so much better

[Stanza]

Thanks, I'm going to give it a go.

[Randal]

Hi Stanza,

I have the most relief by using a little olive oil on my upper cheeks after getting up for the day as it provides protection while my eyes are being exposed the most. I can skip the night-time application most of the time now.

Hope it helps.

Bev:

When you say "upper cheeks," about how far away from the lower part of the eyes is this?

Thanks.

Randal

[Stanza]

Hi, they put it about a quarter inch from the eye line or even further a way, I think!

I don't think I'm having any luck with this, or vaseline, both eyes are burning rather than just 'gritty want to pull my eyes out of my head' sort of feeling I normally have. So not sure if it's changed my symptoms or just given me one on the top to worry about!!! going to break from it and try again another time...

[Bev]

Hi,

Just wanted to be sure that anyone who is trying olive oil:

1) use a very, scant, thin layer about a quarter inch or so below the lower lids. Less is more. With trial and error I found that a little too much caused some haziness and some grit feeling but was still better than pain I'd had before. Now with restrained application it is perfect after many years of nothing helping.

2) absolutely do not have any other lotions, creams, make-up etc. on the face throughout the day or night when giving this a try as the oil will just hasten the migration of all of those things into your eye also!

3) be sure it is fresh extra virgin olive oil

So glad it is helping some. Noticed some people had found that facial lotions etc. they were using were the whole problem and didn't need anything at all once they stopped the offending topical.

[Mika]

oh hello again everyone... well by reading ur comments i feel that some people got some (sooo precious) relief by using Olive oil?...
woow dats great it is working for some of us...

well for me, I am not soo ready to "dive" in unknown water... so i'll see wat the results u'll be reporting..... but hey, i wanted to drops some notes about mine using ointment.

well , as maybe many of u know, i use ointment regularly BUT at a veryyyy smalllllll drops near my eyes --near the eyeslid...... and they realllyy help me....(help from mucus and dryness)

well.... now u are saying applying olive oil nxt to the eyelid, this is not so new for me, 'cause I'm doing da same thing but by using ointment... Mmm.... .... well i kno ointment is not safe... (and i really wanna find an alternative to it!!) but hey..... personally, compared to using olive oil...... i'll take the ointment which is sterile and (maybe)... more safe to put near (or on) the eyes

[Mika]

OHHH btw....... DON"T forget to do eyes compress (heat- rice baggies) if u are using anything oilly like olive oil, ointment for the sake of healthy eyes and glands........ else u'll get a lootttttt of styes and have a big eyelid.....

[smb43432]

I don't have any extra virgin olive oil so I can't try it right now but next time I go to the store I'm getting some.

[Rory]

Does anyone know why olive oil applied no matter how sparsely...extra virgin or not would help dry eyes?

[Rory]

Anymore developments on the olive oil mystery?

Any other happy customers?

I was looking at my vast collection of extra virgin olive oils the other day and they certainly are more and more advertising their Omega 3 content.

I wonder has anyone tried this experiment with a dab of flaxseed oil or without wanting to sound ridiculous..fish oil in a similar manner to the original poster's olive oil application?

[Rebecca Petris]

I was looking at my vast collection of extra virgin olive oils the other day and they certainly are more and more advertising their Omega 3 content.

That's just marketing. You would have to consume 10 oz per day to meet the NIH standard for daily Omega 3 intake (on a 2,000 calorie diet), or so I read. I use olive oil constantly because I love it and it's so much better than most oils, but I never think about it particularly as an Omega 3 source. If you really want to increase omega 3s go for the flaxseeds and walnuts - far higher concentration.

[Stanza]

both olive oil and vaseline didn't work for me, both gave me really bad burning rather than any relief.

[Bev]

Does anyone know why olive oil applied no matter how sparsely...extra virgin or not would help dry eyes?

The assumed reason would be the supplementation of additional lipids and so delaying the break-up of the tear film after blinking. A couple articles that dance around this are:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/en...indexed=google

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/en...indexed=google T

The best place I can find articles on this sort of thing is www.scholar.google.com

This is still working better than anything ever in years for me but if I get careless and put on too much it is blurry. Able to wear contact lens every day all day now.

Also beware if anyone is using "pure" olive oil as it is generally chemically extracted or comes from the second cold pressing and it is more acidic. (Doesn't taste as good either.)

[stella]

Can anyone tell me if white soft paraffin and petroleum jelly are the same thing ?
I am looking for something to use on my lids at night
I am at present using chloramphenicol eye ointment(one of the only things i can tolerate)but feel i cant go on using it indefinately 'cos of the antibiotic Anyway different makes of this ointment have different bases
My present one is made up of Liquid paraffin and white soft paraffin so if i could only try those ingredients on their own - but that does,nt exist
I had tried vasaline in the past but cant tolerate that - so am interested to read that vasaline is not neccesarily pure petroleum jelly
Where can i get pure petroleum jelly to try??

