why are tight shoes the best thing in the world?"
"Because when your feet hurt, your back stops hurting, your headache goes away..."

My discomfort is so much less that I don't eat, especially at night, any more. But when I did, I would microwave pop dry popcorn and sprinkle on butter-flavored olive oil, increasing Omega 3 consumption at the same time. Seemed like a good idea.

This olive oil tastes like the butter you get with popcorn at the movies. A bit expensive but yummy!

http://theancientolive.com/products/...rgin-olive-oil

[Logandly]

It could be because when you eat, you are circulating enzymes that are breaking down fibrin and other debris in your body which causes an obstruction in circulation to your eye.

Logan x

[Bill Sonoma County]

Hi Martins and thanks to everyone contributing to this topic. As Colin mentioned, this was discussed before, maybe more than once though i can't locate the threads. It is important for two reasons--first because eating and exercise both stimulate exocrine glands and suggest that with proper lubrication, the corneal tear film complex can be improved. This suggests the second key issue, that if you are obtaining food/exercise relief, there is still hope for optimizing your cornea tear film system with adjunctive measures. While ophthalmologists stared at me blankly while I described what I thought were (these) important clues, I finally found that punctal occlusion, moisture chamber glasses and Muro 128 were the biggest help. If you are noting gustatory or exercise related improvement, jump on tear film optimization. What you will need to do may be highly individualized, but please pursue it. And just as the issue of DED pain flares following conjunctivitis has received little attention, these observations provide critical information and can guide us to make better choices while we wait for research to more clearly define what is happening. Thanks and congratulations to all who observe and report these findings.

Bill

[Rick]

Eating

Okay, so I know I'm late in joining this discussion but I also thought I was the only one. I did post something about this a loooong time ago and didn't receive much in replies.

Eating (anything tasty) makes my eyes feel COMPLETELY normal. I need to emphasize that, with lots of experience with this, the effect is definitely NOT due to either:

1) Distraction (the relief is immediate and obvious; in fact, I can focus on how my eyes feel and note that I don't, in fact, FEEL them anymore. Also, having my upper drainage ducts cauterized, eating makes me tear up so much that it looks as if I'm crying -- so much for this being psychological)

2) Chewing (if I chew gum that has run its life and is no longer sweet, the dryness comes right back)

The relief comes from tasting. In other words, the taste buds need to be stimulated. I don't think, at least in my case, that spicy foods have an appreciably stronger effect due to the tingling of the spices, but rather, due to the stronger taste they engender.

An ophthalmologist told me that there can be crossover talk between the nerves that feed the lacrimal and salivary glands. I don't know if that's what we're experiencing, but it makes me nervous that the lacrimal response could dependent on the salivary one. Looking back, I've had dry eyes in my twenties (I'm not 52), but they really started to become a problem only about 10 years ago.

I find it interesting that I, as for several of you in this thread, also had seer stomach issues as a kid (essentially too much stomach acid). Don't know if there's a connection.

As far as a connection with sympathetic/parasympathetic NS, I know that stress makes my eyes feel better, not worse, so if anything, it's the sympathetic system that seems to trigger my eyes to water, not the parasympathetic one. I don't really see a clear connection with the nervous system and dry eyes.

I should mention that I also have chronic fatigue syndrome, a condition that has autoimmune features.

I also need to find another way of making my eyes feel better rather than eating when I read or watch TV or risk becoming severely overweight Plus, eating gets tiring, especially when you're no longer hungry. Sugarless candies can work, up to a point.

Please share any discoveries you've made, and I will do so as well.

Rick

[saralynn143]

Just curious, but does chewing gum do the same thing? That might give ongoing relief.

[Rebecca Petris]

Chewing gum, tart candies, etc. Yup.

I smile every time I see the subject line of this thread. Eating makes me feel better too. So does drinking

[Rick]

Just curious, but does chewing gum do the same thing? That might give ongoing relief.

Chewing gum works but only as long as it has flavor. The moment you're just chewing sweetless "rubber" you're no longer tearing.