degen

your theory regarding allergy to the light is something I think I'm experiencing (and of course I think the eye muscle and all comes along afterwards). My eyes are extremely bloodshot by the end of the day. And it's weird I also get nasal congestion sometimes. But I also remember that when I was young, If I looked at the blue sky I would sneeze.

So anyways, the room I work in at home is pretty big and would require lots of lights to be ambiently lit but I've shut off about half of them and on top of using inlux at 2700k, I'm using a brightness slider (I know you said something regarding that it only affects the color but it seems to help for me) set to about 40% to dim my MX279H (not even an eye care product) much darker than 0%. This is the first week that I am trying this on top of occasional warm compresses and taking bile salt with veggies high in vitamin A. My dry eyes have gone from severe to about manageable. Have you tried any bile salts/warm compress before the Lipiflow (they're costly, but you're from Canada)?

Pretty sure it's the intensity in amplitude of those screen/lights that I'm allergic to. The white parts of the screens have always been extremely unpleasant to look at. At the dimmest level, still a bit unpleasant.

    I haven't tried bile salts. Veggies don't have active vitamin A but some of the carotenoids like lutein are shown to be helpful for the age-related macular degeneration. I am taking astaxanthin now because of the (small) studies out of Japan finding it to be beneficial for accomodation, convergence, and eyestrain from extended VDT usage.

    I do use warm compress as well as Theralid to help with blepharitis. (I express my meibomian glands gently while using Theralid).

    In this thread (https://ledstrain.org/d/188-your-health) some others have noticed a connection between their symptoms and sinus and well as TMJ conditons.

    Now I am working with my optometrist to get a steroid eye drop compounded that it not preserved with BAK for occasional use. (They are all preserved with BAK which is shown to cause red, dry, inflamed eyes even in normal people, which is completely counter to an anti-infammatory eye drop)

    I'm glad you are finding relief. The only things that really helped me with my dry eyes are Lipiflow which changed my life from wanted to claw my eyes out and I could never stop thinking about how awful they felt to manageable. Also I got punctal plugs which helped a good bit.

      Also I use a humidifier in the winter and keep it as humid as I can without risking condensation and mold. That was really important too.

        degen

        luteins have not helped me at all in terms of dry eyes. Broccoli and carrots are what I'm talkinga bout for veggies high in Vitamin A.

            degen

            Is there a brand of humidifier and its type that you would recommend (basically the one you use)?

                ctsai89 What I meant is that veggies don't have vitamin A in its active form, retinol. When you are eating veggies you are consuming vitamin A in the form of carotenoids, which your body converts to vitamin A. Although lutein is classified as a carotenoid it is not converted into vitamin A. Lutein is the most abundant carotenoid in broccoli, so if it's improving your symptoms perhaps vitamin A is not what's helping, and some other factor in veggies are what is helping (there are many). Carrots have lots of beta-carotene but unless you are very deficient in vitamin A you are not increasing your active vitamin A levels significantly when you increase your intake of carrots. Beta-carotene is a very weak carotenoid in terms of its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

                    ctsai89 I use a very generic Sunbeam cool mist evaporative-type humidifier. I like the cool mist, it feels more refreshing to my eyes than steam humidifiers. Also, as the moisture content of the air increases, they add less moisture to it, reducing the risk of overhumidification that can happen easily if you don't monitor a steam humidifier closely. I don't use ultrasonic humidifiers as they leave a white dust in your room.

                    I also use a hygrometer to monitor and keep at around 40% humidity (must be lower if it gets cold outside, sometimes down to 20-25% in the coldest days of winter to prevent condensation on windows). The hygrometers built into humidifiers are usually very innacurate.

                      degen

                      I am aware, I watched a youtube video regarding vitamin A. That's why I said I take bile salts with carrots/brocolli because it seems that I have a weak gallbladder that doesn't produce much bile (which contains an enzyme for the body absorb pre-Vitamin A better).

                          ctsai89 I personally don't like to too quick to draw conclusions from a short time of experimentation. I've been burned there too many times and wasted a lot of money. You started eating more vegetables and taking bile salts, and your dry eyes improved. I don't doubt that diet has a big impact on dry eyes (although it usually takes a few weeks for fat-soluble vitamins to accumulate, that it beside my point), but it's hard to pin down the specific cause for changes in symptoms (especially since there may be many), and even if you could be 100% sure that the changes you made were the cause of the improvement, it is yet another leap to be able to say that that means you have a weak gallblader.

                              degen

                              well I used to drink a lot, some nights to the point where I would throw up bile the next morning up till late afternoon. There goes a good reason to suspect my gallbladder's been damaged lol.

                              And I've been taking bile salts for 2 months now. I noticed a small difference but the lighting and screen change I made few days ago made a much more noticeable difference on my eyes.

                                ctsai89 is it really 33 million people though?

                                All the research I have read says that photophobia of non black body radiation light sources is estimated to impact about 10% of the population. So thats about 32-33 million folks in the US. Sound like a lot, but looking at the flip side of that statistic, 90% of the population is unaffected and doesn't think about the issue at all. Which is why this is such a difficult issue to raise awareness on.

