Is Rubbing Your Eyes Good or Bad?

Is rubbing your eyes good or bad? In this video we review why you shouldn't rub your eyes and what happen if you do. We also share 3 tips on how to stop rubbing your eyes (how to stop itchy eyes).

Is rubbing your eyes bad for you? Unfortunately, yes. Eye rubbing may feel good momentarily but often makes itchy eyes feel much worse. Eye rubbing breaks a cell in your eyelid tissues called a "mast cell" which releases histamine. Histamine then causes dilation of your blood vessels and swelling of your eyelid tissue which in turns makes things worse.

Eye rubbing is harmful in that it is strongly associated with the development and progression of keratoconus. Keratoconus is an eye disease where the cornea progressively things and protrudes from its normal shape, inducing high levels of irregular astigmatism. Rubbing the eyes is believed to aggravate an enzymatic breakdown of the corneal collagen which speeds up this condition.

How to Stop Rubbing Your Eyes
1. Consider doing cold compresses on your eyelids with a cold washrag
2. Use artificial tear eye drops
3. Try anti-histamine medications and eye drops

Allergy Eye Drops for Itchy Eyes
1. Pataday 0.1%
2. Pataday 0.2%
3. Pataday 0.7%
4. Alaway (Preservative Free)

Not a fan of eye drops? Learn ways to manage eye allergies without eye drops in this playlist:

This video is NOT SPONSORED
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Itchy eyes can also be a symptom of blepharitis

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[maenad]

“Have you ever noticed your itchiness gets worse after rubbing your eye?” No, Doctor, quite the opposite — which is the whole reason I do it 😐

[TheScure]

Why didn't anyone tell us these things in school

[kimnarveson]

I have horrible spring allergies and I have been known to rub to the point of BIG REGRET! Can cause me inflammation for days. Compresses, drops and lid wipes save the day!

[nicole]

I must subscriber and a binge watcher. I just found out that I was misdiagnosed in December with dry eye, and it was actually a detached retina. It has been detached for three months and I just had surgery on Monday. It’s not going well. Anybody who’s reading this-please send me your prayers and positive thoughts.

[thegamingconnoisseur]

I've been waiting a long time for a video like this it is 100% accurate, I dealt with keratoconus for 20 years, and have had two successful cornea transplants.

[yewarrhorez]

My step sister actually rubbed her eyes enough she detached her cornea and had to have surgery

[Mibh]

I love how this video gets on my feed exactly when i was rubbing my eye

[PrincessKryssiQT]

At my follow up eye doctor appointment today. My doctor was telling me about cleaning my eye lids for helping with my dry eyes. I told her funny she brought that up because I started watching this Eye Doctor on YouTube who has these videos about that. She asked oh is it Dr.Allen. I brought up your channel and she was so happy she said she met you a couple of years ago. She is just as awesome as you are. Her name is Dr. Alex Hutzell. You have fans here in Oregon.

[lukehall]

My dad told me not to rub my eyes when I was young. I just thought that's what parents say to their kids.. I wish I listened :(

[freezeyjn]

I greatly appreciate your informative videos. Your video series on colorblindness was hugely helpful to me and my family when we found out my son has deuteronomaly. You may have heard this already - but in your videos you talk really fast. My wife is from Mexico, fully fluent in English but Spanish is her native language, and when we were watching your colorblindness videos together it was very hard for her to understand you due to how fast you talk. We had to slow the video down to 0.5x speed to watch it together.

[Devin-pwqw]

wish i would have known this way sooner

[nutsachey]

thanks doc, i've been rubbing my eyes till they feel squishy, i will try to stop

[Lukiel]

I rub my eyes daily, once. Washing my eyelids/face in the morning after 10 minute hot eye mask for my dry eyes. Cleans off the Systane ointment I put in my eyes before bed.

[fatcatowner]

I developed astigmatism on one of my eyes due to excessive eyerubbing due to my allergies. Love it here

[hkqvxlv]

We will never forget the girl who rubbed her eye and blood staryed coming from her eye

[SorcererMason]

My eyes are blue instead of white is it normal

[VNMOUS]

Omg! I just got this advice from an optometrist today after my post-op LASIK check up

[yusufmahsan]

How do I clean the crust after waking up?

[sidrahtehreem]

Thanks a million ophthal, ur videos r just awesome, n love ur shorts more which is very informative in a few seconds

[zedhow]

that makes so much sense why i lost my eyes