Flicker free LED lights

ctsai89 I don't know how the PM system works here.

Yea the not blinking enough is the most lazy explanation ever as to dry eye from LED lights/screens. As many have noted here faulty displays or lighting can cause the muscles around the eye to tense.

This causes the extraocular muscles to tense which has several consequences:
1) blinking is impaired. you have less of it and more importantly the blink is incomplete and the meibomian gland is not expressed. this leads to MGD and that doesn't need explanation to a dry eye sufferer
2) my own pet theory is that this muscle tension also compresses the ducts that connect that lacrimal gland to the eye's surface, greatly reducing output of that gland

Other theories I have seen on here is that the light is somehow caustic to the surface of the eye, either because of high-energy blue light is causing a sunburn like reaction by acting much like UV does, or because of some type of "allergy" to the light. (At least one person here reported such a fast reaciton to some displays causing red eyes he was able to demonntrate it to his opthamologist and get a letter from them for work)

And of course dry eyes always causes worse dry eyes because dry eyes is very inflammatory to the surface of the eye and inflammation causes the eye to dry out creating a very vicious cycle.

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.

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

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