The Link Between Diabetes And Dry Eye
If you have diabetes there is about a 50-50 chance that you have dry eye. Dry eye is characterized by dryness, burning or sandy-gritty irritation in the eyes that gets worse as the day goes on. Dry eye in diabetes is a result of decreased corneal sensation or relative numbness of the surface of the eye. This relative numbness of the surface of the eye has also been associated with diabetic retinopathy. What is dry eye, what causes it and what can be done about it?
(PRWEB) April 4, 2005 -- If you have diabetes there is about a 50-50 chance
that you have dry eye. Dry eye is characterized by dryness, burning or
sandy-gritty irritation in the eyes that gets worse as the day goes on. Dry eye
in diabetes is a result of decreased corneal sensation or relative numbness of
the surface of the eye. This relative numbness of the surface of the eye has
also been associated with diabetic retinopathy. What is dry eye, what causes it
and what can be done about it?
The tears on the surface of the eye are a
salt solution. The surface of the eye needs these tears because the delicate
living cells on the surface of the eye have no blood supply—it has a tear supply
instead. So rather than getting important things like oxygen and electrolytes
from the blood, it gets them from the watery layer of the tears. This watery
layer is so important that it is covered by a layer of oil produced by the oil
glands in the eyelid that protects it from evaporation.
The first thing
that happens when an eye becomes dry is that the tears lose water and become too
salty. Just like when you throw salt on a wound it causes stinging and burning,
when your tears become too salty they cause stinging and burning of the eye
surface. As the eyes become drier this becomes a sandy-gritty irritation of the
eyes.
Dry eye is one of the most common conditions affecting the eyes.
It affects approximately 14% of people over the age of forty, and the prevalence
increases with age. This is because there are so many ways to get dry eye.
Anything that decreases tear production or increases tear evaporation may cause
dry eye.
Long-term hard contact lens wear, LASIK eye surgery, certain
viral infections of the cornea, and diabetes all may cause decreased corneal
sensation and, with it, the decrease in tear production that results in dry-eye
irritation.
Many people choose to
treat dry eyes with eye drops. It used to be that all artificial tears were
pretty much the same. They were designed to cover up the dry spots that appear
on the eye in advanced cases of dry eye. These drops were developed before it
was realized that dry spots don’t cause dry eye but are a result of the tears
becoming too salty. These drops would provide temporary relief of dry eye but
the dry eye would never get better.
Recently it was discovered that just
as the electrolytes in the blood are biologically active, the electrolytes in
the tear film are biologically active as well. It turns out that if the content
of an artificial tear does not precisely match this electrolyte balance, the
drop can “starve” the surface of the electrolytes it needs and decrease the
quantity of lubrication. So in effect, with these drops, patients take one step
forward, but also one step back.
There is another way to accelerate dry
eye relief, and possibly even obtain complete dry eye relief. In a study of
nearly 33,000 female health professionals it was found that the more omega-3s
they ate, the lower their risk for dry eye. This is actually the third study
that has linked dry eye to a dietary deficiency of omega-3s. Omega-3s are
“essential fatty acids” that are scarce in the American diet. They can be
obtained from salmon, sardines, herring, and tuna.
Tuna is the number
one source of omega-3s in the American diet, but now the FDA warns Americans not
to eat it more than twice a week because of problems with high mercury content.
To provide a healthy source of omega-3s for relief of dry eye irritation for
those who won’t, don’t or can’t eat sardines every day, TheraTears Nutrition for
Dry Eyes (omega-3 supplement with flaxseed oil, fish oil and vitamin E) is a
great way to get the omega-3s that you need.
The omega-3s in TheraTears
Nutrition seems to help provide dry eye relief in three ways. First, omega-3s
improve eye comfort by suppressing inflammation. Second, the oil glands in the
eyelid use essential fatty acids to manufacture the oil layer of the tear film.
TheraTears Nutrition provides the omega-3s your oil glands need to make a
healthy protective layer of oil that coats the tear film and makes dry eyes feel
better. Finally, the omega-3s work together to protect the tear gland and help
it make more tear fluid.
In addition to soothing
the symptoms of dry eye, omega-3s carry other benefits for diabetics. High
dietary intake of omega-3s correlates with a lower incidence of type 2 diabetes,
omega-3 have been shown to reduce elevated triglycerides in non-insulin
dependent diabetics, and even more importantly, omega-3s reduce the risk of
death from coronary heart disease and total mortality in diabetic women.
If you have dry eye and diabetes, you are not alone. There are excellent
treatments available that can greatly add to your health and
comfort.
Article Written By Jeffrey
P. Gilbard, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical
School
Founder, CEO & Chief Scientific Officer, Advanced Vision
Research
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/4/prweb224629.htm