[eva b]

Hi Stella

have you tried Simple Eye ointment? I can't remember exactly the composition, but I do know it contains the carrier substance and no medication at all. It was recommended to me by an eye doc, but I couldn't use it...because as you know I can't tolerate anything at all. (in fact chloramphenicol gave me ghastly burning) Simple ointment might well suit you, though.

Eva

[stella]

Hi Eva - Thanks for the suggestion.Do hope your eyes are under control at the moment
No i have not tried Simple eye ointment - I know about it - I know about all the eye preparations available in UK 'cos i have in my posession the BNF which is the pharmaceutical "bible" for health carers in UK (It is 2004 version mind)
It mentions simple eye ointment and i note the ingredients are the same (in slightly different proportions) as lacrilube and i cant tolerate lacrilube
The culprit is probably "wool fat " or lanolin ,which is listed as a known allergen in some people
I am still on my quest and it may take time - meanwhile i will just remain using a "smidgen" of chlorampheniocol at night
I have hit a bad patch again with the eyes :--And thats after 10 weeks of being so good - Oh well it will pass, please God
It would be easier if i did'nt have constant pain from an arthritic back to contend with mind
At least i am retired and can pace myself which is more than a lot of people on this site
Woul'nt you just love to wave a majic wand and make us all better

[eva b]

Oh yes, Stella, wouldn't it be lovely!

sorry, I forgot about the lanolin in Simple ointment - now you mention it I do recall seeing it listed, which is why I couldn't tolerate it probably. I think I'm allergic to lanolin - certainly can't wear wool at all.

I wonder if any compounding pharmacy would be able to make up an ointment for you containing just the base ingredients of the ointment you're currently using?

I used to have a friendly pharmacist near where I lived who used to make up his own remedies for people...it can't be rocket science, surely, just mixing up some soft jellies?? might be worth asking.

I've found my current local pharmacist very knowledgeable about things - he knew a lot more about preservative free eye drops than my GP, (not surprising) but also than my opthalmologist at Moorfields!!!

best of luck - sorry to hear about your back...I have similar problems in my neck and when you add it all up it doesn't help at all, does it?

[eva b]

just another thought, Stella.

I've sometimes wondered about the effect of pain meds on our dry eyes. My GP prescribes both diclofenac and co-codamol for me, for occasional use, and I do wonder if either of those actually aggravate the condition. I've tried to do a "trial" but haven't really reached any conclusion because there are so many other factors.

[stella]

I constsntly take naprosyn - I have to, so it is not an option to do without NSAIDS I also take co -codamol as and when
Compounding pharmacies ? i dont know of any in my neck of the woods .
I understand that blepharitis waxes and wanes so i will just have to sit it out again i guess until it passes (I may try more doxycillen if this continues)
Fighting pain and discomfort makes me sooo tired too

[Mercedes]

I had lasik surgery last December 30, 2008. I had moderate dry eyes before surgery and after surgery it did not get any better. I incorporated nuts, fish oil into my diet with little relief. I ran into this sight and read about olive oil. I use it at night on my eyelids and put Celluvisc drops and wear the moisture chamber goggles overnight, this has created a tremendous relief. The use of eyedrops during the day has decreased. I actually have gone a whole day without using eyedrops. GLAD I found this site.

[calcan]

I had lasik surgery last December 30, 2008. I had moderate dry eyes before surgery and after surgery it did not get any better. I incorporated nuts, fish oil into my diet with little relief. I ran into this sight and read about olive oil. I use it at night on my eyelids and put Celluvisc drops and wear the moisture chamber goggles overnight, this has created a tremendous relief. The use of eyedrops during the day has decreased. I actually have gone a whole day without using eyedrops. GLAD I found this site.

What brand of olive oil are you using?

[Sammy B.]

I wanted to bump this post. I recently remembered that I used to use olive oil to take my makeup off after I had undergone LASIK, but had switched to some sort of lotion earlier in the year...until I came across this post.

It's no magic bullet but putting some olive oil around your eyes right before you retire at night and then right before you leave for work in the morning does bring some relief - to me, anyway. Seems to keep the whole area more moist. Now if only I could somehow rub it onto my dry corneas and eliminate that issue.... EW!! GROSS!!

- Rose

[SAAG]

Thanks for bumping this Rose... I'd read this thread ages ago, but forgotten about it completely... At the time, I remember being skeptical that this could provide any relief...

BUT...

It's very interesting to see everyone's results with trying this... I'm still going to continue with exclusive Dwelle for now, but once I see my improvements reaching a plateau, I think I will consider trying the olive oil thing.

If anyone else has tried this technique, please post and let us know your results...

Here's what I found most interesting about the results so far...

7 people posted on this thread who specifically said they had tried either olive oil or petroleum jelly, AND those 7 people also posted whether or not this treatment had helped them.

Bev, Filazafer, Claire, and Mercedes had all previously had lasik (see user profiles), and found some degree of relief with either Olive Oil or Petroleum jelly.

