Spring allergy season is coming into full bloom, and winter dry eye season hasn’t completely ended, leaving many people wondering what’s causing their eyes to be so uncomfortable.
If you have red, itchy eyes, it could be one or both problems simultaneously.
The overlap is unfortunate; seasonal allergies and dry eyes can worsen each other, but here’s an interesting, fun fact. In addition to redness, itching, and irritation in general, both allergies and dry eyes can cause watery eyes.
Of course, that leads to a logical question, If you have watery eyes, how can they be dry?
“Dry eye is actually the most common cause of tearing,” said ophthalmologist Dr. Lily Van Laer from Henry Ford Health. “I know that sounds strange.”
Laere said people with abnormally dry eyes don’t make normal tears.
“The normal tears we make have a lot of oils and proteins in it, and they stay in your eye for a long time, Laere said.
Your eyes do the same thing that happens with allergies to protect themselves.
“There are the emergency tears that turn on if something flies into your eye or if your eyes get dried out, they start to water,” Laere said.
So what helps distinguish between dry eyes and allergies?
“Itching is the big thing with allergies that you don’t tend to have as much with dry eye,” Laere said. “Oral allergy medications such as antihistamines make your eyes drier, so it’s a double-edged sword.”
Laere recommends patients avoid antihistamines if they are having eye problems and go with over-the-counter allergy drops instead.
“They (Over the counter) help with the most common symptoms of allergic conjunctivitides, such as red, redness, itching, tearing, and things like that,” Laere said. “It works best if you use it consistently, so it doesn’t work that great if you use it here or there, but if you try to use it twice a day throughout your allergy season, that controls your symptoms the best.”
If your primary problem is dry eyes, you may notice that it’s worse at the end of the day, happens all year long, and is even worse in winter.
Regarding the treatment of dry eyes, Laere recommends using artificial tears and warm compresses to start, but one pro tip she had was to refrigerate your eye drops so they provide even more relief.
