Cought Flu.. My Eyes are feeling excellent !!!

[Ahmet]

Hi Guys,

I caught flu over the weekend and my eyes have been feeling excellent. Whenever, I become sick my eyes become better. Does this happen to anyone else?

[socratese]

yeah this has happened to me.


guesses
#1 when you have a lot of physical pain or discomfort in multiple areas it can dull the pain.
#2 you dont do much when your sick so you dont do as much to irritate the eyes.
#3 or maybe its because you have increased liquid flow when you have a cold or flu. Your eyes also secrete more fluids.

[Rebecca Petris]

Lots of people have posted this over the years. I'd guess it's due to increased mucin (helps tears stick down better). But some people's eyes always feel worse when they're sick, too.

[Margaret]

isn't that strange? i was just reading old posts of people that have taken antibiotics for unrelated illness and they feel better too, even normal eyes. It is so exciting and irritating that the answer is there, it's just too complicated to know WHY.

Margaret

[djshah1983]

HI,
TO the above posts, i also feel the same effect of low dryness when i catch cold.

I think it will be a better idea to have a little cold now and then to deal with dryness rather than taking those expensive medicines.

[dryeyetoo]

Hi, I'm new here, but thought I'd respond. I've read in some of the autoimmune forums that this often happens with people there . . . they've postulated that the immune system is focused on the bug/virus rather than their own lacrimal glands. Kind of like the immune system is busy with something else. So I'm wondering if this phenomenon implies an autoimmune component for the people that get an improvement in their eyes when they're sick.

I know there's a lot of different causes of dry eye, and I'm waiting for my first cold . . . if my eyes improve, does that imply an autoimmune component, for example, vs a hormonal one? The increased mucin makes sense too though.

[y-gwair]

Hi, I'm new here, but thought I'd respond. I've read in some of the autoimmune forums that this often happens with people there . . . they've postulated that the immune system is focused on the bug/virus rather than their own lacrimal glands.

I have to say from experience, viruses often trigger on-going flares of autoimmune problems rather than improve them. When you have a virus, your whole metabolism speeds up when you are in the acute, feverish stage, so it's more likely that exocrine secretions are just over-stimulated during this.