Oh well. I find it incredible!… I have done it again, I just rubbed my eyes. Ok, it’s true that I’ve been in front of the computer for a long time and I’m beginning to notice them as tired, but it’s not an excuse, I’m precisely writing about this topic!
SALVADOR GARCIA-DELPECH
Medical Co-Director Aiken Clinic
Aiken Foundation. Valencia.
Why do we do it?
Why do we do it? we scratch our eyes because we find some relief in doing sorelief because by rubbing them we cause a increased tearingand if there is something that bothers you, it is having the Dry Eye.
For example, when we look at a computer screen, we reduce the blink frequency to a third of normal, which makes the eye more exposed and the tear film that covers it to evaporate more quickly, so that the eye dries out.
By rubbing it we activate the lacrimal gland and the eye becomes moist again, finding an improvement. The same thing happens when we get up in the morning, while we sleep the eye stops secreting tears, so we are going to get up with an annoying sensation of dry eyes. But it’s more, if we do it hardit may be that by pressing the eye we act on the ocular musculature and activate a very curious reflex, the “oculo-cardiac”, is that when activated, the heart rate drops, and that gives us a feeling of tranquility. So How to resist such pleasant sensations?
But I perfectly remember my mother telling me that “You had to rub your eyes with your elbows”and believe me, my mother knew a lot, she sure was right.
What can happen if I rub my eyes?
What can happen if I rub my eyes? Let’s go little by little, from less to more.
The first thing that happens is that surely hands or fingers will not be cleanso touching your eyes can be a source of contagion, infections, from conjunctivitis to infections most important that can make us lose even vision.
The discovery of a Covid ophthalmologist
In addition, the eye is a well-known gateway for microorganisms such as bacteria or viruses, remember how in December 2019 Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, he tried to notify his colleagues of the existence of a new virus without success, he died on February 7 of Covid and a month later we were confined to Spain. Well, the fact that an ophthalmologist was the first to detect the disease and one of the first to become infected made us know that the SARS-CoV-2 virus could be transmitted through tears, touching your eyes was not a good idea in times of Covid.
Many times the dryness that we have mentioned will give us a sensation of a foreign body, but other times that sensation really corresponds to something that could have entered our eyes, from an eyelash to a grain of sand or similar. If what we do is rub our eyes, we may get wounds, what we usually call erosions or ulcers, and I assure you that an ulcer on the cornea, the outermost layer of the eye and in turn, the most sensitive tissue in the entire human body, is not something that is easily forgotten, the pain can become disabling and the subsequent complications frankly disastrous.
Keratoconus, a rare disease
Keratoconus is a rare disease, a recent study, from 2019, published in the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology about 11,529 eyes with this disease, he speaks of an incidence of 86 people out of 100,000. It is a progressive, bilateral disease that makes daily life difficult and can end with a great loss of vision that may require performing a corneal transplant (in Spain there is an association of patients affected by keratoconus). Do you know which is the causative factor most clearly related to this disease? …indeed, the repeated scratching of the eyes, often related to allergic conjunctivitis, may seem incredible to you, but it is so.
Rubbing the eyes increases intraocular pressureSaying this like this and considering that it is a specific event, it does not seem very important, but remember that the disease most frequently related to increased intraocular pressure is glaucoma, well-known as “silent blindness”, yes they are big words.
Risk of serious complications after an operation
If you have recently had eye surgery, you will have seen that we practically always say that you should not scratch your eyes, if you do it a few days after eye surgery it can lead to serious complications.
It is not very frequent, but in certain conditions we may even be able to talk about causing a retinal detachmenta serious disease that requires surgical intervention to try to stop the damage it causes to vision and whose prognosis is usually not very good, really.
Well, I don’t know if I need to continue, maybe you’re one of those people who thinks it’s not that important, Maybe you think that you have rubbed your eyes a lot of times and nothing has happened to you, but don’t be fooled, that is the same argument that was used for things like riding a motorcycle without a helmet, driving a car without a seat belt or smoking, for example, and I think that today we are all clear that these are risks that are not worth it. assume.
In any case, if you’re still not convinced that you shouldn’t rub your eyes, think that every time you do it you’ll also contribute to increasing expression wrinkles, those little wrinkles that tell others how old you are. you have, maybe this is definitive to take it seriously, don’t you think?
As? What do you have a doubt? Why do you see little lights when you rub your eyes hard?… that, if you agree, we will see it more slowly in another article, because for so long in front of the computer I am beginning to feel discomfort and from what I have seen I prefer to rest a little rather than rub my eyes. Greetings, see you in the next article.