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 taking care of your eyes consider hitting
that subscribe button down below 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
