This podcast episode delves into the often overlooked yet pivotal domain of eye health, a critical component of overall wellness that directly influences our energy, focus, productivity, and emotional well-being. I am joined by Dr. Pam Theriot, a distinguished TEDx speaker and nationally recognized dry eye specialist, who elucidates the profound impact of our visual habits on daily performance and long-term health. Through a scientifically grounded examination, Dr. Terrio advocates for simple, actionable changes in our eye care routines that can yield significant benefits. The conversation further explores the intricacies of how our eyes function and the implications of modern digital habits on our visual health. We encourage you to treat your eye care as you do your dental hygiene, so you're equipped with the knowledge to preserve your vision throughout your life. The episode provides an in-depth examination of the critical role that eye health plays in our overall well-being. Dr. Pam Theriot, an esteemed authority in ocular care, articulates the profound impact of vision on various life domains, including mental acuity, emotional health, and productivity. Through her expert insights, listeners gain an understanding of how neglecting eye care can lead to a cascade of adverse effects on both professional and personal levels. Dr. Theriot emphasizes the importance of adopting a structured regimen for eye care, akin to the routines we follow for dental hygiene. She outlines practical steps individuals can take to safeguard their vision, such as using eyelid cleansers, incorporating artificial tears into their daily routine, and regularly applying warm compresses to enhance ocular comfort and health. The conversation also highlights the detrimental effects of prolonged screen exposure, particularly the reduction in blink rates that can exacerbate dry eye conditions. This episode is a valuable resource that encourages listeners to take proactive steps to maintain their eye health. Dr. Theriot advocates for ocular awareness to inspire a shift in how we prioritize vision care, so eye health is seen as a fundamental part of overall wellness. By implementing the strategies discussed, individuals can potentially mitigate the risks associated with vision loss, ensuring a clearer and more vibrant future.

Takeaways:

• The podcast emphasizes the importance of eye health as a fundamental aspect of overall wellness, frequently overlooked by many individuals.
• Dr. Pam Theriot, a distinguished dry eye specialist, shares essential daily habits for maintaining optimal eye health and preventing vision problems.
• The conversation elucidates the significant impact that proper eye care practices can have on productivity, mood, and mental focus throughout daily activities.
• Listeners are encouraged to incorporate specific products, such as lid cleansers and artificial tears, into their routine for improved eye health.
• The episode highlights the detrimental effects of prolonged screen time on eye health, particularly on blink rates and tear production.
• Dr. Theriot advocates for a proactive approach to eye care, likening it to the regular maintenance of dental hygiene, underscoring its necessity in daily life.

Links referenced in this episode:

• www.PamTheriot.com

Welcome back to Trailblazers and Titans, a show where we explore stories, strategies and breakthroughs of people who are making lasting impact in their fields and in the world. I AM your host, Dr. Keith Haney and today we're going to dive into a topic that affects every single one of us.

Yet one of the most under underlooked overlooked pillars of wellness, eye health. But I'm. But if I told you your vision helps direct directly impact your energy, focus, slow sleep, productivity and even your mood.

Our guest today has been sounding alarm for many years. I'm honored to have Dr. Pam Terrio TEDx speaker, author and nationally recognized dry eye specialist.

She brings a powerful science backed perspective on how simple daily changes on the way we use our eyes can dramatically improve our performance and long term health. Her insights land where most experts don't look right in front of her eyes. Pam, welcome to the podcast.

Thanks for having me so much Dr. Haney. I'm glad to be here.

Good to be here with you. I'm looking forward to this to be a great conversation.

Absolutely.

I hope we see eye to eye on this. Just kidding.

There's got to be a couple of good eye puns in there from time to time. I'll just throw them in.

I couldn't, I couldn't resist. I'm going to ask you my favorite question. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Right. So just the other day somebody told me you cannot will your will and so you can't.

I believe I was put on this planet with a dream in my heart which was to share with the world ways in which we can take care of our eyes. Because vision is our most precious scents. Most people, if you ask them like what, what are you afraid of other than death?

Losing your sight is really top 10. And yet we don't do anything to take care of our eyes. On a regular basis. We stand in front of the mirror and we brush our teeth twice a day.

We sometimes floss, we use mouthwash. We have all these tools to take care of our teeth and if they fell out of our mouth twice tomorrow, we could just get new ones.

