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  • Some things which have helped me...

    I've seen and felt a drastic improvement over the past three months and even more improvement over three weeks..here is what has helped me:

    Diet - I ground flaxseed and put two tablespoons into something each day. I also eat loads of veg and fruit. Loads of lemons and limes (and other vit c containing foods) and generally try to avoid processed foods, sugary drinks. It's not super strict - I still have dark chocolate and cake occasionally, but I eat at least 5 portions of fruit and veg a day if not more. Here are some blogs which have helped me make 'good' food exciting (I hope I'm allowed to put these on here...I don't know these people, it's just that their blogs have really inspired and helped me to eat well: http://www.greenkitchenstories.com/recipe-index/ and http://deliciouslyella.com/ and http://www.hemsleyandhemsley.com/.

    Exercise - I try and do 20 minutes everyday. I feel the best when I do this. So do my eyes. In reality I manage 15 minutes three times a week. I am doing yoga and running at the moment. My eyes look better after exercise and my body feels much better.

    Plugs - for the first week these killed my eyes. I have umbrella plugs. They made my eyes angry and red. After that week slowly they made them feel much better. A friend who didn't know said "oh, your eyes look much better". They've helped me so much. I think I've had them in for three months now.

    Blinking exercises - Whenever I remember I do ten or more blinking exercises (just making sure I am closing both eyes fully).

    Cleaning - I always cleaned my eyes carefully. But over the past three weeks I've been cleaning closer to the the base of my lashes. Well, more like in the base of the lashes if that makes sense. I use a tiny amount of coconut oil on a cotton bud, and really get in there. Gentle, but firm. When I rub, I get little white flecks, which I then wipe away. I suspect I have bleph and have had for a while, but you cannot see anything until you rub between the lash bases as it were. I have a very steady hand - if you try please be careful, and don't do it if your eyes are sensitive. It works for me - so I thought I would share.

    I have also moved to a humid country - and this of course will have helped too. I also have less stress in my life (a job with less responsibility) and more leisure time (which is why I moved). I also stopped using all drops 4 months ago. I went cold turkey. At first it was hard, then gradually they felt better without them. The plugs obviously helped with this process.

    My eyes are not as red now, although they do get redder after a long day at work in the AC and in front of the computer. They aren't as red when I wake up, which is a real improvement. It no longer feels like scraping when I blink. It feels normal. Pain has subsided drastically over the last three weeks. I experience pain maximum three times a week now, and then only for 20 minutes and only when I neglect my eyes (e.g. stare at the computer in a room with AC and forget to blink). About 5 months ago I'd get pain in both eyes for at least three hours a day and would have to go to sleep to get through it.

    Recently I spent two weeks travelling in Australia without too many issues. I drive everywhere. I drove for 4 hour stretches in Australia. I finished off my dissertation which involved spending 6/7 sometimes 8 hour stretches on the computer. In August 2014 I had to take a week and a bit off work because my eyes felt painful when I walked down a street, or if the breeze from a door being opened caught them. I had to wear sunglasses everywhere to protect them.

    I am not posting this under success stories because they are not 100% healed yet. But I'd say 60% healed. I'm going to keep going. I'm sure there is more I can do. I hope this helps someone, as the many stories on here helped me.

  • #2
    Great news! 60% is huge because it seems most things help about 1% (ie. "I think it's helping"). I'll second the excercise as a big help. Nothing is better for both my eyes AND mind after a tough day.

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    • #3
      I agree with exercise helping too. Especially high intensity exercise which has a high hormonal response. Following Dr Korbs study on the distribution of active meibomian glands along the lids of people with normally functioning meibomian glands he noted that almost no one had any MG's functioning in the temporal section of the lid, except althletes. I wondered what the physiological reason was for this.

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      • #4
        I'm baffled - how could a diet of eating "tons of lemon limes" help versus redness?
        If I take citric acid my eyes & all my mucosa get inflamed!
        Isn't citric acid a vasodilator??

