Tweet
Hello everybody,
I'm writing here today because some people may find their solution in my personal experience, although I must preface my post by saying that my case of dry eyes is probably quite unlike most of yours so my solution may not pertain to anyone else who frequents these forums.
Many years ago, my life became a nightmare when my eyes started being dry and itchy and scratchy, and they had that cold "menthol" feeling that some people here have experienced. For about 2 years, if was a constraint on my life and not one hour would pass without me having to manage my eyes. My productivity at work declined, at one point the dark thoughts started coming in - life in such intense discomfort at a young age seemed unfair... At my worst, I suffered corneal abrasions which forced me to wear an eyepatch, and wore glasses with padding below to prevent air from passing in front of my eyes, irritating them. I tried most things that were available to me, eyedrops at first, then I saw 2 optometrists, an ophthalmologist, I started reading about treatments, tried to eat differently, bought a bunch of devices that made my situation marginally better. I couldn't spend more than a few hours on the PC which was devastating for work, school and most other things about my life.
Then, something happened that made me realize something. It's dumb, maybe a little disgusting, and I've put off writing this because it's a bit embarrassing, but here we go. The easy part, I put bias lighting behind my monitors, which tremendously reduced eye strain but by no means solved anything. I noticed that my eyes got better when I ate spicy food. I even bought hot sauce, when my eyes got bad, I would go put a spoonful of painfully spicy hot sauce in my mouth and I spit it out (to avoid the aftermath). It would help for sometimes an hour or two. And I wondered why it helped... I connected the dots (well, kind of...) with the thought that for me, spicy foods have a tendency to loosen the snot in my nose, so something is happening up in my sinuses... One of my vices, at least until that moment, was that I picked my nose a lot especially during the dry, cold winter, sometimes with dirty unwashed hands. I started hydrating my nose with saline and I stopped picking my nose which is difficult because it's a bad habit, but in desperate times all is possible! After a few weeks, my eyes were better. Good even.
And for the last few years, my eyes have been mostly good, with some minor relapses during dry cold weather, which I can mostly handle by hydrating the inside of my nose.
Like I said, I don't think that many people will be able to relate to this, but when I researched my problem a few years back I didn't find anything about nose involvement. But if this helps even one person, that's a win for me. Cheers all, and take care <3
CM
I'm writing here today because some people may find their solution in my personal experience, although I must preface my post by saying that my case of dry eyes is probably quite unlike most of yours so my solution may not pertain to anyone else who frequents these forums.
Many years ago, my life became a nightmare when my eyes started being dry and itchy and scratchy, and they had that cold "menthol" feeling that some people here have experienced. For about 2 years, if was a constraint on my life and not one hour would pass without me having to manage my eyes. My productivity at work declined, at one point the dark thoughts started coming in - life in such intense discomfort at a young age seemed unfair... At my worst, I suffered corneal abrasions which forced me to wear an eyepatch, and wore glasses with padding below to prevent air from passing in front of my eyes, irritating them. I tried most things that were available to me, eyedrops at first, then I saw 2 optometrists, an ophthalmologist, I started reading about treatments, tried to eat differently, bought a bunch of devices that made my situation marginally better. I couldn't spend more than a few hours on the PC which was devastating for work, school and most other things about my life.
Then, something happened that made me realize something. It's dumb, maybe a little disgusting, and I've put off writing this because it's a bit embarrassing, but here we go. The easy part, I put bias lighting behind my monitors, which tremendously reduced eye strain but by no means solved anything. I noticed that my eyes got better when I ate spicy food. I even bought hot sauce, when my eyes got bad, I would go put a spoonful of painfully spicy hot sauce in my mouth and I spit it out (to avoid the aftermath). It would help for sometimes an hour or two. And I wondered why it helped... I connected the dots (well, kind of...) with the thought that for me, spicy foods have a tendency to loosen the snot in my nose, so something is happening up in my sinuses... One of my vices, at least until that moment, was that I picked my nose a lot especially during the dry, cold winter, sometimes with dirty unwashed hands. I started hydrating my nose with saline and I stopped picking my nose which is difficult because it's a bad habit, but in desperate times all is possible! After a few weeks, my eyes were better. Good even.
And for the last few years, my eyes have been mostly good, with some minor relapses during dry cold weather, which I can mostly handle by hydrating the inside of my nose.
Like I said, I don't think that many people will be able to relate to this, but when I researched my problem a few years back I didn't find anything about nose involvement. But if this helps even one person, that's a win for me. Cheers all, and take care <3
CM
Comment