Can Visine Kill You?

The Truth About Red Eyes

What Is Visine? How Does Visine Work?

It sounds like a simple solution to a simple problem: your eyes are red, itchy, and irritated, and Visine promises to fix that problem. It’s even in their slogan, which claims Visine “gets the red out". And there is a Visine for everything - Dry eye, Original (whatever that is!), Allergy, Contacts, Irritation relief and even one called Totality!

And it does, at least for a while. However, if you don’t understand what Visine is and how it works, you may be unaware that it could actually be causing more harm than good to your eyes and their symptoms. In fact, many eye doctors recommend that their patients forego this sort of harmful eye drop altogether.

Why Visine Is Bad For Your Eyes | Visine Side Effects

Visine is, fundamentally, a decongestant. Redness in your eyes can be caused by swollen and congested blood vessels; these blood vessels, when irritated, become filled with blood and get backed up. Visine solves the problem by causing the affected blood vessels to artificially constrict.

The active ingredients in Visine cause retinal blood vessels to physically shrink. This accomplishes the immediate goal of lessening the eye’s redness, however, as the medication eventually wears off, a phenomenon known to eye doctors as “rebound redness” may occur, which makes the initial problem that much worse.

In fact, over a prolonged period of continuous Visine usage, the rebound redness may actually become the default condition of the patient’s eyes. It’s true: Visine can permanently imprint on your eyes the very condition that it was originally intended to improve.

This is because Visine makes a basic mistake: it temporarily addresses the patient’s symptom (redness) without adequately solving the underlying cause (which may vary). And it can be even worse for contact lens wearers, because Visine can also dilate a patient’s pupils when used too much. Contact wearers may become increasingly sensitive to light and experience blurry vision.

A recent Story in the WaPo even listed this as a potential source to kill someone! Don't believe me? Follow the link..

So I urge you, to safely dispose of this drug from your cabinets. If you bring them to our office, we will help in safely disposing with the help of local pharmacies.

We always recommend cleaning up your diet, drinking more water, and making sure to keep your eyelids clean. To learn more, come see our friendly team or call us at 704-821-5009