A few days ago, when I went out on a trip, the wind was a little strong, which made Xiao Zhang’s eyes uncomfortable. His canthus became moist involuntarily, and tears came out in the blink of an eye.
Xiao Zhang was a little puzzled. After checking on the Internet, he found that there were still many entries related to [tears in the wind]. Moreover, many people said that this was a bad manifestation of liver and kidney. What should I do? Do I want to see a doctor?
Is it a disease to shed tears in the wind?
In fact, people’s eyes are always [crying]. The reason why we can’t feel it is because the amount of tears secreted is very small and is only stored in the gap between eyelids and eyeballs, which is called basic tears. At the same time of blinking, the eyelids will gently evenly smear tears on the surface of the eyes to form a layer of [tear film] to moisten the eyes.
The eyeball is a [delicate] organ, especially the cells on the surface of the eyeball, which have a strong perception of the external environment. Once stimulated by the outside world, the amount of tears will obviously increase, and the tears secreted at this time are called reflective tears, which can play a role in protecting the eyes.
The amount of tears varies with the degree of stimulation. When you are less, you can feel nothing. When you are more, you can feel like crying. The amount of tears is especially large.
Common stimuli include blowing, foreign bodies, irritant gases, etc. The stronger the wind blows and the longer it blows, the more obvious the tears will naturally flow.
So, can we understand that crying in the wind is a normal phenomenon and there is no need to worry at all?
No, we can’t say that absolutely.
In some patients, the sensitivity of eye surface cells has increased, and the eyes are prone to an [overreaction] state to external stimuli, resulting in excessive reflex secretion of tears. This phenomenon may be related to some eye surface diseases.
Who is more likely to shed tears in the wind?
1. Patients with dry eye
For dry eye patients, the most direct effect of blowing is to strengthen the evaporation of tears, resulting in more obvious dryness of the eye surface. This dryness will also stimulate the cells on the eye surface, resulting in rapid secretion and outflow of reflective tears. In addition, the increase of inflammatory factors on the eye surface of dry eye patients may also lead to more [sensitive] eyes.
Dry eye is more common in the middle-aged and elderly people, so the phenomenon of weeping in the wind is also more common. However, young people have been working in front of the computer for a long time, and the performance of dry eye is also more obvious, which can increase the number of blinks to relieve dry eye symptoms.
2. Patients with ocular surface diseases such as conjunctivitis
Various acute or chronic inflammation of eye surface tissues will significantly increase the sensitivity of the eye.
In addition, some patients have too much tear secreted and stored on the eye surface, such as corneal epithelial defect caused by trichiasis, or tear cannot be discharged smoothly due to obstruction of lacrimal passage.
Some patients may not have obvious feelings at ordinary times, but if some more wind is blown at this time, there will probably be obvious tears.
3. Tear discharge system problems
For example, inflammation or blockage of lacrimal dot and lacrimal canaliculus, displacement of lacrimal dot. Although only a small amount of tears increased by stimulation can also lead to obvious lacrimal symptoms.
4. People with Mental Disorders
The autonomic nervous system is unstable and easily stimulated to shed tears.
In addition, some studies have shown that people who have been exposed to irritant gas environment for a long time and patients with bad habits such as alcohol and tobacco will also increase the performance of weeping in the wind.
Need treatment?
In our life, it is difficult for us to judge the degree of irritation of various [winds] to our eyes. Therefore, weeping in the wind is a subjective symptom. It is difficult to judge whether there is any abnormality in our eyes without passing the ophthalmic examination. Here are some helpful evidences for your reference:
- Tearing symptoms that occur in some environments with strong air convection, Reference significance is not big. For example, it is blowing against the fan, riding a motorcycle or bicycle in the wind, going out in typhoon days, etc. In these environments, normal people will also shed tears. Pay attention to whether there are other discomfort, such as foreign body sensation, red eyes, dry eyes, eye excrement and other symptoms. Observe that there is no stimulation such as blowing, and it is not easy to shed tears.
If you feel that you are really easy to shed tears in the wind, or accompanied by other discomfort, it is recommended that you go to the ophthalmology department in time and let the doctor help you solve this problem.
If the doctor tells you after examination that there is nothing wrong with your eyes, congratulations: your eyes are fine and do not need treatment at all!
If inflammation and dry eye do exist on the eye surface, the doctor will give you appropriate advice and doctor’s advice according to your condition, such as optimizing your living habits and using eye drops to spot your eyes.