Let's talk about treating your dry eyes when you hate taking eye drops. I have lots of patients in my office that just don't like taking drops. Or, perhaps it's hard for them to use drops because they have arthritis and can't squeeze the bottles, or their handshake too much.  It turns out there are several alternatives to your dry eye treatment that don't require putting drops in your eyes. 

If you have dry eyes, I always advocate taking 4-simple steps every day to treat your dry eyes. These steps are: hydrate, harmonize, heat, and heal.

1. Hydrate: Using something to help produce more tears in your eyes to lubricate them.
2. Harmonize: Removing bacteria and biofilm from your lids and lashes.
3. Heat: Using a warm compress to heat up the meibomian gland that live in the eyelids and relea
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It's almost Labor Day weekend, and many of you may be preparing for travel.  I have covered how to travel with dry eyes on a couple of blogs, but I wanted to give an updated version here.  Next week, I am traveling abroad, so I wanted to include a couple of tips for longer airplane travel and a warm compress mask that didn't require a microwave or an electric plugin.

It is very important not to skip out on your eye care routine even when you're out of town.  The results of missing a few nights of care can be disastrous.  I've been there.

I previously wrote a blog about traveling with dry eyes.  You can check out that blog here. It goes over specifically all the things you need to pack in your carry-on versus your checked bag.  And, if you'd like to learn more about some great travel read...

In the clinic, I get asked this question all day long, "What's causing my eyes to be so dry?" The short answer is that dry eye is multifactorial. It comes from many different causes. Some of the things we have no control over, like your gender and your age.  Women, especially those over 40, are more likely to have dry eye than men. And, we can't change our gender or age.  But, there are a ton of causes of dry eye that we can control.   

Let's talk about what you can take care or change to help our dry eyes. I like to break this down into three parts. I called it the EYE Method.  The first is E for eyes. The Y is for Your Health. And, the final E is for the Environment. 

Let's look at each part.  Last week, I dove in to how the Eyes play a role in causing dry eye disease.  If you missed it,...

If you have been hanging around with me for a while now, then you know that I preach the same rules over and over and over again.  In the past couple of weeks, I've had some thinking time. I started to re-evaluate my hard and fast rules.

I would like to review these 4 dry eye rules. Last week, I reviewed 2 of them.  If you haven't read about those two, please check it out here.  It turns out that there are times when it's okay to break the rules.  Let me tell you when you can break three of them.  Then, I'll explain why you can never, ever, ever, ever, ever break one of them.

Rule #1)  Never Use Waterproof Mascara

Why is it bad for you?

It's a rule because waterproof mascara contains toxins. The ingredients that makes it stick onto your eyes makes it hard to remove. Some of it stays...

Dry eye disease is multifactorial. This means that it comes from many areas in our body and in your environment. There are several factors that worsen dry eye disease that we cannot change. These are gender and age. Females over the age of 40 are more susceptible to having dry eye disease than others. Unfortunately, we cannot change these factors. 

What's the best approach to dry eye treatment? 

There are many other dry eye risk factors that can be changed. The best plan to treating dry eye disease is taking a multifactorial approach. In my own patients, I recommend taking 3 three pillar approach to treating dry eye disease. These pillars are: 

E: Eyes – customizing the 4-simple steps of daily eye care for the patients lifestyle. This daily regimen of eye care brings down the overall in...

One of the biggest complaints my dry eye patients talk to me about is redness.  Across the board, no matter their age or gender, patients hate having red eyes.  It's just embarrassing.  And, in truth, other people do notice when your eyes are red.  

Let's face it, the eyes are the windows to your soul.  And although rose colored glasses may give you a sunnier disposition, rose colored eyes do not.  There is no beauty in red eyes.  And, we don't like the story that red eyes tend to relate about activities we may have engaged in the night before.

Instead let's concentrate on how to make your dry eyes white again. This week especially, only a few days before Easter, you don't want to be mistaken for an Easter bunny.

Why are your eyes red when they're dry?

Well, dry eye is driven by inf...

I've been talking a lot about how Winter is a dry eye season.  There are many factors in your environment and also in your lifestyle that can be significantly affecting how your eyes feel this time of year.  

If you haven't been following along with this series about how to help your dry eyes feel more comfortable this time of year, you can catch up with these blogs: self-care, indoor adjustments, and outdoor adjustments.   

1) Diet

Now let's talk about your diet this time of year, especially with the holidays, you probably ate all sorts of things that aren't part of your normal diet. There's usually lots of potlucks and people bringing in little treats from home this time of year.

When you're at the office, you may be eating too much sugar, wheat, dairy, alcohol, and caffeine. Just ...

Step 1: Make up remover

  Step 2: Cleanse the Face

Happy New Year!

I like to take the time at the beginning of the year to think about where I am going on purpose.   A lot of times, we feel that life is just happening to us, but that is not the case.  We are all living the life that we ourselves have created. 

Take a minute to look back over 2021 and be thankful for all that you were able to create in your own life.  There is one accomplishment in 2021 that I am most proud of (see #3 below).  But, there were tons of accomplishments along the way as well.  Celebrating your wins is part of living a full life.  You put in the work to accomplish them, so don't hold back on giving yourself the credit you deserve. Here are 3 of my wins from this year:

1. 2021 marked my 20th year since graduation from Optometry School.  It's hard to believe I h
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As 2021 comes to a close, we have a lot of things to be thankful for at Alleviate Dry Eye.  It has been an amazing year of innovation in dry eye care.  We have seen new products and medications being brought to the market for the benefit of our patients.

At Alleviate Dry Eye, I have been working on some new resources for you to help you take back the control of your dry eyes.  In January, there will be an opportunity to learn how your lifestyle choices are affecting how your dry eyes feel.  Stay tuned for a webinar in January.  You'll have the opportunity to get registered for it soon.

Let's take a walk down memory lane and review the 3 best blogs from 2021:

#103 Can I Wear Eye Makeup when My Eyes Are Dry?

You can wear makeup when you have dry eyes.  You may need to make some changes...