I mean it wouldn't be no big deal, but we could get new ones. If our eyes fell out of our head tomorrow, we would look really weird, number one. Number two, we wouldn't be able to see.

And yet we don't do anything on a daily basis to take care of our eyes. And so that is my, that is my will to show people, to explain to people what they need to do to care for their most precious scents.

You know, that's interesting. I've never thought about that. If you were. So let's dig into that a little, because I've never thought about how you take care of your eyes.

So give us some examples of things we can do daily to take care of our eyes. Like we do our teeth, right? Maybe not just like our teeth, but.

Really there is a really direct correlation. So our eyes, the front surface of our eyes is a mucous membrane much like our nose.

Our gums a little bit, are like that, where they have a biofilm on them. They have bacteria that live on our gums, and that's why we go and get our plaque scraped off the same thing.

We get this biofilm on the edge of our eyelids. And so for us women, we're messing with our eyes every day because we wear makeup and then we remove it. And so for men, it's.

It's even worse that you. You don't touch your eyes on a regular basis. We wash our faces, but we know that our eyes are delicate.

So most people aren't going in and doing anything additional to their. Their lids and their lashes because they're delicate. But as I said, there's that biofilm on there.

There's bacteria that normally live on our lids and lashes, and it can get kind of crusty. It can clog the oil glands that live there. So the most important thing that we could do on a daily basis is clean our lids and lashes.

And if you were to go to the eye care aisle at the pharmacy or the grocery store, just like they have toothbrushes and toothpaste, there are eyelid cleansing products in that aisle. So above and beyond artificial tears, there are lid cleansers that you could use to control that biofilm that's on your eyes.

It does a lot of good things for us. Brings down inflammation around our eyes because that extra bacteria is going to cause inflammation on the front surface.

And the removing of that biofilm will help to open up the area where the oil glands live on our lids. We'll talk about this more in depth later.

But that oil comes out every time we blink our eyes and spreads across the front surface of our eye, keeping our tears on our eyes longer, thus making our vision more clear throughout the day.

Wow, this is really. I did not know that you taught me something new today. I love talking about you about this. This is great. So I know athlete.

I'm gonna go right to the pharmacy and get that you just mentioned. So thanks for that. No, Problem, you know, how does I health directly?

You talk about how it directly impacts our energy levels, our mental focus, overall performance. Tell us a little bit about how that iHealth does all that.

Right. So it goes back to what I was just talking about with those oil glands. So inside of our upper and lower lids, there's 30 oil glands, roughly.

And every time we blink, our lids come together and a little bit of oil comes out of the lids and gets spread over the front surface of our eye. When light hits our eye, it hits our tear film first, Right?

So if your tear film is not clear, then the image doesn't go to the back of our eye and to our brain as a clear, clear image. So as we are sitting and doing our work throughout the day, we're staring at our digital devices. We need to blink and clear our vision.

If our vision isn't clear, then we. We struggle, we blink some more. Maybe we rub, maybe we grab a bottle of artificial tears. We put tears in our eyes. That cuts our mental focus.

So every time needs to stop doing the tasks that we're doing. It takes a certain amount of time to get back to what we're doing.

So our productivity level goes down, even our imagination goes down because our creativity is also being altered. We're stopping doing what we're. What we're thinking about, and we're having to break clear our vision.

Think about that for a few minutes, do something to get our vision clear again, and then go back to what we're doing. So it is cutting down the quality of our work.

I know we have a pastor in our area who talks a lot about screen use and how that's really detrimental, especially to young people. But it's not just a young people thing. I know people have tried things like special blue lens glasses.

When you have a lot of screen time, what are the you as an eye doctor? What are the psychological effects of prolonged screen use on the brain and on our nervous system?

So what. What I'd like to talk about is the prolonged effects on our eyes, right? And so as we're looking at our screens that.

Let me, let me go back, roll back a little bit.

So if you and I were sitting at a table and we're sitting across from one another, we're drinking some tea, some coffee, and we're having a chat, we would blink 21 times a minute. Just naturally. We're just talking, we're blinking. Now.

If you handed me a book or a piece of paper and said, hey, read this, my blink rate would go down. Because now I'm concentrating on that piece of paper.

