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Hi - This is my first post to this forum (or at least my first post in years) so I'll provide a bit of history - I am 54 and was first told I had MGD by my optometrist when I was in my late 20's though I had no symptoms that I noticed. Other optometrists and opthamologists disagreed throughout the years. Then I had a very short bout of dry eye after a long flight from the U.S. to Europe when I was in my 30's but never went to the doctor since it only lasted for about a month (but boy were my eyes dry!) and then about 10 years ago, after going on the Atkins high-protein diet for about a year, I awoke with my eyelids stuck to my eyeballs and had to feel my way to the bathroom I order to soak my face in water in order to open them! That really scared me so I went to the eye doctor who recommended fish oil. It worked like a charm for years! I had absolutely no symptoms anymore. Then, about a year ago, my house was being painted so I moved into another room where the bed was under a vent *and* started polishing my nails every week (I've never been much of a nail polishing person) and noticed that my eyes were sensitive from the fumes. My eyes began to feel very gritty and there was not much I could do to get relief.
The fish oil no longer worked! It just got worse and worse, even after the painting was over and I moved back into the main bedroom and stopped polishing my nails. This went on for about a year and then about two months ago I took a short flight for business. I woke up in the hotel room in the middle of the night feeling like my right eye was as dry as a stone and I was actually in pain. So, off to the doctor I went. He wanted to put me on a dry eye medication that he said I might have to be on for the rest of my life (sorry, I forgot the name of it though it is something that some people can go off of after 3 months if they are lucky). At this point, I couldn't sleep because the dry eyes would wake me up in the middle of the night. The regular old drops were not doing the trick so I had to put in gel drops. I thought I would experiment with various remedies one more time before I went on the medication, so I started reading this forum and experimenting. It's amazing but I found a combination of things that work! I cannot only sleep through the night without any gel but without any drops at all. My eyes feel completely normal during the day as well. Here is the combination that works for me:
1) In the morning, I add 2 heaping tablespoons of organic flax seed to my bran cereal- I have organic bran cereal that I add soy milk to,as well as cut up blueberries, strawberries, and bananas. It is the flax that is the magical ingredient. And I need two heaping tablespoons - I have experimented with different amounts and the two heaping tablespoons is what does it. I have also tried adding it to hot cereal but that does not work. The flax cannot be hot (I know this sounds very hokas-pokas but this is what I have found after tons of experimenting).
2) I have a cup of chamomile tea sometime during the day
3) At night, I have 1500 mg of fish oil (I use Ultimate Omega Nordic Naturals), 400 IU's of Twinlab Super E-Complex, and 5,000 I.U's of vitamin D (it is the fish oil - flax seed combo that does the trick, though the E might be contributing as well)
4) I limit my use of computer work at night since for work I use the computer all day. This is very important. I try to cut it off at 9pm and then just read or listen to music.
5) I also limit my use of Scramble-with-Friends and Ruzzle on the iPad since I could literally spend hours doing word games, nerd that I am! And I felt that when I was playing, I was not blinking very often.
6) I wash my face with a very mild oatmeal soap - nothing harsh
7) I only wear a bit of hypoallergenic eyeliner (Almay) and some mascara (I used to do what is called Tightlining which I am sure was not very good for my eyes, even though it looks great)
8) Important - before I go to bed at night I gently rub a moisturizer onto my eyelids. I experimented with a bunch of stuff - coconut oil, Vaseline.. but what I found works really well (and I swear that I do not work for this company!) is Olay regenerist eye lifting serum. Really! I don't know what they put in that stuff but it sure feels good and my eyes love it.
9) I got a new eyeglass prescription. I wear my glasses all the time now instead of straining without glasses or wearing the wrong prescription.
10) When I fly during the day, I wear sunglasses
11) I got wrap around sunglasses and wear faithfully when I am outside. My sunglasses are fabulous! They are made by a company called Blinde and the style is called "Easy as 1 2 3". They are really beautiful and completely protect my eyes.
12) Staying away from salty food! Salty chips, for example, make my eyes sting at night, as weird as that sounds! But I find that a salad for lunch with olive oil on it is something that contributes to moist eyes.
13)Staying away from high-protein meals (like lots of chicken and red-meat which I find is a killer for my eyes - in fact, I am a vegetarian but the dry eye seemed to come on after doing Atkins 10 years ago when I was a meat eater).
