Dry Eye Disease: What Causes This Persistent Problem

USA - English

• USA - English

GRANTS PASS, Ore., July 31, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- When you suffer from dry eye disease, all you want is relief. Yet, when dry eye symptoms subside, we want to find out why we're among the 5 to 9 percent of the American populace to experience dry eye. If we are older women, that number leaps to a whopping 35 percent!

Sharon Kleyne, founder and research director of Bio Logic Aqua® Research Water Life Science®, has spent more than two decades battling dry eye disease and its symptoms. "Dry eye disease is bad in the U.S.," says Kleyne, "but it is even worse in China, in India, in South America and in parts of Africa. Worldwide, dry eye and blindness are out of control."

According to Kleyne, dry eye causes can be grouped into three distinct categories. "When we think of dry eye causes," says Kleyne, "environment immediately comes to mind, and that in fact is our first category." Kleyne explains that the workplace is an undeniable cause of dry eye. "If you sit at a computer terminal for more than 8 hours a day, your blink rate slows by half and your tear film, which is naturally 99 percent water, dries out," Kleyne says. (see article here: journals.1ww.com/…/…_Incomplete_Blinks_and_Computer_Vision.11.aspx)

Low humidity, exposure to toxic elements, poor ventilation and exposure to air conditioning and forced air heat can lead to dry eye. In addition, extremes in temperature, as well as exposure to smoke, wind, glare, dust, pollution and alcohol can also trigger dry eye.

A second group of causes, Kleyne adds, can result from gender and aging. Studies show that women are more susceptible to dry eye than men. Women who experience hormonal changes experience a more severe drying out of the eye's tear film, which leads to dry eye symptoms. Older people in general are also more susceptible to dry eye because the meibomian gland, which generates the oil in tears, becomes less efficient with age. Older people can also experience poor distribution, or imbalance, of the moisture in the tear film. This abnormal tear-flow can develop into blepharitis and dry eye disease.

Finally, explains Kleyne, dry eye can be caused by other diseases and medical procedures. More cases of dry eye are found in people who already suffer from hepatitis C, thyroid eye disease, diabetes, HIV, Vitamin A deficiency, ovarian dysfunction, theumatoid arthritis, lymphoma, lupus and scleroderma, among others. "Eyelid disorders can also lead to dry eye," says Kleyne, "and so can some ophthalmologic surgeries." Cataract and laser surgeries can actually create dry eye in patients that are pre-disposed to the condition. "This is why patients should be screened before surgery to determine whether or not they are more susceptible to dry eye," Kleyne suggests.

Kleyne, also the host of the internationally syndicated radio program, The Sharon Kleyne Hour Water Life Science®/Nature's Pharma®, The Power of Water® & Your Health sponsored by Nature's Tears® EyeMist® on VoiceAmerica and World Talk Radio, would like everyone to become more aware of the fact that dry eye is always triggered by over-evaporation of the eye's tear film, which is 99 percent water. "One must supplement the tear film's moisture with 100 percent fresh water on a regular basis (several times a day)," says Kleyne. "Eye drops provide some relief," says Kleyne. "but the chemicals in eye drops are quickly flushed away." Nature's Tears® EyeMist® is a 100 percent Trade Secret pure water dry eye solution® that is more than just a mist. Nature's Tears® EyeMist® is the perfect add-on partner to conventional eye drops, which will seal in the pure water misted into the tear film. "This solution," says Kleyne, provides instant relief to dry eye, regardless of its cause."

SOURCE Sharon Kleyne