Health & Fitness

Eye health is important to maintain, whether you have perfect eyesight or have to wear glasses or contacts. A healthy eye is not necessarily one with 20/20 vision. A person who doesnt have to wear corrective lenses can still be afflicted with one or several eye diseases.

Because most eye diseases can be treated if discovered early, having an annual exam with an eye specialist is essential to keeping good eye health. Some of the most common eye problems include astigmatism, color blindness and dry eyes. While astigmatism is easily treated with corrective lenses or surgery, there are several medical options to treat dry eyes that should be discussed with an eye care practitioner.

Once a common suggested remedy for dry eyes, eye drops can have a detrimental effect on the cornea after constant, long-term use. Extended application of eye drops, which quickly evaporate, may actually cause your eye to produce fewer tears, worsening the syndrome. Instead, many doctors now recommend oral nutritional supplements for relief of the uncomfortable symptoms.

Practitioners of Eye Health
Depending on your particular eye health concern or extent of a certain eye condition, the kind of eye doctor you should visit may vary between the several different types, which include ophthalmologists and optometrists. An optometrist is trained to examine, diagnose, treat and manage some eye and visual system diseases and disorders as well as visual conditions. Ophthalmologists are doctors specializing in the eyes medical and surgical care as well as eye disease and injury prevention.

Eye allergies are the eyes reaction to an aggravating substance. The eyes of allergy sufferers try to flood out these substances, which are usually harmless to most people, with tears and mucus. Dust and pollen are common triggers of eye allergies, which are often hereditary. In the United States, almost 23 million people endure these allergies.

Typical allergy symptoms include red, swollen, watery or itchy eyes; itching or runny nose; sneezing and coughing; and itchy throat. Airborne allergens can easily come in contact with your eyes. Depending on the extent of their eye allergies and a certain days environmental condition, many people get an immediate allergic reaction as soon as they step outside.

Because eye allergies can spark other health problems such as conjunctivitis, commonly known as pink eye, and asthma, getting the right treatment is crucial. The common avoidance treatment is simply the act of staying clear of the known substances irritating your eye. Before venturing outside, check pollen and dust levels in your local area on the Weather Channel, available on cable or the Web. Inside your home, try to keep the air clear of dust or pet dander.

Medical Treatments for Eye Allergies
For those who have found difficulty identifying and avoiding the cause of their allergies, a medical treatment may be necessary. Usually, over-the-counter eye drops are the first thing many people purchase for relief of allergic symptoms. While eye drops may provide temporary relief from red and itchy eyes, the long-term effect of constant use can be detrimental to the ocular blood vessels and cornea. Many eye doctors now prescribe oral nutritional supplements instead of only topical treatments.

Red eyes are caused by the same allergic process that make your nose run and your throat itch. Specialized cells called mast cells exist in the eye as well as the nose and throat. When allergens, such as pollen and dust, come in contact with your eye, mast cells release a chemical called histamine, which is what causes itching, redness and tearing.

Conjunctivitis is a common eye problem, but usually isnt as bad as the medical name suggests. If you have red eyes, you have conjunctivitis, but not necessarily an infection. Conjunctivitis just describes an inflammation of the conjunctiva, which are the membranes covering the eye and the inside of the eyelids.

The type of conjunctivitis you have will determine how serious the condition is and what type of treatment youll need. With allergic conjunctivitis, characterized by itchy, red eyes and runny nose, you will usually feel better if you can avoid the allergen. Viral conjunctivitis, which is whats commonly known as pink-eye, brings burning, discomfort and lots of tearing, but not much itching. Bacterial conjunctivitis, sometimes called red-eye, involves irritation and discomfort rather than itching, as well as a thick white discharge.

Red Eyes and Eyesight
For the most part, red eyes and the allergies that cause them have no harmful effects on your vision, as long as you take good care of your eyes. People who have eczema or atopic dermatitis, a skin condition commonly related to allergies, are prone to cataracts, a serious eye disorder that can cause vision loss. Also, some medications, such as steroid eye drops, can make your eyes more at risk to cataracts or glaucoma, another detrimental eye disease.

Gritty eyes are one of the uncomfortable symptoms of dry eye syndrome, an eye disorder from which over 22 million suffer. Its a sandy sensation that feels like there are grains of sand or some other foreign object in the eye. Other common symptoms are redness of the eyes and a dry, burning sensation.

Women over age 35 are more predisposed to gritty eyes and the symptom tends to increase when approaching menopause. A major cause of dry eye syndrome is environmental factors such as dry, dusty climate and wind. Because of this, the severity of gritty eyes can increase and decrease in severity depending on the season or regional location. For example, you might have never suffered eye allergies living in the Midwest but cant even go outside in the high-pollen spring in north Texas.

Airborne dust particles and other pollutants easily come in contact with the eye, but are not always immediately noticed. After a while, these substances can build up, causing the sticky sensation and blocking the flow of lubricating tears. Dry, gritty eyes can also be the result of the use of antihistamines, decongestants, oral contraceptives or tranquilizers.

Gritty Eyes in the Morning
Because extremely tired eyes can have trouble secreting tears, they will instead produce a thin, translucent film on the inside of the eyelid. This film can dry overnight. While some of the mucous migrates to the corners of the eyes, some can remain inside the eyelids and cause the gritty eyes symptom. This crusty build up should be washed with warm water and air dried or gently patted dry. Rubbing your eyes can push the dried particles back to the surface of the eye and cause injury or infection.

Many options exist for allergy relief for eyes. The one you choose will depend largely on the extent of symptoms and the type of eye allergy you have. First, you should simply try to avoid whats causing the eye allergy. Keep your house free of dust and pet dander. This might seem easier said than done if you live in a dry, dusty climate, but the extra work will be worth it, especially if you have an affinity for cats, dogs or other furry pets.

A few humidifiers can add moisture to the air and decrease the dryness in different areas of your home. Also, air conditioners can screen out allergens from outside, but the filters must be cleaned or replaced every now and then. For daily allergy relief for eyes, its important to find out what your local pollen count is before going outside for long periods of time. You can easily find this information in the daily newspaper, the weather forecast on your favorite morning television news program, 24-hour weather cable channels and the Internet.

Over-the-counter and prescription eye drops can be basic eye washes, or they may contain one or more vigorous ingredients such as antihistamines, decongestants or mast cell stabilizers. Eye drops that contain decongestants also have vascoconstrictors, which constrict the blood vessels in your eyes and thus reduce the redness. When you stop using the eye drops after a period of extended use the blood vessels can actually get bigger than the original size. The cause of this process, called rebound hyperemia, is that the blood vessels sometimes become dependent on the vascoconstrictor to stay small.

Alternative Oral Allergy Relief for Eyes
As an alternative to topical eye drops, many eye care practitioners now prescribe oral allergy relief for eyes in the form of nutritional supplements. More than ever, eye doctors are standing behind clinical studies that find herbs and other natural ingredients essential in reducing dry eye symptoms. An advantage to these herbal remedies is that they stimulate the natural production of eye lubrication, so relief is actually provided with your own tears.