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I finally found something that is working. I read a post from someone who said putting honey in her eyes all but cured her dry eye syndrome. So, having suffered from this disease for almost 30 years now, I was desperate enough to try it. I did not want to post anything for a few months as sometimes stuff works and then stops working. However, after doing it for about 2 months, I can report that it has helped me massively, so much so that I have discontinued my Xiidra.
My morning routine now is I do my warm compress (rice bag in the microwave). Then I wash my eyelids. Then I dab my two fingers in a jar of manuka honey and spread a little bit of honey across my eyelids. What the honey does is two things. It cools down my eyelids that are constantly inflamed due to the blepharitis and it is sticky so it may be helping me hold in the tears I do produce. Sometimes, my eyelids feel too sticky so I wash some of the honey off but it has worked better than anything else I have tried.
My background
I used to hate long posts as it hurt my eyes to read them so you can stop reading here if needed - the above is the process. Here is more detail on me. I was diagnosed with ocular rosacea and MGD. I have blepharitis both posterior and exterior caused by MGD. I still have all of my meibomian glands but they are shortened. I provide this info because if your situation is different, your experience with the honey could be different. It's a complex disease we suffer from with different causes.
Over the years, I have tried almost everything - I won't go into the history. Most recently, about 8 months ago, I had a test done to see how much oil my glands were producing when I blinked. On a scale of 0-5, it came back a zero. So, I decided to try IPL. I did 4 sessions of it and like a lot of other people said, initially, it seemed to help a lot but the benefits were only temporary and it set me back $1500. I would be fine paying that every year if it worked but it didn't. So about 3 months ago, when my eyes were back to feeling the same again, and I stumbled across a post about putting honey in your eyes to cure them, I decided what have I got to lose? Now, I can't go a day without doing it in the morning or I feel like my eyes are dry all day. I don't really know why it's working or if it will continue (things seem to work for a while and then stop working as well). But, it's been a game changer for me. I went back to the doctor a few weeks ago as I wanted to make sure I wasn't damaging my eyes. She said the oil I was producing looked great now. I told her about the honey but she said it was more likely to be the IPL. All I know is that if I go a day without doing the honey, my eyes feel terrible. Anyway, I thought I would pass this info along. I'll provide another update in about 6 months from now to let you know if it's continuing to work or not.
Edit: Just to add - there are supposed Manuka Honey eyedrops being sold on Amazon by Opti-Mel. I do not recommend these because 1) there is a preservative in them 2) the active ingredient is glycerin, not manuka honey. So, they aren't really honey eye drops. I looked everywhere but could not find any real drops with manuka honey in them so I am going to try to make my own.
My morning routine now is I do my warm compress (rice bag in the microwave). Then I wash my eyelids. Then I dab my two fingers in a jar of manuka honey and spread a little bit of honey across my eyelids. What the honey does is two things. It cools down my eyelids that are constantly inflamed due to the blepharitis and it is sticky so it may be helping me hold in the tears I do produce. Sometimes, my eyelids feel too sticky so I wash some of the honey off but it has worked better than anything else I have tried.
My background
I used to hate long posts as it hurt my eyes to read them so you can stop reading here if needed - the above is the process. Here is more detail on me. I was diagnosed with ocular rosacea and MGD. I have blepharitis both posterior and exterior caused by MGD. I still have all of my meibomian glands but they are shortened. I provide this info because if your situation is different, your experience with the honey could be different. It's a complex disease we suffer from with different causes.
Over the years, I have tried almost everything - I won't go into the history. Most recently, about 8 months ago, I had a test done to see how much oil my glands were producing when I blinked. On a scale of 0-5, it came back a zero. So, I decided to try IPL. I did 4 sessions of it and like a lot of other people said, initially, it seemed to help a lot but the benefits were only temporary and it set me back $1500. I would be fine paying that every year if it worked but it didn't. So about 3 months ago, when my eyes were back to feeling the same again, and I stumbled across a post about putting honey in your eyes to cure them, I decided what have I got to lose? Now, I can't go a day without doing it in the morning or I feel like my eyes are dry all day. I don't really know why it's working or if it will continue (things seem to work for a while and then stop working as well). But, it's been a game changer for me. I went back to the doctor a few weeks ago as I wanted to make sure I wasn't damaging my eyes. She said the oil I was producing looked great now. I told her about the honey but she said it was more likely to be the IPL. All I know is that if I go a day without doing the honey, my eyes feel terrible. Anyway, I thought I would pass this info along. I'll provide another update in about 6 months from now to let you know if it's continuing to work or not.
Edit: Just to add - there are supposed Manuka Honey eyedrops being sold on Amazon by Opti-Mel. I do not recommend these because 1) there is a preservative in them 2) the active ingredient is glycerin, not manuka honey. So, they aren't really honey eye drops. I looked everywhere but could not find any real drops with manuka honey in them so I am going to try to make my own.