But if you handed it to me on your phone and said, read this, our blink rate would go all the way down to only seven times a minute. So instead of 21 times, it will go all the way down to seven times. And that is what's happening all day long every day.

Most working people are in front of their computers, let's say six to eight hours while they're at work, then they're getting off of work and they're grabbing their phone or they're watching a movie on their laptop or on their, on their iPad.

And so it's a matter of that we're decreasing our blink rate significantly for hours and hours and hours a day, Monday through Sunday, for decade upon decade upon decade.

And so the decrease in our blink rate is causing those oil glands in our lids is we're not exercising them as regularly they are, the oils are solidifying inside those oil glands and then they start to atrophy. Like I said, this doesn't happen because we did too much work yesterday or we did some overtime.

It's because we're doing this now all day long for decades upon decades. The 30 year olds today were, you know, born with cell phones in their hands and spending their entire lives with digital devices.

So our youth are hit by this more. In addition to that, our youth are, are still having developments of their visual system and not.

And then having this device in their faces can cause nearsightedness to be more prevalent as well.

Wow, you're sharing some interesting facts with me I never thought about before.

When you work with people, about when they come to see you as an eye doctor, what are some of the things you are trying to identify in a typical exam that we may not be aware of?

Well, I'm looking closely at the front surface of the eye. So I utilize different colored dyes, we put them in the eye to make the tears shine back at me at different colors.

And knowing where the tears pool within the eye can tell me if different structures of the eye are in trouble. So what happens when we're not blinking regularly is that our tears evaporate on the front surface of our eye when we more readily.

And that can actually leave dry patches on the clear cornea of the eye. So when light goes into the eye, it hits the tears first and then the second thing it hits is the cornea.

And if the cornea dries out, it doesn't just re lubricate the next time you blink, it can actually leave dry patches so that your vision, no matter how much you'd link, doesn't become clear again with, without intervention. And so that's specifically what I'm looking at for patients. We also look at the tear breakup time.

So after you blink your eyes, how long does it take for your tears to start to break up on the front surface of your eye? And knowing that number can tell me whether or not a patient is in trouble, if they're going to have a bigger problem in the future.

How do you distinguish between whether you have dry eye or just tired eye?

Right. So I love this question. It's really easy to know. And we're going to, we're going to do this right now.

We're going to, we're going to distinguish the two.

So if, let's say that you're at the end of the day and you're, you're having a hard time concentrating on what you're working on, your vision's kind of going in and out of focus. And do you say to your coworker, oh, I'm just, I'm just too tired. I can't look at that screen anymore? That's probably what most people say.

But we're going to do this test right now. We're going to determine are you tired or are your eyes just dry?

And the way that we're going to do this is we're going to, we're going to do a 10 second test. So, so before we do the test, we're going to do it together so you and I can just blink a couple of times.

And then after we blink, I'm going to have you hold your eyes open while I count 10 seconds out. And you're going to report to me and I'm going to report to you how many seconds we got to before you needed to blink.

And then I'll tell you what that score means. Okay, so everyone listening, go ahead and blink real hard a couple of times. Kind of get your eyes ready to go. And then 1, 2, 2, 3 and open.

Yes. 10.

What number did you get to? You got to 10. Is that all the way to 10? Awesome. Okay.

Yeah.

So your, your eyes are not dry. So at the end of the day, if they feel tired, they're just tired. I only got to six.

Okay.

Which is pretty typical for me. I have, I have dry eyes. So as I'm holding them open, I feel like, oh my gosh, I'm dying here. I'm gonna have to, I'm gonna have to blink.

And at 6, I give up the ghost. And then I've got, I've gotta blink. So, so if, if you made it to 10, your eyes are not dry. If you made it 7 to 10, they're mildly dry.

And we go 4 to 7, moderate and less than 4, your eyes are really dry. And you should definitely see your eye care professional and have that evaluated. So that's.

And what's the impact of dry eye? I'm curious in terms of what's the long term effect of having dry eye for you and your eye care?

Right. So what we were talking about earlier, your eyes feel dry now. You don't see clearly on, you know, whatever it is you're doing.

So now you're distracted. Your productivity goes down, your creativity goes down.

Some of my patients actually have anxiety from their dry eye and depression because they don't feel normal any longer. And, and they might be anxious about, oh, my eyes are so dry, I can't get my work done.

