VISINE, PINGUECULA/JAUNDICE, DAILIES

Visine Bad?

Yes, Visine is bad for you. The package insert says not to use it more than 10 consecutive days, and there's a reason for that: its unhealthy for your eyes when used for more than 10 days.

Visine and Clear Eyes are potent vasoconstrictors. they just make your eyes look "whiter" by vastly constricting blood vasculature on the surface of the eye. This is certainly not "healthy". in fact, your eye *hates* this.

Prolonged use of Visine cuts off blood flow to the limbal region of your cornea...the portion responsible for making new corneal cells. If that area is deprived of oxygen for long enough, you'll eventually develop corneal limbal stem cell dysfunction and potential permanent vision loss.

Obviously that would not happen in an otherwise healthy person over the course of only a few days or weeks, but thats where you're likely headed if you use it multiple times a day every day for years at a time. It can be *very* bad for you when used that way.

Visine also causes "rebound hyperemia" or what I refer to as "visine addiction". Basically your eyes get so used to the drug that not only does the whitening effect eventually wear off...it gets to where you have red eyes all the time, even when you do use the drops. That's right...Visine will actually CAUSE your eyes to be chronically red if you use it all the time.

Visine and Clear Eyes have their place in medicine, just never for chronic use. here's when to use Visine: if you have red eyes not from a serious infectious or inflammatory process and you need to QUICKLY and temporarily look "normal" for a job interview or your wedding pictures or whatever. It was never designed to "keep" your eyes white all the time. in fact it does the opposite...when used chronically it actually CAUSES chronic red eyes.

Tags: visine, cleareyes, reboundhyperemia, corneallimbalstemcelldysfunction | Edit Tags

Thursday June 21, 2007 - 04:02pm (CDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 1 Comment

YELLOW EYES = JAUNDICE!!?? No...more likely "Pinguecula"

Every time someone posts on Yahoo Answers that they have "yellow eyes", 50 posters yell that they have liver problems and "jaundice" and suggest an emergent/immediate visit to the E.R. or whatever.

Fact is true jaundice in the eyes is fairly rare. I've been practicing 7 years and I've *never* seen it in any patient's eyes. the chances of an otherwise healthy person having enough liver problems to acquire yellow eyes is in my estimation extremely low. People with liver problems generally have many more symptoms and more health problems than just "yellow" in their eyes. By the time they are jaundiced, they usually already know they have liver problems.

Of course the only way to tell what you really have that is making your eyes yellow is to see an optometrist or ophthalmologist. So if your eyes look "yellow" to you, you probably need an eye examination. Actually you definitely would need an eye exam, b/c while I personally think jaundice is rare, it is a fairly serious condition so you'd want to rule that out 1st.

But IMO the vast majority of people who complain about having "yellow eyes" have "pingueculae", not jaundice:

http://www.websystem2.com/images/35w_pin...

A pinguecula is an inflammatory response usually from UV exposure. It is not usually dangerous. There are no eyedrops to make a pinguecula less yellow, the only real treatment is surgical excision.

Tags: pinguecula, yelloweyes, jaundice | Edit Tags

Thursday June 21, 2007 - 03:48pm (CDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments

"Daily" Disposables

There are a lot of questions on the internet (both on aclens.com forums and yahoo answers) about the myth that daily disposables can be safely worn more than one time. The arguments are plentiful:

1) that contact lens manufacturers got in trouble for packaging the same lens and selling it under different modalities for different prices (which is true, that really did happen in the early 90's)

2) that all contacts are the same material (false)

3) that if you are "careful" you can "make them last" (also false)

4) that as long as it feels okay and you see well that its okay

...and many more. Even some well meaning but misguided E.R. docs and family physicians and nurses perpetuate this theory.

IT IS NOT TRUE!

A daily disposable lens is designed for ONE wear and ONE handling event. Dailies, even when made out of similar materials as other contact lenses, are paper thin with high water contents. With multiple wears they "fray" at the edges and split in the centers, sometimes at a level that cannot be seen by the human eye. Since they have high water content they are prone to more protein/dust/pollen buildup than other lenses, not to mention the fact that they are not surface-treated to resist deposits like other contacts are. More deposits means all kinds of things: less oxygen transmission, more likely to have an acute inflammatory event, more likely to have an infection, risk of long term corneal stem cell dysfunction, risk of neovascularization...the list is lengthy.

Bottom line is...don't do it. Its unhealthy, no matter what your friend, sister, mom, or even MEDICAL DOCTOR or nurse told you. I am telling you that it is UNHEALTHY and bad for you.