Dry eye syndrome from scalp massaging

[Soreeyes27]

Hi guys, I’ve been diagnosed with dry eyes and this from doing scalp massages at night time. I’m a 30 year old male that has been going bald for 5-6 years. I experimented with some topical hair loss products with the side effect of sore eyes many years ago. I automatically stoped and tried other things.

I can’t even wash my hair anymore with organic shampoo and was doing laser light treatment and that caused the same problem. I gave up on all of that and tried scalp massaging and to my surprise it started to make my scalp feel healthy and happy again! Then at the start of this year the sore eyes began again.

This has become a serious issue with symptoms stopping after 10-12 days but touching my scalp for 3 min will bring it on straight away again.

I understand this is a dry eye forum, I would just love to hear if anyone has experienced the same thing and have any ideas why this would happen? I’m the only case I’ve found on this anywhere and it’s really bringing me down.

thank you guys!

[anteloper]

I can't promise anyone here (me included) will be able to help, but at a minimum, we'd need more information about:

- Your dry eye symptoms: is it soreness only? How intense/painful/distracting is it? Do your eyes look normal? What about the skin around your eyes? Do you notice any other things that are triggered by the scalp massages?

- What doctors have you seen about this, what tests have the run, what have they said? etc.

[Soreeyes27]

Hi Anteloper!

I’m so sorry I’ve just got this reply. I hope you can reply and appreciate the post,

My eyes are on a scale of distracting and painful it’s a 9/10 the loss of concentration/mood change is immense. I can say it’s slowly changing my life for the worse has something to do with my hair loss. My eyes are red and very much squinty and tense when the dry eyes kick in. I seem to get bags under my eyes and almost instant aging with dark circles.

I haven’t noticed anything else apart from hair growth and loss of inflammation from the scalp massaging.

This is what makes things super annoying!

I’ve seen a few optometrist with one referring me to an ophthalmologist my father knows at the hospital. I’m seeing him in 3 weeks and it couldn’t come quick enough.

they seem to resolve after around a week then even the slightest of massaging (3-5min) my dry eyes flare up again within the next few days.

I truly appreciate your message and hope this gets to you and the forum asap,

Thank you

[anteloper]

Hi Soreeyes27,

I'm not a doctor and I wasn't aware (before) of any connection between scalp massages and dry eyes. This sounds more like a complex medical issue than standard dry eye. I wish I could be more helpful sorry to hear about your pain, I know how difficult it is.

The thoughts I do have are:

- Do any of your doctors have a handle on the underlying cause of the hair loss? E.g. if it's genetic then there's probably no connection to dry eye, but e.g. if it's hormonal then they might be related. Hormones can cause dry eye symptoms.

- Maybe a dermatologist might know more about the scalp massages than an ophthalmologist? I'm just guessing here. Some ophthalmologists don't know much about the skin, even about ocular rosacea.

- It's possible your dry eye is some kind of delayed side effect of the hair loss treatments you tried before and massaging your scalp re-triggers the reaction. I don't know. It might be good to make a list of every treatment you tried and run it by a dermatologist.

[Soreeyes27]

Hi anteloper,

Thanks so much for your reply, I understand it’s a complex issue and the correlation seems to be from hormonal changes in the scalp (previous hair loss treatment) might have started this years ago,

I appreciate all your input! Thank you.


- I haven’t seen anyone for my hair loss, apart from general gp’s years ago. It’s genetic male pattern baldness but unfortunately you are right with the hormones and dry eye as people who take Finistaride (hair loss medication) they can suffer dry eyes.

- Great idea. If I can’t get much from my ophthalmologist I’ll look into seeing a dermatologist for sure, thank you!

- I feel like this is the cause. It seems that everything I used in the past 90% being natural holistic approach has caused the same issue. Once my scalp gets healthy/less inflammation the dry eyes kick in. Not being able to use natural shampoos (tea tree, peppermint) is a real concern as this does calm down the scalp, which in turn is causing the dry eyes.

- Would you know of any supplements/vitamins that might help counter act this? I’m just hoping there is something that can change the way my eyes are reacting to my massages….

[anteloper]

I wish I could suggest supplements/vitamins... I take two pills (over 2000mg) of fish oil every day, and I did notice an improvement in my eyes when I went up from one pill. But aside from that it's hard to say. Nutrition is complex and there aren't many conclusive research studies on what works. What we do know is that for dry eye, a lot of it is avoiding bad foods, basically anything that triggers inflammation for your body. Personally, I don't eat any dairy, avoid high omega-6 oils (corn oil, soy oil, etc. but canola, olive etc. is ok), and try to avoid sugar. These all cause acne for me as well as make my eyes worse. But diet is personal and requires some experimentation.

I don't have much hair loss but my skin (scalp included) is pretty sensitive. The shampoo brand I've been using is called Christina Moss Naturals. It's expensive but gentle and I'm happy with it.

[Soreeyes27]

Thanks for your response! I’ve tried the omega 3 supplement and didn’t notice a difference yet. It’s 100% related to my scalp so I’m going to try get to the bottom of the problem. Sounds vain, but I think I could keep my hair or where it is at now with these scalp massages. Unfortunately this is what’s causing my dry eyes!

Thanks for the diet recommendations. I eat fairly healthy but will try avoid all those things. Started making bone broths with lots of turmeric and ginger to see if I had any improvement.

Have you heard much about lllt or light pulses for MGD and dry eyes? Looks interesting and could help my situation?

[anteloper]

I'm not sure what lllt is.

IPL ("intense pulsed light") was very helpful for me -- see my post here: https://forum.dryeyezone.com/forum/c...nd-what-didn-t

I can't say if it would help you. If you're interested in trying it, you would have to have a consult with an optometrist or ophthalmologist who does IPL; a good IPL doctor can help you make an educated guess as to whether IPL would help. It doesn't work for everyone though.

[Soreeyes27]

Low level laser therapy, I guess it’s similar to IPL.

I just read over your post (history) I’m glad to hear you’re doing better and those treatments have helped!! I saw my opthamologist the other day and all he could do was prescribe steroid eye drops and a medication (doxycycline) so I’ll be pursuing other people and go back to my optometrist.

Can I ask about your eye yoga and did you have any video or links for something similar?

thanks again! And stick in there,

[anteloper]

Can I ask about your eye yoga and did you have any video or links for something similar?

thanks again! And stick in there,

I sent you in the info in a pm. You too, hang in there!