Complaints & connections · borters.ch
Not too few tears alone but a disturbed tear film — warmth and lid care often help more than drops.
Also known as: dry eyes · dry eye syndrome · keratoconjunctivitis sicca
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
Too little tear film or one that evaporates too fast — burning, gritty feeling, red, tired eyes, sometimes watery. Often from screen work, dry air, contact lenses, age or hormonal shifts. Helps: screen breaks, humidify air, artificial tears; see an eye doctor if persistent.
Dry eyes and a chronically inflamed lid margin are the commonest reason for recurring styes. Then the single lump is not the issue but the daily lid care.
Every 20 minutes look into the distance for 20 seconds and blink consciously; place the screen a little below eye level.
Ten minutes of warmth on the closed lids liquefies the secretion of the small glands in the lid margin. Then stroke gently from lid to lash — for most this is the single most effective measure.
Anyone using drops more than four times a day irritates with the preservative exactly the surface that is to be protected. Single doses or bottles with a filter cost little more.
Heated air, air conditioning and the fan jet in the car dry more than any amount of screen time. Turning the vents away and raising the humidity works at once.
Antihistamines, water tablets, certain drugs for depression and for bladder weakness, and the pill too dry the eyes. There is often an alternative — worth asking.
During concentrated reading the blink rate drops to a third. A complete lid closure every few seconds spreads the film again — half blinks do nothing for it.
Artificial tears replace fluid or oil on the surface and last minutes to hours — which is why they are often used too rarely. As for the cause: in most people it is not water that is missing but the oil film from the lid glands. Then lid hygiene and warmth do more than any drop.
Preservative-free artificial tears can be used hourly; with preservative the limit is about four to six times a day, because the additive itself irritates beyond that. Treatment of the lid glands takes six to twelve weeks to take hold. Looking at a screen drops the blink rate from about fifteen to five a minute — which explains a large share of complaints at work.
At a screen you blink less often and often incompletely — the tear film breaks up. A lower screen also reduces the exposed eye surface.
Most describe a feeling of grit or sand, burning, pressure and heavy lids — the word dry rarely comes up by itself. That is exactly why the picture often goes unrecognised.
When the tear film breaks up too fast, the eye produces watery tears as an emergency reaction that run off at once. Watering in wind or cold is for many the first sign of a dry surface.
The course across the day is typical: in the morning it is fine, after hours at the screen or in the car it gets worse. With a disorder of the lid glands it is often the reverse, worst in the morning with stuck lids.
While reading the text goes briefly blurred and is clear again after a blink. That is not a sign of the wrong glasses but of a tear film breaking up.
A dry mouth, trouble swallowing dry bread, joint pain and heavy tiredness together with dry eyes point to an autoimmune form — which is investigated and followed differently.
Dry eyes together with a dry mouth are the reason to think of Sjögren’s syndrome. This value is the way into that question.
Both an overactive and an underactive thyroid change the tear film; with the overactive one a wider lid opening is added.
Raised in inflammatory illnesses that can accompany dry eyes. A normal value speaks against, but rules nothing out.
Long recommended as standard. The largest independent trial at 3 g a day over 12 months found no difference against olive oil — smaller studies had found one. Anyone trying it gives it 3 months.
With a real deficiency the conjunctiva dries out — worldwide one of the most common causes of blindness, in Europe rare. As eye drops vitamin A is used; swallowed and without a deficiency, too much is the greater risk.
Delivers omega-3 and vitamin A at once — and that is exactly the catch: at the amount needed for omega-3, too much vitamin A comes along. For this purpose plain fish or algal oil capsules are the cleaner route.
Dry eyes increase markedly after menopause. Against expectation hormone treatment did not show as a help in studies — for some it even became drier on it.
The meibomian glands at the lid margin, which supply the oily film of the tears, depend on androgens. That is one reason anti-hormone treatments for prostate cancer cause dry eyes.
With the eye involvement of Graves’ disease the eyes protrude more, the lid does not close fully, and the cornea dries out — especially at night. Dry eyes with pressure and double vision belong checked there.
Smaller studies found improvement with 1–2 g EPA and DHA a day over 3 months; the large DREAM trial found no difference from olive oil. Both belong said.
At a screen the blink rate drops from 15 to 5 a minute — that dries more than drinking too little. Enough fluid helps but does not replace breaks.
At a screen the blink rate drops by more than half — the 20-20-20 rule restores it.
Studied for the tear film; the largest trial found no difference to placebo, smaller ones did.
Warm compresses on the lids loosen the thickened secretion of the lid glands — that is the core of the treatment.
The name says the use: compresses for irritated, tired eyes. Not to be dropped into the eye.
The one entry here is a warning: no essential oil belongs on or in the eye — not diluted, not as a compress with a drop in it. Warm lid compresses with plain water are the measure with the data.
In TCM the eyes belong to the liver; chrysanthemum tea is the classic eye remedy.