                                Thinking from their perspective. After being told ceaslesly for years that they are bad for the environment for using incandescent and getting pro-LED lit slammed down their throat from everywhere from their hardware store to their power company, they spent hundreds of dollars outfitting their house with LEDs.. They are now emotionally invented in LED technology

                                This is true, and not only that, remember, there is a 90% chance that they are completely unaffected by this problem. And, while the impact is insanely minimal, LED lights DO use less power and last longer which does carry a benefit. The benefit is not worth the trade off inhuman suffering we experience, but to them. LED lights are 100% upside. And, unfortunately, we still live in a world where compassions and putting yourself in other peoples shoes is a very rare thing.

                                You have to have to take a nuanced approach and work on one person at a time, easing them into your viewpoint. I didn't mean you should literally go and say those words to a big crowd. You are/were in real danger of being labelled an alarmist and quack publicly.

                                100% agree. I feel the same anger you all do, but it needs to be tempered. In order to be taken seriously and effect change, the work needs to be done politely, respectfully, but also relentlessly. Like water trying to break down a dam.

                                Is there a way you can personally message me? I would like you to help me write a letter to the congress/government regarding all the effects from monitor, car lights, to lamps from LED on our eyes and try to convince them to do something about it. I am no good at writing letters (no kidding). But if you help me, I will get send it and possibly convince some of the people that are in the "dreEyeTalk" group to send them as well.

                                Lets have the conversation here. I have several letters I have drafted and written and am happy to share them. I am going to start posting them to my subreddit for use as well

                                    ensete

                                    Please do, if you do, I will share them with members in the facebook group called "DryEyeTalk" as well.

                                      degen

                                      by the way, regarding your "allergy" theory, have you heard of ocular rosacea?

                                          ctsai89 I have not. My allergy theory comes from my ENT (well, one of the 5 ENT's I have seen over time). They studied the Sinus/Allergy/Migraine connection a lot, and their theory basically went like this: Everyone has a "threshold" where a stimulus (light in our case) can cause a reaction in the brain leading to undesired brain activity (migraine, ocular muscle spasms, strain, etc). For most folks, this threshold is high enough that stimuli like lighting never crosses that threshold, so they never have any issues. For us, our natural threshold is much lower, so that same stimulus DOES trigger a response.

                                          His theory/statement was that allergies and other inflammatory issues lower thresholds even further, so even more stimuli cross is and trigger an attack. The two big "threshold movers" he talked about were weather (the link between migraines and weather is well known) and allergens.

                                              I have uploaded some of my letters to my subreddit, /r/lightsensitive for use for anyone who wants them. I am no ones poet and have not updated the BULB letter in a while, feel free to edit/modify and use.

                                              ensete

                                              I think there's pretty much only truth to that. I had dry eye/eye strain from my first LED monitor which was a macbook back in 2010 only for 3 weeks but I was young back then. My dry eyes/eye strain officially became a chronic problem 7 months ago when the weather got cold and all of sudden we were getting rains everyday here in southern California. THere are different pollens for every season weather. On top of that, some family member of mine brought home huge amount of flower and kept it in the house for 5 days making the house smell unbearable. My eyestrain threshold has been so low ever since, to the point where I am turning my screen down to 0% brightness + plus another brightness slider to lower brightiness + influx basically turning down blue light as low as possible. THe newest thing I am trying now is lowering the contrast to 30% lower than the default, this seems to help a bit more as well.

                                              So pretty much with the theory (if proven) in mind, the environmental supremacists/LED fanatics could legitimately claim that LED doesn't cause any problems and that we should have our auto-immune disorders fixed first.... am I correct?

                                              anyways I am going to take a look at your subreddit post now. Thanks a bunch!

                                                  ctsai89 the environmental supremacists/LED fanatics could legitimately claim that LED doesn't cause any problems and that we should have our auto-immune disorders fixed first.... am I correct?

                                                  I would not say thats the case. When people have a problem, you accommodate them. Light sensitivity is a disability like any other. If you were in a wheelchair, people shouldn't not build you a wheelchair ramp to save wood. It's not worth the effort.

                                                  Also, it's not sure our thresholds CAN be raised. Given the absolutely minimal environmental benefits, and the well document legitimate health hazards LED lights present, there is simply no reason to use them. The price in human suffering is not worth it. They are simply unaware of the effects that we suffer from, so they are forming their opinion from a place of ignorance. It is our job to educate them so they realize the benefits of LED's are not worth the suffering and damage they cause

                                                      I feel like the problem is that most people who have the same problem we do don't have as severe to the point where they have to turn the brightness level to below 0. I've talked to a few and some say "sure LED is too bright that's why I wear protective glasses and I'm fine now" they would stop right there and wouldn't give a damn or two about it beyond that.

                                                      How rare/common is it to have the threshold so low to the point of suffering like we are? I came across a site and it claimed 1/4000 people but I don't have the link of it anymore.

                                                        dev