Speaker 1: But dry eye disease. It is a common condition which
Speaker 1: can lead to not only discomfort, but further vision problems
Speaker 1: as well affecting a person's quality of life and also
Speaker 1: making their daily tasks just like reading, using a computer
Speaker 1: or your phone, even driving so difficult. So joining us
Speaker 1: this morning is doctor Margaret Lamb and optometrists to explain
Speaker 1: this further. Good morning to you, Margaret.
Speaker 2: Good morning, good morning. It's lovely to meet you.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for taking the time to discuss
Speaker 1: this with us today.
Speaker 3: Now, how would.
Speaker 1: Somebody know if they are experiencing dry eyes? What are
Speaker 1: the usual symptoms when it's more than just say a
Speaker 1: limited or a one off occurrence.
Speaker 2: Yes, so someone in Australia, dry is actually quite common.
Speaker 2: So over eighty five percent of the population is estimated
Speaker 2: to experience symptoms of dry at some point. So it's
Speaker 2: actually very prevalent. And although it might seem like it's
Speaker 2: really trivial, if you leave it untreated or if it worsens,
Speaker 2: it can actually get quite like you said, it can
Speaker 2: have a very negative impact on someone's quality of life.
Speaker 2: In fact, bad enough that studies show that some that
Speaker 2: have even just moderate or severe dry eye can say,
Speaker 2: it's worse than having a heart attack. So it's important
Speaker 2: to know what to look out for and in case
Speaker 2: you have it or a loved one has it, how
Speaker 2: to identify it early. So those symptoms so you can
Speaker 2: identify include that your eyes feel like you have a stinging,
Speaker 2: a burning, or a scratching sensation like there's a foreign
Speaker 2: body in your eye, or having red or irritated sore eyes,
Speaker 2: or being sensitive to light, or even experiencing blurry vision,
Speaker 2: feeling like you have eye strain, or feeling that you
Speaker 2: have eyes that just feel tired. But you know what's
Speaker 2: really interesting is that people that actually have really watery
Speaker 2: eyes can actually have severe dry eye too, because that's
Speaker 2: when your body actually overcompensates from having the dry eye
Speaker 2: and then it causes it to overwater. So watery eyes
Speaker 2: is also possibly a symptom of dry eyed dosease is too.
Speaker 3: That's me, that's me, Margaret.
Speaker 1: Is my eyes? Well? I thought it was just because
Speaker 1: it was so cold. My eyes were literally just yeah dry.
Speaker 1: People actually stop me in the street and say, are
Speaker 1: you okay.
Speaker 2: My left eye let?
Speaker 1: But Margaret, what actually causes dry eye?
Speaker 3: Then?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So, as I mentioned, like, it really can have
Speaker 2: a really bad impact on someone's life. And the causes
Speaker 2: of dry eye is there's two main types, right. So
Speaker 2: the first type is when your dry eyes dry out
Speaker 2: or they evaporate too quickly on the tear film. And
Speaker 2: that's because in the eyelids we have these really special
Speaker 2: oil glands called our my boomyan glands, and they're supposed
Speaker 2: to make this nice protective oily layer to stop our
Speaker 2: tears from evaporating. So when you don't have enough of
Speaker 2: your oily layer, that's called evaporative dry eye. And then
Speaker 2: the second type is when our eyes just don't produce
Speaker 2: enough tears, and then that means that they're defishing in
Speaker 2: the watery layer of our tears. So that type is
Speaker 2: called aqueous deficient dry eye. So the causes of and
Speaker 2: risks for dry eyes include that it's definitely very common
Speaker 2: when we age. Unfortunately, it's also very common for it
Speaker 2: took her when you get hormonal changes, especially at perimenopause
Speaker 2: and menopause. Women unfortunately are twice as high risk as
Speaker 2: men to develop dry eye.
Speaker 3: So we're going to get hysterical. Now.
Speaker 2: You are just outnumbered today.
Speaker 3: So Margaret, I do have a question for you, and
Speaker 3: this This is the quickly brain extrapolating here. I have
Speaker 3: a number of friends who are going in and have
Speaker 3: had cataract surgery and usually four or five weeks before
Speaker 3: they are told go and by these drops. Usually and
Speaker 3: Cattio norm and others use these two or three times
Speaker 3: a day so that we can get your measurements correctly
Speaker 3: when we do your keteract surgery. Now, my extrapolation brain,
Speaker 3: if we kept our eyes more moist, would that reduce
Speaker 3: the risk of cataracts developing?
Speaker 2: Oh? So the reason why that said, and we're going
Speaker 2: on a segway, and I want to come back to
Speaker 2: causes of dry ik gerald. But the reason why that
Speaker 2: is really important is someone going into cataract surgery has
Speaker 2: to have really stable dry eye because the surgeon is
Speaker 2: really worried that if the dryness is not stable, your
Speaker 2: cataract surgery might go really well. But you get poor
Speaker 2: vision as a result of YOURCT surgery causing more severe
Speaker 2: dry eye, which takes a long time to settle down again.
Speaker 2: So it's not causing effect about you won't get cataracts
Speaker 2: because you don't have your dry eye settled. It's more
Speaker 2: to do with we want the side effect of potential
Speaker 2: dry eye sorted, so your cataract surgery goes really well,
Speaker 2: just fallen after Okay, So if it's all right, I'll
Speaker 2: go back because I think it's really important that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, before we let you go, can you quickly tell
Speaker 1: us what causes dry eye?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, in addition to what we talked about, medications
Speaker 2: can sometimes increase the risk of someone getting dry eyes
Speaker 2: to antistamines, blood pressure, medications, antidepressants, go coma medications, autoimmune conditions.
Speaker 2: Inflammation in the eyes causes it. Screen time, so we're
Speaker 2: all conscious of that. We blink sixty percent less in
Speaker 2: front of a screen, so our tears evaporate faster. The
Speaker 2: environment can cause dry eyes, like air conditioning, heaters, winds, smoke,
Speaker 2: certain weather conditions, and contact lens whereas are susceptible. So
Speaker 2: you could get a better contact lens that could also
Speaker 2: dry your eyes out, let's or get treatment for dry
Speaker 2: eye symptoms.
Speaker 1: So that's why so many people suffer from it, because
Speaker 1: there are so many ways that you can experience it.
Speaker 1: Doctor Margaret Lambs, thank you so much for taking the
Speaker 1: time to talk to us this morning.
Speaker 2: That's okay. I just want to also just add it's
Speaker 2: really important to make sure you get a preservative free
Speaker 2: formulation that lasts a long time, and some are PBS
Speaker 2: listed and some can be really effective in making sure
Speaker 2: that they hold the tear film down and PBS can
Speaker 2: mean it's seven times lower for pensioners too, and speak
Speaker 2: to an ik professional pharmacist, and then a pharmacist can
Speaker 2: also guide you to an optometrist or an ophthalmologist if
Speaker 2: they're still not enough relief. So I hope that.
Speaker 1: Helps Beautiful Noworries. Thank you so much, doctor Margaret Lamb