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Taking care of Eye Allergies

Eye allergy is also known as ocular allergy or allergic conjunctivitis. Eye allergy occurs when an allergy sensitive substance irritates the eye. Like any other allergies, eye allergy is also initiated by the immune system, where it recognises a harmless substance as an allergen and produce antibodies. These antibodies further releases chemicals, that can irritate the eye, which shows all the symptoms of eye allergic reaction, that include itching in the eyes, producing in the eye, eye become red or swollen.

Most of the eye allergies are seasonal like, allergic rhinitis in hay fever, that are usually caused due to mold spore and pollen. Eye allergy may cause temporary blurriness or even for some extent threat to the eyesight. However, infection can also cause similar symptoms of eye allergies. Hence, one need to be confirmed it with the doctor. Most of the times a cold compress can give you an immediate relief, but for complete relief, you need to identify the exact cause and the allergens and treat the symptoms.
Symptoms of Eye Allergy includes
1) Eye allergies can also occur alone or with other allergies like nasal allergies and the allergic skin.
2) Redness in the white of the eye or the inner eyelid.
3) Itchy and watery eyes, burning sensation, swollen eyelid, blurred vision, and sensitivity to light.
What should not be done during the Eye Allergies
1) Avoid rubbing the eye, it can make the symptoms more worse. Rubbing may cause to release more chemicals inside the, that cause the eyes to itch during the allergic reaction.
2) Remove the contact lenses out, if you wear them,
3) Avoid eye makeup,
4) Apply cold compresses to your eyes.
5) Wash your hands often.
Covering up Eye Allergy
a) Apply a concealer, that do not produce allergy, to help hide dark circles.
Eye Allergy are Triggered by
a) Most of the eye allergies are seasonal like, allergic rhinitis in hay fever, that are usually caused due to mold spore and pollen.
b) There are some indoor allergens such as pet dander and dust mites can also cause eye allergies year-round. Usually the symptoms worsen during cleaning the house or grooming a pet.
c) Medications and cosmetics can play a significant role in causing eye allergies.
Clean Away Allergens
1) If dust mites trigger the symptoms, change the bedding and pillowcases with a new one. Wash sheets in hot water.
2) Clean floors with a clean and damp mop.
3) If indoor molds trigger the symptoms, regularly clean all the areas where molds can grow, such as bathrooms, basements and kitchens.
4) Keep the humidity levels in the home between 30% and 50%.
Treating Eye Allergies
It is usually treated symptomatically
1) Antihistamines combat symptoms by blocking the effect of chemicals that can trigger the symptoms.
2) Mast cell stabilizers prevent the release of chemicals, that can trigger the symptoms, from mast cells.
3) Decongestant eye drops decreases redness by shrinking the swollen blood vessels in the eyes.
4) Immunotherapy makes the immune system accustom to the allergic substances .

Study identifies genetic mutation in those who behave reckless when drunk

University of Helsinki researchers have identified a genetic mutation which renders carriers susceptible to particularly impulsive and reckless behavior when drunk. More than one hundred thousand Finns carry this mutation. Many Finns know somebody whose behavior becomes excessively strange and erratic when drunk. They are said to be unable to "hold their liquor," and others are surprised at how inebriated they become from just a small amount of alcohol. Since the trait seems permanent, it can be assumed that there are underlying biological factors.

If these results prove significant in larger clinical samples of individual patients who suffer greatly from difficulties in impulse control, several preventive measures could be taken. The most important measure would obviously be controlling the consumption of alcohol. Other measures would include attempting to achieve control over behavior through cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy or medication.

Apart from the putative effect on the health of Finnish population, the discovery of this biological mechanism may be groundbreaking in understanding the role of the serotonin 2B receptor in humans. Novel neurobiological research is becoming increasingly aware of the fact that the expression of a gene -- that is, the gene's production of proteins can be affected in various ways. The findings may elucidate the role of the serotonin 2B receptor in the health of any given population. Moreover, increasing knowledge of the function of the serotonin 2B receptor may lead to new pharmacological innovations, since no medications specific to it are presently available.

The discovery is based on long-term research cooperation between the University of Helsinki Psychiatry Clinic and the Dr David Goldman's laboratory of Neurogenetics at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in the United States.

How we watch TV can help detect eye related issues

Scientists have come out with a new way to find out eye related problems, by examining how your eyes respond to viewing TV. Researchers based at City University London have found out that they could identify illness such as glaucoma by just having a look at the maps of a person movement of eye while they watched a film or a movie.

