Cold winds are blowing everywhere, and auspicious snow is beginning to appear. We have entered the winter of 2023, but have you ever felt that our eyes seem to be drier?
Winter is a dry season, and our skincare products will be upgraded and upgraded due to weather changes. Do we also need to upgrade our eye protection?
How should our friends with dry eye syndrome protect their eyes in winter?
Firstly, let's understand the causes of dry eye syndrome.
Dry eye is a multifactorial chronic disease characterized by a series of symptoms caused by unstable tear film, with or without visual impairment, and may be accompanied by ocular surface damage.
Dry eyes are closely related to our daily lifestyle, especially our eye habits, as well as environmental factors and overall health. As winter approaches, as the temperature decreases, the air gradually becomes dry, and the evaporation rate of tears on the surface of the eyeballs accelerates, leading to dry eye problems.
In addition, during winter, we will take some warm measures in our rooms, such as air conditioning and heating, which can cause tears to evaporate faster and leave our eyes dehydrated.
In winter, the sebum secreted by the meibomian glands around our eyes also decreases, causing our eyes to be in a state of oil deficiency. Lack of water and oil naturally exacerbates various symptoms of dry eyes.
So in winter, how should we protect our eyes?
Firstly, it is necessary to reduce the use of electronic products appropriately. When the air humidity in the environment has decreased, prolonged exposure to computers and mobile phones undoubtedly adds insult to injury. The longer the use, the greater the damage to the eyes.
So, it is recommended that everyone pay attention to rest when using electronic products, get up and move around every hour, leave the screen, rest for 5-10 minutes, and do more blinking movements.
According to literature, using video display terminals for more than 8 hours a day is a risk factor for dry eyes, and the severity of dry eye symptoms is directly proportional to the duration of video display terminal use.
2. Properly reduce the wearing of contact lenses. Long term use of contact lenses can cause direct mechanical stimulation to the meibomian gland, leading to increased loss, abnormal morphology and function, and damage to the tear film lipid layer, which in turn leads to tear film instability and dry eye. In winter, a lack of oil and water in the eyes can worsen dryness.
3. Improve environmental factors. In dry weather, reduce the use of air conditioning and heating appropriately, or strengthen window opening to facilitate air circulation. Some humidification equipment can also be used indoors to improve air humidity.
4. Reduce staying up late and ensure sufficient sleep. Research has shown that subjective poor sleep quality, long sleep time, short sleep duration, difficulty falling asleep or frequency of feeling tired upon waking up are significantly correlated with the onset of dry eye. Of course, we also need to strengthen nutrition, have a balanced diet, and supplement with foods rich in vitamins such as vegetables, fruits, eggs, and fish.
If you have achieved the above protection, but still have dry eyes, astringency, redness, tearing, visual fatigue, and fluctuating vision, you may need to seek professional help at the hospital. Ophthalmologists will conduct professional examinations for you, including eye surface evaluation, tear analysis, eyelid gland function measurement, and finally develop a treatment plan for dry eye syndrome, including home care, timely use of appropriate artificial tears, anti-inflammatory eye drops or eye ointment, Daily hot compress, etc;
For patients with obvious symptoms and moderate to severe dry eye syndrome, it is necessary to regularly seek treatment from professional medical staff at the hospital, including nebulized fumigation to moisten the eyes, meibomian gland massage to improve oil secretion on the eye surface, or more efficient treatment methods - using pulse laser dry eye treatment equipment for treatment.
Pulse laser therapy can eliminate abnormal capillary dilation of the eyelids and reduce vascularization of the eyelid margin; It is possible to heat the meibomian gland through heat conduction under the skin, thereby improving the fluidity of lipid secretion within the meibomian gland, thereby enhancing the stability of the tear film and the quality of the ocular surface; Strong pulsed light can reduce the growth of bacteria and mites, reduce inflammation, and thus treat meibomian gland dysfunction; Pulse laser treatment can reshape the lipid distribution in the tear film, repair the lipid layer of the tear film, and prolong the tear film rupture time.
