Do you know smoking is a common trigger for Dry Eyes?

It is not necessary to explain the importance of Eyes in our life and unfortunately we never understand it until we lose our vision. Today we are looking into the effect of the common habit that is smoking, in our eyes.

What is Dry Eyes? 

It is a clinical condition that occurs when our tears are unable to provide adequate lubrication for our eyes.

There are mainly two types of Dry eyes, 

• Aqueous Deficient Dry Eye (ADDE) – which means not enough tears 
• Evaporative Dry Eye (EDE) which means the lack of quality of tears.

What are the causes?

• Aging
• Certain lifestyle habits – smoking, prolonged screen time, etc
• Certain medical conditions – including allergic eye diseases, Scleroderma (thickening of skin), thyroid disorders etc
• Certain medications

What are the common signs and symptoms?

• Dryness and Discomfort in the eyes
• Feeling of Foreign body sensation in the eyes
• Itching in the eyes
• Redness in the eyes
• Sensitivity to light

Effect of smoking on Dry eyes

The tobacco in the cigarette is an eye irritant. When we smoke tobacco it breaks down the lipid layer of tear film and that leads to dry eyes.

How to manage?

• Quit smoking
• Protection of eyes using eye glasses
• Do periodic eye examination
• Periodically rinse your eyes with water

What can Ayurveda do?

Ayurveda have effective treatments for the caring of eyes like

• Aschyotana
• Tarpanam
• Siro Abhyangam
• Pada Abhyangam

Some of the drugs used in Ayurveda are Cow’s ghee, Jeevanti, Vidhari etc.

Author:

Dr Neeraj Mohan(BAMS),

AVP Research Foundation