They're anxious about getting their work done in general or not, you know, not being able to turn in their work on deadline and the anxiousness and the depression can set in. On top of that, those are two medications.

If you're treating anxiety and depression, the, those medications can actually decrease tear production as well. So it becomes this vicious cycle.

You mentioned a little earlier that women have a different eye care regimen than men do. For women, what's the impact of makeup with your eye care?

Right.

So in one way it's beneficial because women are more likely to clean their eyes at the end of the day as they're removing their eye makeup and maybe they're doing a little bit more cleansing of their lids and lashes.

But here in the United States, the beauty industry is poorly regulated and there are many toxic ingredients that get into our self care or personal care products, not only our cosmetics, but things that we're using on our faces and around our eyes, like creams and lotions and cleansers.

And toxic ingredients can make their way into, into the products that you're putting on the most delicate skin, the thinnest skin of the body, which is around the eyes. And those toxic ingredients can do long term damage to the structures in the, in the front surface of the eye as well.

That's amazing. So you, you've given us a lot of details and you've given us kind of One daily thing to do.

What are four things you can do that'll really improve our vision over our lifetime?

So I call these four simple steps. And just like you use for your teeth, four, four different products every day. Toothbrush, toothpaste, gloss and gloss, wash, gloss and mouthwash.

You have. You have four products. So four products for the eyes, artificial tears. We have a lid and lash cleanser. You've already talked about those two things.

The third thing would be a warm compress. So I was telling you earlier that because we're not blinking our eyes as regularly, the oils in the oil glands of our lids can.

Can harden and solidify.

So if we use a warm compress over our eyes at the end of the day, that can help to loosen the oils that are in the lids and allow those oils to come out onto our eyes, because now they're. They're not hardened any longer. And the. The fourth product is to take a nutraceutical that supports. Supports healthy tear production.

I like to recommend omega 3 fatty acids or fish oil, because those. The fish oil is part of the building blocks of healthy tears.

So taking a fish oil supplement gives us those oils that live in those oil glands that are struggling while we're using our digital devices.

I know people who struggle to get older with a lot of floaters in their eyes. Is that. Is. Is that just something different, or is that all part of this eye care prevention that we can work on?

No. So floaters are part of our natural aging process. They actually can start in our teenage years. So you don't have to be very old to have floaters.

Some people have them, as I said, when they're teens. But the eye is an actual eyeball. So the bulk of the eye is filled with a gelatin. And when we're born, that gelatin is. Is nice and firm.

But as we live our lives, the gelatin becomes liquidy to the point when we're in our 60s, there's more liquid than gelatin any longer. And so the pieces of the gelatin can clump together and they start to swim around inside the eye.

So that if you turn your head, your eye back and forth while you're looking at the blue sky or a white wall, you might see something kind of crawling across your vision. And that's a floater. They're natural. They're just something inside of our eye that's moving around.

That's unfortunate. I thought you were gonna have a solid way to solve all my problems for me today.

Ignore them. They'll go away.

Ignore them.

Two months from now, you'll have a new one. But, yeah, try to ignore your floaters.

I'm curious, as you think about the technologies and things that are advancements that are happening, what excites you most in the eye care industry? That's kind of. You're seeing coming up on the horizon, right?

There's so many things.

Again, it's part of our life's our eyes natural life cycle that our ability to focus up close slows down after the age of 40, and it's called presbyopia. But there are new drops that you. You put in your eyes. It refocuses the size of your pupil and allows your eyes to. To see up close better.

It's really exciting not to have to rely on reading glasses to do that for our patients.

Oh, that's so cool. So I'm curious as you, you seem have a lot of passion and desire to do this. What led you into this particular field of medicine?

So it was when I was 12 years old. I had an eye exam and needed my first pair of glasses.

And I remember coming home with those glasses on and getting, you know, parking the car and getting out of the car and standing. Standing in my front yard and going, wow, that tree has individual leaves. I can see each one of them.

I can see across the street to the neighbor's house. I can see their mailbox. And it was like slowly my. My body had become nearsighted and I was missing details.

And then putting those glasses on was like a whole new world. And I realized how much vision really affected sex. Everything we do in life, that brought me so much joy to be able to. To see across the room to.

