Hello Ledstrain!
Today, I want to share my findings in an attempt to understand the causes of my LED sensitivity.
I strongly support Zodios and his theory (confirmed in practice) about the benefits of lowering eye pressure for helping with LED sensitivity.
In my symptoms, I find a strong connection to posture and neck position throughout the workday, as I can experience the familiar symptoms not only from working with a bad device but also from poor posture or an unnatural head position while working.
I am convinced that pressure on the nerves inside the head, which increases when the head is shifted forward, as well as local swelling caused by impaired microcirculation, is responsible for most of my problems.
Later, I started wondering: Could also, by any chance, something other than posture contribute to nerve compression in the head? Is there anything, for instance, in my medication stack that could also cause pressure on nerves and tissue swelling?
Except for familiar antianxiety and antihistamine drugs… Possibly… only… Minoxidil…
Minoxidil?.. What!?
A quick Google search showed several cases where Minoxidil use was linked to:
The case reports alone were not enough to convince me that Minoxidil could be the root cause of my problem, but the fact that my screen sensitivity issues began 2-3 months after starting topical Minoxidil made it impossible to ignore this topic further.
So I found a subreddit dedicated to Post-Minoxidil Syndrome and a Telegram chat where I gathered all the available information on eye-related minoxidil side effects.
To summarize, some users who took topical or oral Minoxidil—or shortly after stopping it—experienced the following symptoms:
- Redness of the eyes
- A sensation of pressure in the eyes
- Sharp (stabbing or shooting) pain behind the eye
- Visual snow
- Photophobia
- Migraines
I was surprised by how closely these descriptions matched my symptoms. The only difference was that Minoxidil Reddit users experienced these symptoms regardless of external triggers, whereas I experienced the same issues only after prolonged work with a bad device, or with poor posture.
How can it work?
A possible Mechanism of Action:
- Large blood vessels and arteries run close to nerves, and their expansion due to the vasodilation property of Minoxidil may lead to compression of those nerves.
- Due to tissue swelling, which occurs as a result of increased permeability of the walls of dilated blood vessels, pressure on the nerves can rise even further.
- Side effects of topical Minoxidil, such as dizziness and impaired coordination, may force the eye muscles to work even harder in an already inflamed and swollen space.
All of this can lead to the well-known sensation where certain monitors start straining our eyes past a certain threshold.
I know that some users on this forum use topical or oral Minoxidil. Moreover, I have seen threads discussing the potential benefits of Minoxidil due to its hypotensive properties.
In this thread, I want to share my observations about the opposite effects that Minoxidil may cause.
If you experience the same symptoms as I do and also use topical or oral Minoxidil, it might be worth checking out Reddit or the Telegram chat and, perhaps, re-evaluating your perspective on the effects of Minoxidil and its role in developing LED sensitivity.