        My experience is the opposite:
        Moderate-coffee (with lotsa milk & caloric-sweetener to mitigate heartburn) helps eliminate reddish eyes, as well as calming foods, such as lowfat lysine, sweeteners, honey, molasses, yogurt, milk, eggs, cherry, blackberry, yellow oils (including flax oil), sweet potatoes, greens, barley-grass powder...
        CHEERIO! HELIO! Dry Eye Minni

        sigpic

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        • #5
          No dry eye patient is the same, milk could be disastrous to another dry eye sufferer. I for one do not drink milk or eat bread or yoghurt as my eyes flare up, as they do with sugar.

          Everyone has to do whats best for them I think, thanks for sharing Dry Londener, it was reallly helpful and the links to healthy eating are great

          Cath x
          27, pinguecula, dry eye, Wirral, UK

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          • #6
            Originally posted by cathy8889 View Post
            No dry eye patient is the same, milk could be disastrous to another dry eye sufferer. I for one do not drink milk or eat bread or yoghurt as my eyes flare up, as they do with sugar.

            Everyone has to do whats best for them I think, thanks for sharing Dry Londener, it was reallly helpful and the links to healthy eating are great

            Cath x
            Maybe I'm different because my issue is more heavily on the "sensitive" side and a tad less on the "dry" side? Though the latter has become more of an issue too.
            I also have some floaters.

            Can I assume this forum is mostly for dry eye guys, and only a small fraction have sensitive eyes? Or is this assumption wrong? Perhaps some of you are more familiar with the demographic makeup on these forums.
            CHEERIO! HELIO! Dry Eye Minni

            sigpic

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            • #7
              Dry Londoner,
              Great that your eyes are doing better. I think it's time that I change my diet too.

              Like to check with you. When you said cleaning your lashes with coconut oil, youu are cleaning the base of the lashes and not the meibomian glands, right? After cleaning in the lashes, do you wash your eyes to clean off the coconut oil?
              I may want to try this method of cleaning instead of using Sterilid from There Tears.

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              • #8
                Hi TeaLeaf,

                How are you going? I hope you are slowly getting better.

                I actually clean the base of the lashes, but by pulling my eye back slightly, so not from the top, from the bottom of the lash line. Does that make sense?

                Why do you want to change from Sterilid? I'm really not sure what is best..I just tried coconut oil because I had some indoors. However, some people say it can block your pores, which might not be great for those with MGD.

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                • #9
                  Hi DL,
                  oh, thanks for explaining, I will give it a try. SteriLid is so far so good, but am open to alternative way, which may be more helpful.

                  I have just totally plugged my worse eye 3 days ago, now weeping, which I am surprised as this particular eye has 0mm when did Shirley test 9 months ago. Not sure if there is improvement, I am scared to hear bad news ...

                  Can your eyes tolerate the fan now?

                  I hope with time, our eyes will improve and heal more. Keep telling myself be patient.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by tealeaf View Post
                    Hi DL,
                    oh, thanks for explaining, I will give it a try. SteriLid is so far so good, but am open to alternative way, which may be more helpful.

                    I have just totally plugged my worse eye 3 days ago, now weeping, which I am surprised as this particular eye has 0mm when did Shirley test 9 months ago. Not sure if there is improvement, I am scared to hear bad news ...

                    Can your eyes tolerate the fan now?

                    I hope with time, our eyes will improve and heal more. Keep telling myself be patient.
                    TeaLeaf, please be careful with coconut oil - if I were you and something was working and not irritating my eyes I would stick with it. If you do try it, please only try a small amount to start with. I'd hate for your eyes to react badly to it.

                    I hope that means your eyes are improving. You should have a schirmer - although I think you feel an improvement.