I have began to. Begun to struggle at school. I wasn't able to read what the teacher was writing on the board.

So I regained my confidence at school that I could see what the teacher was writing. I wasn't copying off my neighbor constantly because I could see their paper, but I couldn't see the board.

And I just decided in that moment when I was 12 years old. Wow. If I could do this for people every day, that would be the best way to live my life.

Oh, that's so neat. So if you were kind of inspiring some young optometrician. Optometrist.

Optometrist.

Yeah. What would you have, advice would you have for them who are thinking about going into this field that you're in?

Keep doing it. We need more eye doctors in this world. Here. I live in Louisiana. We don't have as many as we need. So as.

As our population is aging, we have more of the baby boomers getting up there. There's more demand for eye care in the elderly population. And there's, you know, everyone needs an eye exam every single year. We all.

We all go to the dentist twice a year. We get our teeth cleaned twice a year. But unfortunately, not enough people are going to the eye doctor every single year.

And honestly, I don't know in some communities if there would be enough doctors to support that demand if everyone did go every single year. So the world needs more eye doctors. If you have an interesting vision and helping people, then keep. Keep going. Go to college, go to optometry school.

Well, I'm glad you're from. I'm from Louisiana, too, so we have this Louisiana connection. I appreciate that.

Awesome.

Yeah, I'm from. From bat. I'm from Baton Rouge, so. So, Pam, I'm going to ask you my other favorite question. What do you want your legacy to be?

Well, I would like my legacy to be that I have taught people how to take care of their eyes just like they. They do their teeth. So on a regular basis, people are saying, oh, I need to make sure that I'm cleaning my. My lids and my lashes.

I'm keeping my eyes hydrated. I know what building blocks or what steps I could be using on a daily basis to make sure that my tears are going to be healthy.

Well, she really showed people what they needed to do to take care of their eyes so their vision would last them a lifetime.

Well, I can just say from just talking today, I know I got things that I want to go work on, so I appreciate this conversation.

Awesome. I'm glad I've inspired you.

You have, because I, like, I don't want to be that person that can't see when I'm older too, so.

Absolutely.

So on season six, we have something else new. We have a surprise question. Pick a number between 1 and 10 for your surprise question.

6 Is my favorite number.

6 Is your favorite number. All right. Your surprise question is who would you most want to sit next to on a 10 hour flight and why?

So I would love to sit next to Mel Robbins.

I think that she has interviewed some of the most fascinating people of our time and really has an amazing ability to not only ask intriguing questions, but to listen and re re rewind the information so that it's understandable.

So, so she, she interviews, you know, PhDs and MDs and lawyers and all these people and then she really puts it into her brain and spits out what you need to know to, to do what the advice is. Right. So she, she puts it in very understandable sentences.

I just think it would be fascinating to sit next to her and gobble up some of that information.

That's so neat. I like that. Where can people find you?

Learn about the wonderful eye care things that you have suggested for us to do and find your book and your TED Talk.

Absolutely. So my website is the easiest. It's my name www.pamterio.com My last name is spelled the Riot. So Pam, the riot.com and from there my TED Talk is there.

You can find the book and if you'd like to download a PDF on how to get your workstation set up so that you can be able to work more easily in this digital world that we live in, that's on my website, pamterio.com TedX.

That's great, Pam.

If as we wrap up today, is there some kind of a way you want to summarize what we've talked about for our listeners to kind of give them a nice summary of our conversation?

Absolutely. So I believe there's four simple steps that you can take every day to take care of your eyes so your vision lasts you a lifetime.

That you can find those four simple steps. Artificial tears, lid and lash cleanser, warm compresses and a nutraceutical.

That's at the end of that downloadable handout that I just told you the link for. And I'm sure we'll link it in the show notes as well.

Well, thank you.

If today's conversation audience opened your eyes literally and figuratively, to the powerful role vision plays in our day of total wellness, then make sure you connect with Dr. Pam Terrio, explore her resources and start implementing these simple steps daily. That she shared.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review and share with Someone who needs to see a clearer vision for today and for tomorrow, for their eyes and for their light. Until next time, I'm Dr. Keith Haney reminding you. Keep blazing trails, keep making an impact, and keep pursuing the vision God placed before you.

Thanks so much Pam.

Thank you for having me. Keith.