TheraTears Capsules- ONLY thing that helps

[BigNate]

About me: 21 yr old male living in humid midwest of USA...no reasons for dry eyes. About 2 years ago, my eyes were a little dry. That slowly transitioned into how I have been recently. Last month I had a TBUT of 1 second. However, I feel, for the first time in 2 years, a noticeable, consistent improvement. Here's my history:

Did Not Work:
Dissolvable Punctal Plugs (1 month and 4 month)
Alrex
Bepreve
Restasis
Pred Mild
Different OTC drops
drinking 2 liters of water per day
Lid Scrubs

MINIMAL help
Pred Mild drop
Warm Compresses
Cold
2000mg fish oil
*These just gave me a few good minutes here and there...nothing to be happy about.

Theratears capsules (not the drops) are working tremendously
Here are my results thus far:
day 1-5: noticed imrpovement within 2 hours of taking them. This lasted for 2-3 hrs then went back to unbearable
day 6-10: I stopped due to a surgery I had to have done
day 11-15: I started taking them again, NOTHING improved
day 16: It went back to how it was on days 1-5. Noticeable help, not long lasting
Day 17-19: A little better than day 16. It kicked in just as quickly but held results for ~5 hrs
Day 21-25: Nearly the entire day is pain/burning free. I only have about 5 spells of burn lasting ~5 minutes

The worst thing I could have done was say that I am too bad of a condition for something you can buy OTC. I'm serious, I have a TBUT of 1 second. It hurt every second I had my eyes open. My eyes were extremely bloodshot. If you haven't tried these, give them a try for 1 month. I haven't hit the 1 month mark, but I like what I am seeing. They say try it for 4-8 weeks for max benefit.

Let me know if anyone else has had luck with these. I'm going to give Lipiflow a go in December because I figure I have nothing to lose. Also, I'll try Iodine supplements because I read online that tear film has Iodine in it and most people don't get enough Iodine in their diets. If anyone has any questions to my post, let me know.

[farmgirl]

What is in the capsules, I have never heard of them -oils perhaps?

[bakunin]

BigNate,

thank you very much for sharing your experience with us. It think it is one more option entering in my list.

Do you have any links about Iodine and tear film? I haven't read anything about it.

[sunshinelover]

BigNate,

thank you very much for sharing your experience with us. It think it is one more option entering in my list.

Do you have any links about Iodine and tear film? I haven't read anything about it.

Har Bakunin ,
I just bought them but I Can,t see the difference with these ones since they consist of the regular fish and flaxoil .

[bakunin]

Har Bakunin ,
I just bought them but I Can,t see the difference with these ones since they consist of the regular fish and flaxoil .

Oh thanks for the feedback sunshine. Fish and flaxoil don't seem to make diffence to me either
I thought TheraTears was something different.

[BigNate]

Farmgirl, they are a combination of fish oil and flax oil primarily and of course there are other ingredients in them as well but the main ingredients or sources of benefit are "the right combination of fish oil and flax oil".

Bakunin, give me a few days and I'll post a link about Iodine and tears. Right now, I'm really crunched for time and don't remember where I found it. I talked to an eye doctor over the internet and he said there wasn't any correlation he knew between the two so I wouldn't get my hopes up on that one. Just a thought though. Bakunin, also read the paragraph I wrote below responding to Sunshinelover.

Sunshinelover, I am not a doctor so I obviously have no idea what certain options will lead to. Something to be hopeful about though is that I took fish oil for 1+ year and noticed practically no help. I said the same thing you did-- how will another OTC fish oil supplement be any better? I already ranted about my eyes before so I won't do it again, but they were beyond horrible for every single second I was awake. Theratears so far has helped me in ways uncomparable to fish oil supplements. If you do try it, good luck!

I think to myself everyday, wow, I was so close to saying "I'm too bad for any OTC solution. Fish oil doesn't do anything...even taking 2000mg per day. If anyone tries theratears capsules, give them a SERIOUS try. That's another thing, if I would have quit after a couple of weeks, I would have thought they were no better than fish oil.

