Many people will have itchy eyes and tears in this season, and can't help but reach out to rub them, and even some patients describe themselves in the outpatient clinic as "eager to take out their eyes and scratch and then settle them back", which is allergic conjunctivitis. If you can't help but rub your eyes at the beginning, then you are likely to fall into an endless cycle of "the more itchy you want to rub, the more you rub but the more it itches". Therefore, the habit of rubbing your eyes must be quit.
Spring itchy eyes are mostly caused by pollen
Allergic conjunctivitis is a common allergic disease that is mainly manifested by symptoms such as redness, itching, tearing, and sneezing of the eyes. As the name suggests, allergic conjunctivitis is inflammation of the conjunctiva (that is, the membrane that covers the transparent part of the whites of the eyes) caused by allergies, because the essence of allergic conjunctivitis is the body's allergic reaction to allergens, in this process mast cells release histamine and other active substances, stimulate blood vessels to dilate, so it often appears red and swollen eyes.
Although the cause of allergies varies from person to person, the most common cause is pollen. If rhinitis is comitant, this condition is also called allergic rhinoconjunctivitis.
This is how the eyes get more and more itchy
Many "senior" patients know that it is time to order eye drops this season, so what other way to make yourself comfortable than following your doctor's instructions? Based on the latest systematic review, patients with allergic conjunctivitis are strongly advised to avoid or remove allergens and avoid rubbing their eyes.
"Avoid or remove allergens" is easy to understand but also the hardest to do, pollen is almost ubiquitous in this season, but we can still reduce allergen irritation by minimizing outdoor activities, closing windows and using air conditioning circulation when in the car or indoors, avoiding touching eyes when outdoors, changing clothes when returning indoors, and washing hands in time.
Another very important advice is to start with yourself, from now on, and stop rubbing your eyes. Although the slight pain caused by rubbing the eyes can temporarily suppress itching, this process activates the brain striatum reward mechanism, which can be addictive; Eye rubbing will also intensify the local inflammatory cascade through mechanical stimulation, aggravate the release of inflammatory factors and pruritic, and strengthen the transmission pathway of itching. Therefore, once you indulge yourself and start rubbing your eyes, you will often fall into a vicious circle of "itchy eyes - rub your eyes - more itchy eyes", so you must break the cycle from the beginning to make your eyes safe without "itching".
"Artificial tears + cold compress" that makes the eyes comfortable
In addition, with artificial tears and cold compresses, the symptoms of the eyes can be relieved. Artificial tears can relieve symptoms by flushing the conjunctival sac to reduce the concentration of local allergens and inflammatory factors, while cold compresses not only refer to the use of ice packs for cold compresses, but also by cooling their commonly used anti-allergic eye drops or artificial tears (4°C refrigerator freezer) to achieve a "two-pronged" effect.
However, it should also be noted that try not to use a towel when applying cold compresses. Because the towel is loose and porous, it is difficult to achieve complete cleaning, if the eye rubbing damages the epidermis of the ocular surface and around the eyes, it will cause local infection, and the gain is not worth the loss.
Text/Cui Haoran (Beijing Chaoyang Hospital)