Torontonians typically rejoice when the warm, dry weather finally arrives, but if you suffer from dry eye, you may dread bright sunny days at the beach. The wind blowing off Lake Ontario may not actually be flinging grit into your eyes, but if you have severely dry eyes, it may feel that way. Factors like pollution, overuse of contact lenses, not blinking enough during visual tasks like computer use, aging, hormonal changes, medication intake, and diseases like blepharitis (persistent and common inflammation of the eyelids) can play a significant role in reducing the moisture in your eyes.People often casually say “My eyes feel dry”, but chronic dry eye – the kind that requires repeated application of drops just for the ...

Responsible for approximately 1 in 10 cases of dry eye, aqueous dry eye occurs when the lacrimal glands in the eye are not able to produce enough tears to keep your eyes moist. Precisely speaking, there is an under-production of the watery (aqueous) part of the tears. If your eyes constantly feel dry, if you are able to go without blinking for a long period of time or stare directly at a bright light without your eyes watering, or if tears occur as painful for you, you may suffer from aqueous dry eye. The lacrimal glands contain around 60 different proteins and electrolytes, and, of course, water. Sometimes the shortage of water being produced is due to serious underlying auto-immune ...