My eyes always feel less dry when I travel to a hot country

[RedEyeGuy]

I take Omega 3 and Flaxseed religiously. I went to Vietnam for 5 months and within a few days I felt I didn't need to take the supplements anymore. I had 5 months of no dry eyes. I returned back to the UK 2 days ago and my eyes are already getting dry. Initially I thought it was the Asian diet but I've ruled this out as I had numerous days of eating pretty unhealthily - I've been in the UK for less than 48 hours and I'm already getting dry eyes.

My skin is also getting very dry, I'm guessing because the constant sweating in Vietnam was acting as a moisturiser. I wonder if there's a link between my eyes and skin somewhere.

Has anyone elses dry eyes been cured when visiting a hot country?

[André Pereira]

I think it has more to do with the humidity of the air.
According to a quick google search, Vietnam is a country quite humid.

[RedEyeGuy]

I think it has more to do with the humidity of the air.
According to a quick google search, Vietnam is a country quite humid.

Interesting - but how does humidity affect the eyes?

[MGD30]

Interesting - but how does humidity affect the eyes?

The dryer the air is, the quicker the tears in your eyes evaporate, and the dryer your eyes get. This is why humidifiers and moisture chamber glasses help people with dry eyes.

I think theres something to the temperature too though. When I go in the sauna my eyes feel perfect. The humidity is about 60%. If I turn up my humidifier in my room to get to 60% my eyes dont feel as well. I'm not exactly sure why this is. Maybe its the fact that more of the meibomian oil melts.

[André Pereira]

MGD30 explained everything.

The oil prevents water evaporate. As our lipid layer is disabled, the lower the air humidity, the quicker our eyes dry.

I bought a hygrometer (measures air humidity) to do this analysis.

70% or more of moisture is super comfortable
55% to 70 bothers some
less than 50% is already starting to sting my eyes frequently

MGD30
I think a humidifier of environment can't saturate the air like a sauna. For more than 60% mark near the appliance, in other points of the room humidity is lower. The sauna may leave the room with a uniform humidity.

But I still think that counts for a lot more moisture.
In summer the humidity here is above 80%. I can't feel anything with air currents.
In the winter the humidity can reach 15%. If the wind hit me directly on my face, I feel my eyes get worse.

But it's not the first comment about the temperature to improve the eyes. So, should help in something too.

[LaDiva]

I've noticed the same thing IF the air is not polluted and it isn't windy. I have MGD, and have guessed that the meibum tends to be more fluid in warm weather. Humidity also helps.

[RedEyeGuy]

The dryer the air is, the quicker the tears in your eyes evaporate, and the dryer your eyes get. This is why humidifiers and moisture chamber glasses help people with dry eyes.

I think theres something to the temperature too though. When I go in the sauna my eyes feel perfect. The humidity is about 60%. If I turn up my humidifier in my room to get to 60% my eyes dont feel as well. I'm not exactly sure why this is. Maybe its the fact that more of the meibomian oil melts.

Does the humidifier in your room stop them from feeling dry?

[MGD30]

Does the humidifier in your room stop them from feeling dry?

It doesnt stop them from feeling dry completely, but it does help. My eyes would be in more pain without it.

[RedEyeGuy]

It doesnt stop them from feeling dry completely, but it does help. My eyes would be in more pain without it.

Thank you. I'll give it a shot.

[L8rgator]

That's it - I'm moving to Vietnam!

Ok maybe not. But I have been researching better places to live (than WI in winter). I have noticed during previous summers that "very warm" helps me as much as "very wet/rainy". During days in the 80Fs(with little wind) I'm notice an improvement in comfortable even if the humidity happens to be low. So I've considered places in the southern US for heat, as well as parts of the far west coast because of the humidity/rain (although that would be a bad choice this year since mother nature has decided to throw a curve ball with the scary drought as of late). I wish I had money to travel around and try out places to see if and how much different warm/wet climates help. I'm ready to move, but I'd hate to go somewhere that ends up being more miserable. And going from 10degrees all winter to 100 degrees all summer is a tough prospect for a lifelong Wisconsinite, even if I have always absolutely hated winter. All 8 months of it here.

[miki-mama]

Vietnam has a high relative humidity. The relative humidity of the location makes a significant difference in comfort of my eyes. I have moved around and traveled quite a bit in the past few years, and I can tell within days of arriving at a new location how dry/humid it is there. My eyes were happiest when we lived in Singapore (86% relative humidity) vs Colorado 40-50% relative humidity. The degree of windiness also makes a difference, as does how sunny the locale is to how my eyes feel. Basically, where I live currently, Denver, CO with the extreme dryness, high wind and 350/365 of sunny days, is not the most ideal location for someone like me with dry eyes & photo phobia.

I take Omega 3 and Flaxseed religiously. I went to Vietnam for 5 months and within a few days I felt I didn't need to take the supplements anymore. I had 5 months of no dry eyes. I returned back to the UK 2 days ago and my eyes are already getting dry. Initially I thought it was the Asian diet but I've ruled this out as I had numerous days of eating pretty unhealthily - I've been in the UK for less than 48 hours and I'm already getting dry eyes.

My skin is also getting very dry, I'm guessing because the constant sweating in Vietnam was acting as a moisturiser. I wonder if there's a link between my eyes and skin somewhere.

Has anyone elses dry eyes been cured when visiting a hot country?

[RedEyeGuy]

Just an update to this. As soon as I bought a humidifier for my room which I turn on every night for 8 hours, I rarely get dry eyes. They usually only become dry when I'm stressed, depressed, angry etc. They're still bloodshot every night though starting at about 5pm. I'm not sure whether it's the Ortho-K lenses doing that.