Just before the beginning or onset of a permanent damage, the researchers could help find a diagnosis, that would help the clinicians to identify the disease priorly and that allows treatment to begin before the initial stage of permanent damage.

Affecting around 65 million people worldwide, glaucoma describes a group of eye conditions that result in progressive damage to the optic nerve which connects the retina to the brain, causing people to gradually lose vision.

The team led by Professor David Crabb along with Dr Nicholas Smith and Dr Haogang Zhu, compared a group of 32 elderly people with healthy vision to 44 patients with a clinical diagnosis of glaucoma. Both groups underwent standard vision examinations and disease severity was also measured for the group with clinical diagnoses. Participants were then subjected to three unmodified TV and movie clips on a computer when an eye tracking equipment recorded all eye movement and basically the direction in which people were looking.

Professor Crabb said that once the damage is done it cannot be reversed, so early diagnosis would be vital for identifying a disease which would get more prevalent as the population ages.The paper is published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.

Deaths from lack of exercise double those due to obesity

A new study has demonstrated that lack of exercise is responsible for twice as many deaths as obesity.

The study conducted by University of Cambridge suggested that a brisk 20 minute walk each day could be enough to reduce an individual's risk of early death.

The study of over 334,000 European men and women found that twice as many deaths may be attributable to lack of physical activity compared with the number of deaths attributable to obesity, but that just a modest increase in physical activity could have significant health benefits.

Physical inactivity has been consistently associated with an increased risk of early death, as well as being associated with a greater risk of diseases such as heart disease and cancer. Although it may also contribute to an increased body mass index (BMI) and obesity, the association with early death is independent of an individual's BMI.

The researchers found that the greatest reduction in risk of premature death occurred in the comparison between inactive and moderately inactive groups, judged by combining activity at work with recreational activity, just under a quarter (22.7 percent) of participants were categorized as inactive, reporting no recreational activity in combination with a sedentary occupation. The impact was greatest amongst normal weight individuals, but even those with higher BMI saw a benefit.

Its official: Scratching does increase itchiness

A new research has cracked the answers to as why scratching makes one itch more and has observed that scratching causes the brain to release serotonin, which intensifies the itch sensation. The study conducted at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, showed that findings in mice are same vicious cycle of itching and scratching is thought to occur in humans.

Zhou-Feng Chen, PhD, director of Washington University's Center for the Study of Itch, said that the problem was that when the brain geot those pain signals, it responded by producing the neurotransmitter serotonin to help control that pain but as serotonin spreads from the brain into the spinal cord, they found the chemical could "jump the tracks" moving from pain-sensing neurons to nerve cells that influenced itch intensity.

The researchers bred a strain of mice that lacked the genes to make serotonin. When those genetically engineered mice were injected with a substance that normally makes the skin itch, the mice didn't scratch as much as their normal littermates but when the genetically altered mice were injected with serotonin, they scratched as mice would be expected to in response to compounds designed to induce itching.

Chen said that they always have wondered why this vicious itch-pain cycle occurs. Their findings suggest that the events happen in this order. First, one scratch, and that causes a sensation of pain then one make more serotonin to control the pain but serotonin does more than only inhibit pain. The study is published in the journal Neuron.

Toilets key to improving child health in India

A study by an Indian- origin research shows that setting up toilets and washroom felicities in India, in order to reduce open defecation is the main key to significant health benefits for children in India. As many as 60 percent of rural households and slums do not have an access to sanitary felicities even after crossing 66 years of independence as per the latest government survey.

But the situation in urban India is far more better than rural one, as only a less than 9 percent of the population are lacking from the felicity.
A team of researchers led by Sumeet Patil from School of Public Health, University of California at Berkeley, and the Network for Engineering, Economics Research and Management in Mumbai conducted a randomized trial in 80 rural villages in Madhya Pradesh, from which the conclusion was made.

A total of about 18.9 percent of slum households defecate in open air and only 15. 1 percent use public toilets and latrines.
A slum settlement always lack access to adequate water supply, sanitation and hygienic living conditions. They also face other challenges and basic necessities like electricity, properly maintained roads, safe housing etc.

lack of sanitation and toilet felicities do occur due to lack of supportive infrastructure, space limitedness, low income levels of slum residents and also poor, pitiful levels of government interventions give rise to main causative factors to such situations.

"Source of drinking water is available to 56.7 percent of households within the premises in slums, 31.9 percent have the sources situated within 100 meters and 11.4 percent have to travel more than 100 meters to fetch drinking water," the report says.

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