Yoganut, Eyeburn and Stanza had NOT previously had lasik (see user profiles) and all found no relief from this treatment.

I realize that these 7 people are a very small sample size, but it was interesting to note that 100% of the people who had lasik reported some success with this technique, whereas of the remaining people who had not had lasik, 100% of them did not have success with this treatment.

I'd be curious to see if this pattern continues...

If anyone else finds any relavent studies that haven't been previously posted on this thread, please share them! I'll be looking for some myself... if I find any that might be of interest, I'll post links here.

Sheralyn

[Sammy B.]

Sheralyn,

You know that I fall into the LASIK category so there's one more for the tally.

The ONLY thing I can conjure up is that more and more doctors are beginning to believe that LASIK patients are suffering from a compromised lipid layer in their tear film due to meibomian gland dysfunction (Dr. Tseng in Miami recently wrote about this).

So, while this technique doesn't really get any sort of lipids into our actual tear secretions, the olive oil might somehow leak into the eye to help with coating of the surface....? Or maybe it simply weighs down the upper lid of the eye so it sags closed a bit more? That would prevent the eye from being "open" so much, and exposed to the elements...?

I'm planning on asking Dr. Hector when I see him next Friday if there's any harm/merit in it.

- Rose

[Lucy]

I'm planning on asking Dr. Hector when I see him next Friday if there's any harm/merit in it.

Dr. Hector spoke at a Dry Eye Zone seminar a few years ago in Tampa. I with I had him as my ophth! He seemed like a good eye doc, funny tool
Lucy

[SAAG]

Sheralyn,
So, while this technique doesn't really get any sort of lipids into our actual tear secretions, the olive oil might somehow leak into the eye to help with coating of the surface....? Or maybe it simply weighs down the upper lid of the eye so it sags closed a bit more? That would prevent the eye from being "open" so much, and exposed to the elements...?
- Rose

I read an explanation on another site... it goes something like this: (first, a diagram)

---------------------your skin
---------------------oil layer against your skin (A)
---------------------oil layer in contact with the air (B)

Layer A is warmer (and therefore more fluid) than layer B because your skin is warming it.

Layer B is cooler than layer A (and therefore more solid-like and able to slide around)

Layer B slides around on top of layer A, and therefore layer B slides off layer A and spreads onto the surrounding skin.

This newly oil-covered area now forms it's own layer A and layer B of oil.

The whole process keeps repeating until the layer of oil is so thin that it no longer spreads noticeably. Presumably, this is when one would feel the need to apply more olive oil to the lids.

This spreading process is what causes the oil to migrate from the skin into the eye.

Apparently this is all explained by fluid mechanics

So... it kind of makes sense... I suspect that this is the mechanism by which the lipid spray (Clarymist aka Tears Again?) probably is supposed to work. They say to apply that lipid-containing spray to your lids, right?

I did a quick google scholar search for olive oil and dry eye... it appears that they have studied cyclosporine in... you guessed it... olive oil... This makes me wonder why castor oil was chosen as the oily component of the vehicle for Restasis instead of olive oil...

[Aaron77]

I think Castor Oil is also used in the Refresh Endura drops, seems like I can go longer on the computer with the Refresh Endura then with other drops. Eyes still feel like crap the whole time its just that its a different feeling and a little less painful. I'm going to continue to take them at least until my restasis gets in, hopefully it makes the restasis a little bit easier to take.

The Dwelle is also suppose to get in at about the same time as the restasis so I'll see how that feels as well.

[ninja.angie]

I would like to try this, but have a question first.

After reading all the posts in this thread, I got a little confused as to which one is better to be used, extra virgin olive oil or virgin olive oil?


Angie

[Sammy B.]

First off - Sheralyn - nice sleuthing!!

And Angie,

I'm not really sure if there is a difference in the products. We have EVOO (extra virgin) in the house so that's what I've been using. I just filled up a small plastic travel bottle with it and keep it next to my sink in the bathroom (reminds me to use it).

I must say, the soothing effects are immediate. As for how long it lasts, I'm not sure. I still have some foreign body sensations in both eyes, but no burning (that subsided with the Dwelle, however).

And hey, it's olive oil. It's probably safe as long as you aren't dumping mass amounts into your eyes! Just try it around the upper and lower lids and see if you have any luck.

- Rose

[Sammy B.]

I'm back from Dr. Hector's office and wanted to give everyone who was interested in this thread an answer.

Dr. Hector said that he had heard of people who had found relief using olive oil, vasoline, and tea tree oil around their eyes. The theory is simple - No additional moisture needs to be redirected from the glands to the area around the eye, instead the glands can focus on the eye itself. A well-hydrated eye socket seems to do the actual eyeball some good!

He further explained that the tea tree option would be for those who have inflammation as well. I do not so I am going to continue with the olive oil.

Hope this helps!!

- Rose

[Drops]

I have had good luck with coconut oil, jojoba oil. Don't drop it into the eye, just a small amount around the eye socket. Also, jojoba oil seems to calm down the roseaca on my nose.