Everybody is different so I don't know if the above will work for anyone on this board, but the fact that I can sleep again without using any drops at all and that after a year of discomfort (and a few months of discomfort that was so bad I could not sleep) is amazing to me. I think the truly magical ingredients are the flax seed combined with the fish oil in the evening and the Vitamin E, but the other things are important as well. I know how upsetting dry eye can be and I sincerely hope someone can find relief using the regimen that I use!
The fish oil no longer worked! It just got worse and worse, even after the painting was over and I moved back into the main bedroom and stopped polishing my nails. This went on for about a year and then about two months ago I took a short flight for business. I woke up in the hotel room in the middle of the night feeling like my right eye was as dry as a stone and I was actually in pain. So, off to the doctor I went. He wanted to put me on a dry eye medication that he said I might have to be on for the rest of my life (sorry, I forgot the name of it though it is something that some people can go off of after 3 months if they are lucky). At this point, I couldn't sleep because the dry eyes would wake me up in the middle of the night. The regular old drops were not doing the trick so I had to put in gel drops. I thought I would experiment with various remedies one more time before I went on the medication, so I started reading this forum and experimenting. It's amazing but I found a combination of things that work! I cannot only sleep through the night without any gel but without any drops at all. My eyes feel completely normal during the day as well. Here is the combination that works for me:
1) In the morning, I add 2 heaping tablespoons of organic flax seed to my bran cereal- I have organic bran cereal that I add soy milk to,as well as cut up blueberries, strawberries, and bananas. It is the flax that is the magical ingredient. And I need two heaping tablespoons - I have experimented with different amounts and the two heaping tablespoons is what does it. I have also tried adding it to hot cereal but that does not work. The flax cannot be hot (I know this sounds very hokas-pokas but this is what I have found after tons of experimenting).
2) I have a cup of chamomile tea sometime during the day
3) At night, I have 1500 mg of fish oil (I use Ultimate Omega Nordic Naturals), 400 IU's of Twinlab Super E-Complex, and 5,000 I.U's of vitamin D (it is the fish oil - flax seed combo that does the trick, though the E might be contributing as well)
4) I limit my use of computer work at night since for work I use the computer all day. This is very important. I try to cut it off at 9pm and then just read or listen to music.
5) I also limit my use of Scramble-with-Friends and Ruzzle on the iPad since I could literally spend hours doing word games, nerd that I am! And I felt that when I was playing, I was not blinking very often.
6) I wash my face with a very mild oatmeal soap - nothing harsh
7) I only wear a bit of hypoallergenic eyeliner (Almay) and some mascara (I used to do what is called Tightlining which I am sure was not very good for my eyes, even though it looks great)
8) Important - before I go to bed at night I gently rub a moisturizer onto my eyelids. I experimented with a bunch of stuff - coconut oil, Vaseline.. but what I found works really well (and I swear that I do not work for this company!) is Olay regenerist eye lifting serum. Really! I don't know what they put in that stuff but it sure feels good and my eyes love it.
9) I got a new eyeglass prescription. I wear my glasses all the time now instead of straining without glasses or wearing the wrong prescription.
10) When I fly during the day, I wear sunglasses
11) I got wrap around sunglasses and wear faithfully when I am outside. My sunglasses are fabulous! They are made by a company called Blinde and the style is called "Easy as 1 2 3". They are really beautiful and completely protect my eyes.
12) Staying away from salty food! Salty chips, for example, make my eyes sting at night, as weird as that sounds! But I find that a salad for lunch with olive oil on it is something that contributes to moist eyes.
13)Staying away from high-protein meals (like lots of chicken and red-meat which I find is a killer for my eyes - in fact, I am a vegetarian but the dry eye seemed to come on after doing Atkins 10 years ago when I was a meat eater).
Everybody is different so I don't know if the above will work for anyone on this board, but the fact that I can sleep again without using any drops at all and that after a year of discomfort (and a few months of discomfort that was so bad I could not sleep) is amazing to me. I think the truly magical ingredients are the flax seed combined with the fish oil in the evening and the Vitamin E, but the other things are important as well. I know how upsetting dry eye can be and I sincerely hope someone can find relief using the regimen that I use!
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