I know what a lot of you are thinking.  How could anything good have come out of 2020?  And, I totally get where you are coming from.  But, I am a glass-half-full kind of gal, and I implore you to take a hard look back at the year and find what you can truly be grateful for. 

It has been a difficult year for everyone on the planet.  No one was spared heartache this year.  I would like to take a moment to recollect the best things that have happened in the world of Dry Eye this year.

Best New Products

This year, two companies brought new products to the U.S. Dry Eye market.  Their products are amazing.  I couldn't be happier to be able to get my hands on them here.

Eyes Are The Story

This company was founded by a small group of dry eye experts who are active in dry eye research and e...

Most of us are spending more and more time on our digital devices these days.  The new normal has been translated into trying to do everything we enjoy doing, only now we are using a device to do it.

No more in-person conferences, hello Zoom meetings.

No more coffee dates with friends, hello FaceTime.

No more shopping in stores, hello Amazon.

No more dinner at restaurants, hello Door Dash.

No more doctor's visits, hello telehealth.

Some of these things may be blessings, but they are leading to more complications down the road.  We are spending more and more time on digital devices to help us live our lives with less person to person contact. 

When we spend time using computers or digital devices, the number of times we blink per minute decreases.  The complication I see showing up...

Is it something I'm doing that's making my eyes dry? 

This is something my patients ask me about every day. Is it something I'm doing that's causing my eyes to be dry?  Well, unfortunately there's something we're all doing that's causing our eyes to be dry.  Right now here in Shreveport, Louisiana it's late summer.   That means that the weather is hot, and there's lots of pollen in the air.

Environment

Sometimes, it is a factor of your surroundings that are causing your eyes to be dry.  One factor to consider is the current season of the year.  Summer tends to have more moisture in the air than winter, but having the air conditioners on full blast and pollen in the air is going to irritate your dry eyes. 

In the winter, heaters and freezing temperatures tend to dry the air both indoo...

My patients ask me that all the time, "How can I get dry eye relief that lasts?" The answer is that you need a holistic treatment plan. 

What is a holistic treatment plan?  Let's start with an example we can relate to.  Let's talk about Barbara wanting to lose weight.  She decided to join a gym and committed herself to go to the gym every day, but since she was being so good about going to the gym, she also decided she didn't need to change what or when she was eating. 

For a whole month, Barbara went to the gym every day.  And, she continued eating as she normally had.  When she stepped onto the scale at the end of the month, she found that she had gained weight.  During this month, she had improved her cardiovascular health, improved her breathing, and her stamina.  She had even put on...