Eye care professionals now have an exciting new method to provide relief for patients with dry eye complaints, according to water and eye researcher Sharon Kleyne. Dry eye, Kleyne notes, is the number one reason for United States eye doctor visits and a growing global crisis due to atmospheric pollution and global climate change. The invention that is exciting ophthalmologists and optometrists is the first all-water personal hand-held device that applies a pure fresh water mist directly to the eyeâs tear film, which should be 98% water.
Sharon Kleyne is Founder of Bio Logic Aqua Research, a water and health research and product development center. Natures Tears® EyeMist® is the companyâs global signature product for dry eyes, dry eyelids and swollen eyes. Kleyne also hosts the globally syndicated Sharon Kleyne Hour Power of Water® radio show on VoiceAmerica and Apple iTunes.
“Dry eye symptoms are the primary complaint of 80% of Ophthalmology patients in the United States,” says Mrs. Kleyne. “As the global dry eye crisis worsens, personal eye humidifiers could become as indispensable to daily life as cell phones and toothbrushes.”
According to Sharon Kleyne, tear film water lost to evaporation cannot be replaced simply by splashing water into the eyes. The reason is that the water’s “osmolarity” (a function of mineral content) could cause painful “osmotic shock.” Conjunctival and corneal epithelial cells on the eye’s surface require the tear film’s osmolarity to remain within a narrow range to maintain health and comfort. Osmotic shock can occur when the osmolarity of the tear film, or of any substance applied to the eyes (including water), falls significantly outside that range (Gilbert, 1978).
Kleyne discovered that osmotic shock can be virtually eliminated by using a nearly mineral free natural water and by applying the water as an ultra-fine eye mist. The pure water replaces the lost tear film water and overcomes the potential for osmotic shock by diluting the tear volume with exquisitely small microdroplets (Mathers, 1999).
Mrs. Kleyne was able to engineer the diameter of the mist droplets to within a 40-60 micron (millionths of a meter) range. When these microdroplets land on the ocular surface, they pass directly through the overlying lipid (oil) layer and dilute the underlying water layer without washing away normal tear constituents. The eye mist application canister invented by Mrs. Kleyne delivers 1-2 microliters (millionths of a liter) per square centimeter per second at fourteen inches from the face. Since the average exposed ocular surface area is 2 square centimeters, this results is 2 microliters per second to the eye
“In 1 to 2 seconds,” Mrs. Kleyne concludes, “the tear volume can be diluted sufficiently to restore normal osmolarity.” (Mathers, 2005) (Method and Kit, 2009)
Mrs. Kleyne’s eye mist application relieves dry eye by restoring the tear film’s normal surface osmolarity. By restoring the surface to a state of health, according to Kleyne, there should also be a beneficial effect on the lacrimal gland and a down-regulation of the inflammatory effects of dry eye (Mathers, 2005).
http://www.voiceamerica.com/show/2207/sharon-kleyne-hour
Sources:
Gilbert, JP, “Osmolarity of tear film microvolumes in keratoconjunctivitis sicca,” Archives of Ophthalmology, 1978.
Mathers, W, MD, Tear Film and Treatment of Dry Eye Disease, RxSchools.com, 2005
Mathers, W, MD, Dry Eye Relief in a Unique Application, Vision Care Product News, 1999.
“Method and Kit for Moisturizing the Surface of the Eye,” US patent 7,524,511B, 2009.
