so if you've been having itching and irritated eyes it can be caused by a
couple different things but most commonly it's caused by eye allergies
and whether you're having seasonal allergies such as in the spring and fall
or perennial allergies that happen more year-round here are a couple tips that
are gonna help you out let's take a look
hello and welcome this is dr. Allen here from the doctor eye health show helping you
learn all about the eyes and vision if you're new here to the channel and like
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see miss any of our future videos okay we are talking all about eye allergies
and again my allergies is pretty much the most common cause of eye kind of
itchy symptoms things like that when your eyes are exposed to an allergen
either in the air or touching the eyelid skin itself then it causes what's called
a histamine response histamine in the tissues causes your blood vessels to
dilate and expand making things look puffy and swollen as well as leaking
fluid from those blood vessels and that fluid will also cause kind of a swelling
appearance in addition your eyes will feel itchy they'll seem red and they'll
be really dry and kind of irritated and oftentimes people get a watery discharge
coming from the eyes during the same response and during in an examination
when your eye doctor looks at your eyes we often see these little raised bumps
on the inside of the eyelids that we call papillae that's oftentimes a big
big kind of a sign that someone is having an allergic reaction now my first
tip for eye allergies is to try to avoid whatever it is you're allergic to now if
you're somebody who is allergic to pollen and grass in the spring and fall
can be a little difficult because we don't have control over the seasons but
knowing that hey your neighbors mowing the lawn perhaps shutting your windows
would be a smart idea at the same time we all know that we love our pets and a
lot of pet dander can cause allergic reactions I know we don't want to get
rid of our pets but for some people if it's really extreme that might be a
harsh reality that they have to make a decision over otherwise the great thing
you can do is to clean your eyelids regularly to avoid those allergens
sticking onto your lids and lashes so whether you're cleaning your face with
soap and water just on a daily basis or you're using some sort of a special
eyelid cleanser whether that be a cleaning solution or
kind of a cleaning wipe then that should work great just doing that to remove
those allergens another big tip is that if you are a makeup wear don't fall
asleep in your makeup that causes a lot of other problems on your eyelids but it
is known to trap allergens to the tissue and that can kind of aggravate the whole
response tip number two is to consider rinsing your eyes with something like an
artificial tear there are many different types of salines and artificial tears
out there I have other videos on that subject if you want to check those out
but just rinsing the eyes with an artificial tear will help kind of drain
out any of the allergens that could have stuck onto the tears and onto the
eyelids that'll help rinse those away so they
don't get trapped on the island and cause more of that aggressive response
tip number three are cold compresses now cold compresses are basically like doing
an ice pack for a sore shoulder or hurt elbow but that cold will help kind of
shrink up those dilated blood vessels and slow down fluid movement preventing
the swelling it'll kind of cool down any of the irritation because some people
kind of have that initial reaction they want to rub their eyes really hard when
they itch don't do that because if you try to rub your eyes
really hard you break a cell within your tissue called a mast cell and mast cells
although it again it feels good to rub your eyes the mast cells will break open
and it actually aggravates the whole response and makes things worse so yes
don't rub the eyes instead try to use a cold compress because it feels good and
helps bring down the swelling and now my first tip is that you can try
some type of an over-the-counter antihistamine eyedrop there are a couple
of different eyedrops out there there's really older generations that usually
find that are cheaper but they usually say get the red out and it's not good to
go for those although it makes your eyes look a little bit whiter
most of those get the red out drops they only work for a short period of time and
they wear off and they're almost in some ways addictive because they do make your
eyes look wider for a short time but then the medication wears off so use it
again and then the medication wears off so use it again and it becomes this
vicious cycle so some of my favorites are a medication called Zaditor and
another one called allaway the both over-the-counter and they reduce the
histamine response at the same time a new one just came out called Pataday
that it used to be a prescription only in most fairly expensive
but now it would quit generics so it's over-the-counter and it's a pretty
acceptable price and you can only you can use it either twice a day or once a
day depending on what formulation you pick up and tip number five is to
consider some type of oral antihistamine medication whether that be
over-the-counter options or speaking to your general physician for some stronger
medication these oral antihistamines do often work for eye allergy symptoms as
well but ultimately and as always if you are experiencing red irritated eyes that
aren't improving and perhaps you're having vision issues then definitely go
and talk to your local eye care professional make sure you're getting
checked out that it's not something more serious going on so why that's question
of the day which part of this video did you find most helpful and what sort of
things are you allergic to go ahead and leave a comment in the section below if
you doesn't always like to learn more about the eyelids and eyelid health go
ahead and click or tap the screen over here to the side to check out our full
series or if you'd like to see another cool video from dr. eye health you can
go ahead and click or tap the screen down over here again this is dr. Allen
thanks for watching keep an eye on it and we'll talk to you soon