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  • Sea salt, externally applied -- the best thing I've found so far

ensete Thanks very much for sharing your thoughts. I realize the mechanism of the sea salt is as yet unclear, but I am sure it is quite different from simply holding water on the skin leading to cooler skin. My screen-use symptoms are very strong and debilitating, and the effect of the sea salt is remarkable, to the extent that when I have it on my forehead, I get absolutely no symptoms at all, for hours at a time. I can't imagine that keeping my forehead continually wet, with water alone, or that simply having cooler skin on my forehead, would have such an effect. But thanks again for sharing your thoughts and contributing to the discussion and exploration of the "sea salt phenomenon" -- all ideas and sharing-of-experiences are of course very much welcome!

    I'm sorry, but this is yet again one of those "solutions" that lower our chances to achieve any real solution.

    Imagine a doctor or scientist investigating this topic and reading that people smack gobs of sea salt to their forehead, which helps them tolerate screens better.

    Yeah, lets all go to a customer meeting and in the middle slap a moist ball of sea salt to the forehead, saying, "this help me tolerate LCD screens"

      Maxx Thanks for your input. Yes, this is the obstacle: the strangeness of the method, both in its appearance and in its unclear mechanism of action. This is why I expect some people will probably read my original post and won't bother trying it because it seems so odd.

      What I would suggest would be to simply: give it a try. See if it helps you, and report back.

      If this helps others anywhere close to as much as it has helped (and is helping) me, it would be major. And the only thing to lose would be the couple dollars spent on the package of sea salt, and a bit of salt on the floor.

      As for the doctors and scientists, they certainly haven't helped us much yet. Rather than wait for them, I'd prefer to have something that works now. And for me (and for one other poster here so far), this works now.

      I see this as one of two sides. One being medical related experiments to attempt to mitigate issues related to eyestrain and related phenomena, the other being empirical "triggers" of this issue (like dithering/FRC, PWM or other physical properties of LCD panels) that still exist and should still be solved.

      Speaking from experience, potentially having something attempting to interfere with normal visual processing when eyes are damaged and working around the issue is probably just "buying time" until you become more sensitive, at which point certain workarounds are moot.

      It's important we don't conflate the two when attempting to investigate the technical causes of this issue and in communication with other stakeholders (like in communication with OEMs)

        JTL Speaking from experience, potentially having something attempting to interfere with normal visual processing when eyes are damaged and working around the issue is probably just "buying time" until you become more sensitive, at which point certain workarounds are moot.

        Thanks for the interesting reflections. Just regarding your second paragraph: nothing would be interfering with normal visual processing here: the salt just goes on the forehead. (If the salt went into the eyes, that would interfere with vision!)

        It's also possible that the problem is not one of eye damage at all. Or that for some of us it is and for some of us it isn't.

        • JTL replied to this.

          daniels nothing would be interfering with normal visual processing here

          I was referring to the cause of "this issue" as being the problem interfering with visual processing and other things related to eyes. Not the salt.

            daniels I realize the mechanism of the sea salt is as yet unclear, but I am sure it is quite different from simply holding water on the skin leading to cooler skin

            Please explore! you could try the cooling patches or different kinds of salt, and observe if it helps.

              Seagull Please explore! you could try the cooling patches or different kinds of salt, and observe if it helps.

              Thanks, this is definitely worth exploring! The scientific mindset of experimenting systematically would be an excellent one here. As for me, for the moment I've found what works very well, and don't enjoy getting the symptoms, so I'm not too eager at the moment to experiment for the sake of "research" and finding out more. My approach is purely pragmatic right now. But if anyone else is interested in experimenting in this way, it would indeed be fabulous.

              daniels

              Try a menthol rub on your forehead and see if you get the same effect. There are several "anti migraine" stick that are sold OTC that "work" by evaporation cooling the skin.

              got zero effect with mortons sea salt, but good effect with liquid magnesium drops(evaporated seawater)

                JTL I get it, but we'll never be able to control the lights in our extended environments on an ongoing basis, so we'll need hacks like this one to cope.

                reaganry got zero effect with mortons sea salt, but good effect with liquid magnesium drops(evaporated seawater)

                Thanks for trying and reporting back. I did try for a time with some Korean sea salt that I bought from an Asian grocery store, and the effect was not particularly good. I have been using, and having success with, what are probably higher quality, purer sea salts. Very interesting about the liquid magnesium!

                  daniels Have you tried a non salt based evaporative test? It would be interesting to see if it was something in the salt itself that is helping you, or an effect the salt is having that could be replicated with a non salt product that would create the same effect

                    ensete Have you tried a non salt based evaporative test? It would be interesting to see if it was something in the salt itself that is helping you, or an effect the salt is having that could be replicated with a non salt product that would create the same effect

