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How to treat dry eyes
Vision care column
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Depending on the cause of dry eyes, the condition may not be cured, but the associated tearing, scratchiness and burning can be managed.
Over-the-counter lubricating eye drops commonly referred to as artificial tears, may alleviate the dry and scratchy feeling. Artificial tears help to add more moisture and lubrication to the surface of your eyes.
Certain prescription medications may also help with dry eyes. Restasis eye drops (cyclosporine A 0.5 percent) increases your natural ability to produce tears which may be reduced due to inflammation caused by chronic dry eye.
Different surgies may help decrease symptoms. Near the inner corner of each eyelid are small openings, called puncta, that are the beginning of the normal tear drainage system. Punctal occlusion helps by decreasing the normal drainage of tears off the eye and down the drain. Just like a stopper that you put in the drain of a sink, these plugs keep the tears from flowing down the tear drainage system. Therefore, your eyes stay more moist and comfortable.
Certain nutritional supplements also help with dry eyes. Studies have found that supplements containing certain essential fatty acids (linoleic and gamma-linoleic) can decrease dry eye symptoms.
Studies have also shown foods containing omega-3- fatty acids (such as salmon) reduce chances of developing dry eyes.
As you can see, patience and persistence on the part of the eye doctor and the patient are essential for the diagnosis and management of dry eyes. By using an individualized approach to dry eye therapy, sufferers of dry eye can most often experience considerable improvement.

Rowe and Pittman work for Professional Eye Care. For more information, call 368-2020.
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From the book 'Outliers' comes proof that good health is more than just genetics
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Friends Jim Young, left, Mike Natale, Jeff Natale and Ryan Kiernan were on Greenwich High School football team together and Jim and Mike were captains. Jim, who was the youngest in Sherry Young's family, was welcome in the homes of the other three boys who still had siblings around and grandparents near. - photo by Sherry Young
As I look back on my life and the lives of others, both personally and in the reading I have done, I am convinced of the necessity of positive human contact in our lives. We are doubly blessed when we are able to make good friends or are a part of a family where we are accepted and loved.

Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers tells of a time in the 1950s when Dr. Stewart Wolf met a physician who practiced in the area of Roseto, Pennsylvania. Roseto was settled by a group of Italian families from Roseto, Italy, who re-created their life again in America.

This was in the 1950s before drugs and measures to prevent heart disease became important. In their conversation the physician said, You know, Ive been practicing for 17 years. I get patients from all over, and I rarely find anyone from Roseto under the age of 65 with heart disease.

Wolf was surprised by these words as, It was impossible to be a doctor, common sense said, and not see heart disease.

Wolf enlisted the aid of a sociologist and friend John Bruhn to help him. They found, There was no suicide, no alcoholism, no drug addiction, and very little crime. They didnt have anyone on welfare. Then we looked at peptic ulcers. They didnt have any of those either. These people were dying of old age. Thats it.

They checked into diet, genetics and possibilities of something in the foothills of eastern Pennsylvania but nothing made sense.

What they found was that Rosetans visited one another, stopping to chat in Italian on the street, say, or cooking for one another in their backyards. (Researchers) learned about the extended family clans that underlay the towns social structure. They saw how many homes had three generations living under one roof and how much respect grandparents commanded. They went to Mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel and saw the unifying and calming effect of the church. They counted 22 separate civic organizations in a town of just under 2,000 people. They picked up on the particular egalitarian ethos of the community, which discouraged the wealthy from flaunting their success and helped the unsuccessful obscure their failures.

What they found eventually convinced the medical establishment to look beyond the individual and understand the culture people are part of their friends, families and town they came from. They determined that the people we surround ourselves with and the values of the world we inhabit have a profound effect on who we are.

Likely, this study could have been done with other ethnicities. However, my family's experiences with the Italian families in Connecticut ring true to the study. Our hungry and growing sons, especially our youngest son, Jim, who was left home alone with two beady-eyed parents, all had some memorable experiences being fed and loved in the Cos Cob multigenerational families. Proof of the African proverb, It takes a village to raise a child.

We live in an age when the contact we have with people often is on the internet, and many of us live among strangers. Unless we make the effort to reach out, we will become isolated, especially as we age. The Rosetan study is proof that reaching out and communicating may be good for our health.
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