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Hello All,
I have a gmail account for a long time so I couldn't register but I wanted to share with you guys what I have learned and how I beat my dry eye.
I had been following the dry eye zone's posts since about November 2010. I tried almost everything people brought up on the forums and I was scared I had something more serious. But then I realised that this was kinda serious too.
Learning about dry eye and why it happened to me was so surreal as I'm sure most of you are aware- one day it just kinda happened and didn't go away. I had the dry gritty feeling, my eyes were so red it looked like I had pink eye, and they were worse in the morning when I woke up. I went to a regular doctor at first who prescribed the usual: antibiotics, ointments, drops with steroids. And that worked temporarily as any of you can attest to. When it came back right after my ointments and pills finished, I found myself on these forums again. I wasn't sure I had MGD ( Meibomian Gland Dysfunction) or Dry Eye, though I was told I had MGD 3 years ago by a doctor in training at the Eye and Ear Infirmary here in NYC (and the reason I was there 3 years ago was because I had a chalazion in my left eyelid). Thus I decided to go to an opthomologist. He told me I had severe Dry Eye and precribed Restasis. He said that it was a "chronic and progressive" condition (meaning: never goes away and gets worse over time) and that I would have to treat it for the rest of my life. I was pretty shocked. I tried the Restasis for about literally 2 weeks, so I cannot be a good judge of that drug, nevertheless, the idea of being dependent on an expensive drug for a very long period of time that is modifying my immune response was an absurd concept to me, not to mention sounded kind of dangerous. I made an appointment with doctor Latkany since I'm a New Yorker, but I cancelled at the last minute. I realized that no one is treating this properly and that we're all pretty much wrong about this condition otherwise people would be getting results that work not just 50% of the time, or good on some days and bad on others , but 100% back to normal.
On the advice of a friend, I saw an acupuncturist who asked me some questions such as "what happened 6 months ago in your life" (personally) and told me that whatever happened 6 months ago 'stresswise' was still in my eyes. I thought it was very intriguing and was willing to try anything. After the first 'session' I can honestly tell you that there was an improvement. I had never done acupuncture before and it seemed a little far-fetched that what she was saying caused my dry eye but I kept an open mind. She told me that it was going to be a cumulative process and that I would have to keep coming back for awhile to replenish the "yin" in my body ( the moisture or "cold"); she said that what was happening was that there was an imbalance of hot and cold and the moisture in my body was not depleted. She gave me herbs ( Lycii Rehmannia ) to take twice a day and went back to her once a week for about 2 months. Apart from the acupuncture, I had been taking fish oil ( because it has other good uses) and I mix the fish oil with turmeric once a day, and sea buckthorn oil twice a day, and astaxanthin once a day. I also started running 2 miles everyday. My eyes are back to normal again and my acupuncturist says that soon I will not have to come back. I'm still going to continue taking the supplements because they are good for me and as for the herbs , she said I could stop that at some point too ( which btw taste pretty awful). It took about 2 months for this to happen and I cant believe that I wake up with normal eyes again after half a year of depression and frustration. I hope what I have said here is helpful to you. I reactivated my AOL account just so i can post this message. Everyone is different as my acupuncturist says, so it may take longer or quicker depending. I have truly taken a new perspective on medicine in general and I've learned how limited western medicine is regarding this issue and many others.
Cheers,
Mark
I have a gmail account for a long time so I couldn't register but I wanted to share with you guys what I have learned and how I beat my dry eye.
I had been following the dry eye zone's posts since about November 2010. I tried almost everything people brought up on the forums and I was scared I had something more serious. But then I realised that this was kinda serious too.
Learning about dry eye and why it happened to me was so surreal as I'm sure most of you are aware- one day it just kinda happened and didn't go away. I had the dry gritty feeling, my eyes were so red it looked like I had pink eye, and they were worse in the morning when I woke up. I went to a regular doctor at first who prescribed the usual: antibiotics, ointments, drops with steroids. And that worked temporarily as any of you can attest to. When it came back right after my ointments and pills finished, I found myself on these forums again. I wasn't sure I had MGD ( Meibomian Gland Dysfunction) or Dry Eye, though I was told I had MGD 3 years ago by a doctor in training at the Eye and Ear Infirmary here in NYC (and the reason I was there 3 years ago was because I had a chalazion in my left eyelid). Thus I decided to go to an opthomologist. He told me I had severe Dry Eye and precribed Restasis. He said that it was a "chronic and progressive" condition (meaning: never goes away and gets worse over time) and that I would have to treat it for the rest of my life. I was pretty shocked. I tried the Restasis for about literally 2 weeks, so I cannot be a good judge of that drug, nevertheless, the idea of being dependent on an expensive drug for a very long period of time that is modifying my immune response was an absurd concept to me, not to mention sounded kind of dangerous. I made an appointment with doctor Latkany since I'm a New Yorker, but I cancelled at the last minute. I realized that no one is treating this properly and that we're all pretty much wrong about this condition otherwise people would be getting results that work not just 50% of the time, or good on some days and bad on others , but 100% back to normal.
On the advice of a friend, I saw an acupuncturist who asked me some questions such as "what happened 6 months ago in your life" (personally) and told me that whatever happened 6 months ago 'stresswise' was still in my eyes. I thought it was very intriguing and was willing to try anything. After the first 'session' I can honestly tell you that there was an improvement. I had never done acupuncture before and it seemed a little far-fetched that what she was saying caused my dry eye but I kept an open mind. She told me that it was going to be a cumulative process and that I would have to keep coming back for awhile to replenish the "yin" in my body ( the moisture or "cold"); she said that what was happening was that there was an imbalance of hot and cold and the moisture in my body was not depleted. She gave me herbs ( Lycii Rehmannia ) to take twice a day and went back to her once a week for about 2 months. Apart from the acupuncture, I had been taking fish oil ( because it has other good uses) and I mix the fish oil with turmeric once a day, and sea buckthorn oil twice a day, and astaxanthin once a day. I also started running 2 miles everyday. My eyes are back to normal again and my acupuncturist says that soon I will not have to come back. I'm still going to continue taking the supplements because they are good for me and as for the herbs , she said I could stop that at some point too ( which btw taste pretty awful). It took about 2 months for this to happen and I cant believe that I wake up with normal eyes again after half a year of depression and frustration. I hope what I have said here is helpful to you. I reactivated my AOL account just so i can post this message. Everyone is different as my acupuncturist says, so it may take longer or quicker depending. I have truly taken a new perspective on medicine in general and I've learned how limited western medicine is regarding this issue and many others.
Cheers,
Mark
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