                    Yes, this would a great thing to test. I'm a bit hesitant right now to do much more testing, since if what I am testing doesn't work, though it will have advanced knowledge on the subject, I will have suffered unpleasant symptoms. That's why I'm sticking to the sea salt paste at the moment. Some of my reluctance is probably due to several recent months of enduring the symptoms, before I found that I could use the sea salt preventatively. Perhaps I will eventually pluck up my courage and give it a go for the sake of research. Reaganry's suggestion of the liquid magnesium in particular intrigues me, and would be less messy, and more amenable to use in public, than the salt. Note by the way that I have had success in the past with baking soda, "curatively," though have not yet tried it preventatively.

                    2 years later

                    daniels Hi Daniel,

                    someone linked me your post and I have word for word the exact same symptoms as you, have you figured out a more convienent way for relief?

                      a month later

                      evthelegend Hi evthelegend, thanks for your message, I just saw it today because I do not log on to this forum regularly. The same symptoms word for word, fascinating.

                      About your question as to whether I have found a more convenient solution: in fact, I have started experimenting with something new just today and have been obtaining very interesting results. Perhaps the two of us can form a sort of "trial team" if you like.

                      The method is to hold a medium sized rock in your hand while using the device, or afterwards after the appearance of symptoms.

                      My speculation is that those of us who have this problem do not have sufficient connection with the earth. There are negative energies that are emitted by these devices which we do not sufficiently understand, and which are probably not sufficiently measurable with the means currently available to us. The connection with the earth, or grounding to the earth, serves to flush out a certain amount of these energies. For those of us in whom this natural connection to the earth is lacking to a sufficient degree for whatever reason, the energies are not flushed out and thus give rise to the various and variegated symptoms that we all report. I speculate that the reason no one has been able to find a root cause or causes for this problem on this forum over its 10 plus years of existence is that we are looking in the wrong place, and because this root cause is not sufficiently measurable or materially ascertainable at the present time.

                      Holding a rock appears to help with this grounding, this connection to the earth. I have only begun experimenting with this today. The results so far: holding a medium-sized rock after a mildish but definitely noticeable trigger (looking briefly a few times at my Samsung tablet screen, which if I'm not very careful causes me terrible symptoms) resulted in the disappearance of the symptoms after a short time. Holding the same rock while reading text continuously for some time on my laptop screen lessened the symptoms compared to what they would usually be, but mild symptoms appeared nonetheless. After then looking away from the screen and continuing to hold the rock, the symptoms disappeared after a relatively short time.

                      Note that the size of the rock I have been using is roughly that of a tennis ball, and is somewhat heavy to hold in the hand (but not uncomfortably so).

                      I'm sure many people are going to find this method strange, and inexplicable within the framework of the current predominant positivist, scientistic worldview.

                      If you would like to give it a go and, together with me, give this a trial run, I would be very interested to hear your results.

                        daniels Holding a rock appears to help with this grounding, this connection to the earth. I have only begun experimenting with this today.

                        LOL I used to do this back when I was stuck with a terrible mini-LED MBP. I had to hold something in my other hand to be able to even barely tolerate that screen

                        (it didn't matter if it was organic, just smooth, I could hold a USB mouse made from smooth plastic in my pocket and get the same effect. Of course I used a polished stone sometimes too. Interested to know if it keeps working for you even with non-natural objects as long as they're smooth)

                        What you're touching seems to directly affect the ways your eyes process things somehow.

                        Sometimes it's the opposite -- I've noticed that on all "bad laptop screens" when I press ctrl or shift repeatedly with my left pinky, the screen will go in and out of focus constantly. On some bad screens I have to do this to tolerate reading, but on others doing this actually causes some sharp eyestrain.

                        In that case its probably my eyes trying to watch my finger in my peripheral vision, moving slightly, and whatever weird stuff the screen is doing is getting processed in a slightly different way.

                        (a similar one is that I can see LCD inversion and temporal dithering whenever I move my head, but not when I'm still)

                        However, on my "actually good" (low-to-no strain) laptop screens, that effect doesn't happen at all lol, I can mash a key and the screen 95% of the time text will stay just as crisp and the strain level doesn't change. (Although, I do notice the very corners of my vision outside of the screen slightly fading while doing this…)

                        daniels maybe you should try a grounding mat? it would be the same as you touching the actual earth instead of carpet or hardwood floor. im assuming that would be the same affect as holding a rock.

                        JTL Yes, this is possible indeed, and definitely worth a try! Thank you for the idea.

                        dev