                    My eyes about 80% of the time do not hurt anymore - although I still hate malls something about the air. I can sit in a room with a fan - it's not unpleasant but it's not something I would choose to do. My left eye has improved so much. My right eye is slower. It's slow and painful journey - I am still trying to get serum drops - of course they may not help at all...but it's worth trying, eh?!

                    one great thing that has come out of all this - I am now a health freak and it is rubbing off on my friends and family!!!

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                    • #11
                      Hi DL,
                      You are right, I am also thinking if I should try coconut oil since SteriLid seems okay with my eyes.

                      Since you are into healthy diets, can share how the diets help the eyes?

                      Have you done shirmer test lately?

                      Do you wear spectacles at all? I try to wear spects when in a windy environment.

                      I saw somewhere you mentioned you went cold turkey without drops for a while, is the drop making eye worse?

                      Do you still see floaters?

                      Sorry for the many questions ...

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by tealeaf View Post
                        Hi DL,
                        You are right, I am also thinking if I should try coconut oil since SteriLid seems okay with my eyes.

                        Since you are into healthy diets, can share how the diets help the eyes?

                        Have you done shirmer test lately?

                        Do you wear spectacles at all? I try to wear spects when in a windy environment.

                        I saw somewhere you mentioned you went cold turkey without drops for a while, is the drop making eye worse?

                        Do you still see floaters?

                        Sorry for the many questions ...
                        Hi TL,

                        No worries about lots of questions - I know how it when you want your eyes to heal!! Maybe stick to SteriLid, and if you don't see an improvement discuss it with your opth?

                        Diet - my body is trying to heal, right? So giving it lots of nutrients should help this process. I don't know if this works, but probably good for me anyway. Main thing is lots and lots veg and a balanced diet. There's nothing I don't eat (although I've never eaten much meat).

                        I need to schedule a check up soon - will do schirmer then. I am going more on how my eyes feel.

                        I wear glasses outside just because it's so sunny here - but can happily sit on my balcony and read without glasses. This was not the case 6 months ago. A gust of wind was painful (and malls still are).

                        For me, any and all drops seems to make my eyes worse, I think they exacerbate my bleph. I have stopped since...about October I think. It was hard.

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                        • #13
                          oh, floaters, only on very sunny days, without glasses outside. They are still there, but my brain has obviously blocked them out - clever little thing.

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                          • #14
                            Hi DL,
                            I am really happy for you that your eyes have improved so much! Yes, we go by the feel of the eyes, afterall, if the eyes are feeling good, there is no need to do shirmer test. Currently, my doctor only did TBUT for me.

                            Thanks for sharing, yes, my eyes need to heal and they need the nutrients You mentioned you ground flaxseed and added them to your food. Is it better to have flaxseed in this form than in capsules? Currently, I take Borage oil and Flaxseed oil daily.

                            When you put in permanent umbrella plugs, did your eye doctor say will ultimatly get infection? Mine said all will have infection sooner or later since mucus will accumulate around that area... hmm .... he said by then, can consider cautery (he prefers cautery as there is no foreign object in the eye).

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                            • #15
                              flax oil, elderberry, cherry, tart-cherry

                              I once heard a health-pro being interviewed on radio and he sounded very knowledgeable.

                              Unfortunately I had just caught the end of it, where he responded (when asked what he considers top of the list insofar as health food):

                              he responded: "Flax oil & elderberry"

                              For my part, I consider these very healthy:
                              Lysine foods (balanced with some arginine)
                              Black cherry concentrate (wonderfully healing
                              Black cherries (ditto
                              NatFactors berry-chews
                              Flax oil & other oils
                              Yams / veggies
                              yogurt
                              eggs

                              At this juncture, I'm sorta exhausted from trying new stuff.
                              But y'all might want to try:

                              Tart cherry juice mixed with some black cherry concentrate
                              I myself never tried the tart juice, just the tart cherries. Yummy & expensive.
                              CHEERIO! HELIO! Dry Eye Minni

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