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Your eyes need oxygen

RichardR

Master Poster
RichardR
Joined
Nov 21, 2001
Messages
2,274
... according to the commercials for O2-Optix, anyway:

Look at contact lenses in a completely new way! O2OPTIXTM transmit up to 5x more Oxygen than traditional hydrogel lenses* - so eyes can stay whiter and healthy-looking, no matter how long lenses are worn every day. So open your eyes to breathable O2OPTIXTM contact lenses!

To be healthy - eyes need Oxygen

Your eyes need Oxygen to stay healthy and comfortable. But soft contact lenses often create a barrier to the natural flow of Oxygen between your eyes and the air around them. New O2OPTIXTM provides high Oxygen transmissibility, helping to keep eyes whiter, and healthy-looking.
Click to expand...
This sounds woo to me. Does anyone know if this makes sense, scientifically?
 
As an ex-contact wearer, I was usually more concerned with keeping my eyes wet than pumped with oxygen. Though, as far as I know, that dry sensation might have been a lack of oxygen.
 
My lenses are plastic. Not as flexible as the original equipment, but are just as impervious to oxygen and other gasses as it was.
I'll keep an eye out fer ya.
 
The cornea is the only living, dividing tissue in the body that requires oxygen to be provided to it circumventing the normal means (i.e., blood being carried in relatively close proximity to tissues). Oxygenation to the cornea is accomplished when we blink, as it spreads oxygen rich fluid (a.k.a. tears) over the cornea. Likewise, the insides of our eyelids are richly lined with capillaries. (It's hard to get a good grasp on how much we actually do blink, but it's on the order of 20,000 times per day while we're awake. Of course, when we're sleeping... non-issue.) OTOH, the inner part of the cornea is oxygenated by the fluid, the aqueous humor, that circulates within the compartment between that inner surface and the iris/lens.

It would stand to reason that the more highly permeable substance that lenses are made of, the better they'd be tolerated by the wearer (i.e., the longer you could go with them in before the deleterious effects of sub-optimal oxygenation would become apparent). However, even a near-perfect substance will still collect proteins and other cellular by-products and could not be worn "forever". If you choke your eyes of oxygen for too long, you can get a condition called corneal neovascularization. That's a bad, bad thing.

-Dr. Imago
 
Dr. Imago said:
The cornea is the only living, dividing tissue in the body that requires oxygen to be provided to it circumventing the normal means (i.e., blood being carried in relatively close proximity to tissues). Oxygenation to the cornea is accomplished when we blink, as it spreads oxygen rich fluid (a.k.a. tears) over the cornea. Likewise, the insides of our eyelids are richly lined with capillaries. (It's hard to get a good grasp on how much we actually do blink, but it's on the order of 20,000 times per day while we're awake. Of course, when we're sleeping... non-issue.) OTOH, the inner part of the cornea is oxygenated by the fluid, the aqueous humor, that circulates within the compartment between that inner surface and the iris/lens.

It would stand to reason that the more highly permeable substance that lenses are made of, the better they'd be tolerated by the wearer (i.e., the longer you could go with them in before the deleterious effects of sub-optimal oxygenation would become apparent). However, even a near-perfect substance will still collect proteins and other cellular by-products and could not be worn "forever". If you choke your eyes of oxygen for too long, you can get a condition called corneal neovascularization. That's a bad, bad thing.

-Dr. Imago
Click to expand...
Well, it seems that settles that.
 
Dr. Imago said:
(It's hard to get a good grasp on how much we actually do blink, but it's on the order of 20,000 times per day while we're awake. Of course, when we're sleeping... non-issue.)
Click to expand...
I have a question concerning this. My wife suffers from something having the horrible sounding name of 'corneal erosion'. Apparently, the outer layer of the cornea loosens, and this happens especially when the eye is dry. The worst time is in the morning, and we have been told that that is because the eye has dried out during the night because not enough fluid is added to the eye when closed. The first time my wife blinks in the morning, she is having a terrible pain because of the loose cells that are swept off in the beginning.

What I infer from your comment above, the eye does get enough fluid during the night. How come that patients with corneal erosion get more pain in the morning than at other times?
 
steenkh said:
I have a question concerning this. My wife suffers from something having the horrible sounding name of 'corneal erosion'. Apparently, the outer layer of the cornea loosens, and this happens especially when the eye is dry. The worst time is in the morning, and we have been told that that is because the eye has dried out during the night because not enough fluid is added to the eye when closed. The first time my wife blinks in the morning, she is having a terrible pain because of the loose cells that are swept off in the beginning.

What I infer from your comment above, the eye does get enough fluid during the night. How come that patients with corneal erosion get more pain in the morning than at other times?
Click to expand...
I have dry eyes too with the same problem as your wife. It takes me ages to get my eyes open in the morning. The problem is that I do not produce enough tears to keep the cornea moist. I had a small wick inserted in my lower lid to test my tear production.

I'm not clear why blinking would help moisten the cornea more than just keeping your eyes shut. Perhaps the action of blinking stimulates tear production. One solution is to plug the tear duct with a small plastic grommit to prevent the tears from draining faster than they are produced.
 
I have a similar question about oxygen:

My friend just bought a special "cat drinking fountain". It is supposed to put more oxygen in their water. I can’t imagine what benefit oxygen has to the stomach. Is there any benefit in drinking water with lots of air bubbles in it (I assume that’s how it gets the oxygen in the water)?

LLH
 
LordoftheLeftHand said:
I have a similar question about oxygen:

My friend just bought a special "cat drinking fountain". It is supposed to put more oxygen in their water. I can’t imagine what benefit oxygen has to the stomach. Is there any benefit in drinking water with lots of air bubbles in it (I assume that’s how it gets the oxygen in the water)?

LLH
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It's of no benefit unless your cat has gills.

Actually, I have one of those too. I think the benefit is that cats like the sound of running water. Also, it filters the dust and furballs out of the water (if they drink from the fountain, as my cat does).
 
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Dr. Imago said:
The cornea is the only living, dividing tissue in the body that requires oxygen to be provided to it circumventing the normal means (i.e., blood being carried in relatively close proximity to tissues). Oxygenation to the cornea is accomplished when we blink, as it spreads oxygen rich fluid (a.k.a. tears) over the cornea.
Click to expand...

So if I understand you correctly, the eyes do need oxygen but they get it from tear fluid. Contacts might prevent oxygen in the tears from reaching the cornea, and so these lenses might work if they do, in fact, allow oxygen (or tears) to pass through.

Thanks for the explanation.
 
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