[BigNate]

Sorry for the double post.

Bakunin, here is the quote I found about Iodine and dry eyes:
"Eyes: Tear glands in your eyes contain large amounts of iodine. Lack of iodine can cause dry eyes." taken from http://www.alsearsmd.com/iodine-defi...or-a-lifetime/

[sunchaser]

At this point, I'll try anything tbh.
I'm a European currently on a trip in Las Vegas ... (you know , that place with almost 0 humidity )

Being European, US drugstores (cvs / walgreens) are a real treat. You have so many eye drops OTC ...
Just hope that one of them actually works ...
Too bad you report that it takes a while for the capsules to kick in. I'm only here for 15 days , so would be hard to test their effectiveness while I'm here, but I'll repot back with the results.

Note : I only have 1 dry eye. (is that even possible?) Only my right eye is causing me issues (produce less tears in that eye). Left eye is fine.

[sunchaser]

I just got back from Walgreens.
bought the only Thera Tears capsules they had, hope I got the right ones.

It says Thera Tears Nutrition 1200mg Omega 3 Supplement on the package.

[Blinks]

Sunchaser, Hope you have good results with the Thera Tears capsules. Yes you have the right ones! I'm taking them too and they make a world of difference in my dry eye. It took about 6 weeks before there was improvement, so don't give up! I take four caps now, and when I tried to cut back to 3, my dry eye got worse after about a week on the lower dose. I take the caps with Vitamin D, all 4 at the same time with a meal. There are usually $2 coupons available online, too. Sending you good wishes and good luck with the caps.

[Nancy Derby]

I started taking 1200 mg. of fish oil once a day which my doctor recommended about 2 months ago. He did not specify any Brand but I opted for Spring Hill. With this addition I watch my diet eating very, very healthy. I feel better and I believe it helps.

[BigNate]

Sunchaser, I suggest you go to Amazon.com if your home country will allow you to have supplements mailed to you. Remember though, unlike my time with them, most people seem to say it takes a few weeks to feel ANYTHING. I wouldn't get your hopes up if after the i month bottle is gone that you feel like you have wasted ~$12 for nothing. Don't give up on them though! I almost did and am so glad I didn't.

I'm glad Blinks has my back on it. These things are really great and seem to have an abnormally high success rate if and only if they are taken for the suggested duration of time for the trial. I think one of the biggest problems is that MOST people give up wayyyy to early.

Nancy Derby, just something to think about- when I did a random fish oil supplement (2000mg/day), I got minimal relief if any. There was a TREMENDOUS improvement when I started taking Theratears supplement instead. I'm on my seventh week of it and can say that I only have about 4 times a day where I can notice my eyes being really dry.

Also to everyone, there was another post in this section about something called NAC. Maybe it might be worth trying the combination of NAC with Theratears?

[Blinks]

Farmgirl,

Ingredients for Thera Tears Nutrition can be found in this PDF:
http://www.theratears.com/documents/nutri_supfact.pdf

Flaxseed, Fish Oil, and vitamin E

If you Google on Theratears Nutrition Studies, you'll find a lot of them!

My eye doc recommended fish oil in February before I found DEZ, and I had no idea which brand or quantity to take.

I found the TheraTears studies and decided to try them with the somewhat naive belief if they've been studied they must be good!

[sunchaser]

just updating:
I'm back home (from Las Vegas -> Belgium)
Obviously , my dry eye condition is much better here (since Belgium has a very humid climate), but still taking the Thera Tears supplement - bought 2 extra "containers" while I was in Vegas and brought them home with me.
Will keep on reporting here at regular intervals.

[SufferinSally]

Did the iodine help at all?

[BigNate]

Did the iodine help at all?

I haven't yet tried it.

[Hemu]

Being a male, I'm sticking only to Fish Oil. While this is not definite, there are studies that have shown to have Flaxseed oil increase the risk for prostate cancer in males significantly.

I was using Thera tears for about a month and a half until I found this information and immediately stopped it since.