Tear Study May Help Contact Lens Wearers

"When contact lenses work best, wearers forget forget they are on their eyes. But after too many hours of wear, the lenses and the wearer's eyes dry out, causing irritation that might outweigh the convenience of contacts. Now researchers hope to alleviate that pain by both advancing the understanding of how natural tears keep our eyes comfortable, and developing a machine for designing better contact lenses," according to a post on Western Daily Press. "The work was inspired in part by a scientist's own dry eyes. Doctor Saad Bhamla, of Stanford University in the US, said: 'As a student, I had to stop wearing lenses due to the increased discomfort. Focusing my PhD thesis to understand this problem was both a personal and professional goal.' The researchers suspected that most of the discomfort arises from the break up of the tear film, a wet coating on the surface of the eye, during a process called dewetting." Read more.

Tear Film Contributes to Contact Lens Discomfort?

“Changes in the lipid layer of the eyes' natural tear film may contribute to the common problem of contact lens discomfort, reports a study in the December issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry,” according to Medical Xpress. “Applying a liposomal eyelid spray appears to reduce drying of the tear film and help make wearing contact lenses more comfortable, according to the pilot study by Fiona Stapleton, PhD, FAAO, of University of New South Wales, Sydney, and colleagues.” Read more.

Eyes Windows to One's Soul; Tears May Be Its Language

According to a NYTimes post, "research, published on Thursday in the journal Science, could begin to explain something that has baffled scientists for generations: Why do humans, unlike seemingly any other species, cry emotional tears? In several experiments, researchers found that men who sniffed drops of women’s emotional tears became less sexually aroused than when they sniffed a neutral saline solution that had been dribbled down women’s cheeks."