4 Simple Tips to Get Rid of Pink Eye at Home

We all love summer for its sunshine and the ability to finally spend a bit more time in nature, but the same activities expose us to germs and allergens, making us a lot more likely to get conjunctivitis, or as it is known by most - pink eye. In the vast majority of cases, pink eye is a condition you can treat at home with over-the-counter products and things you already have at home. To help you treat this annoying condition safely and effectively, we’ve listed several useful tips below, as well as a quick guide to different types of the condition.

There Are 4 Different Kinds of Conjunctivitis

Conjunctivitis is an inflammation or infection of the transparent membrane that covers the eye white called the conjunctiva. When this happens, it can make your eyes red, itchy, and irritated. Depending on the variety of pink eye, you can also experience discharge from the eyes. In order to treat this condition properly and safely, you’ll need to determine the kind of conjunctivitis you’re experiencing first.

According to Mayo Clinic here 4 main varieties of pink eye: 

• Bacterial conjunctivitis can be caused by many different types of bacteria and its characteristic symptom is mucus or discharge that can make your eyes crusty and even make your eyelashes stick together. It typically clears up within 4-5 days, but more serious cases will require a trip to the doctor and treatment with antibiotics.
• Viral conjunctivitis is a common symptom of a cold or any other respiratory viral infection. These infections tend to last longer than bacterial ones and can only be treated symptomatically.
• Allergic pink eye is a common symptom of an allergic reaction. It usually subsides within a day or two after you take allergy medication and minimize contact with the allergen.
• Irritative conjunctivitis is the result of intense rubbing, dry eye, exposure to pollutants like smog, cigarette smoke, or soap. In order to treat this condition, avoid the irritants, and follow the topical treatment tips we list below.

How to Treat Pink Eye

After you’ve determined the cause of the conjunctivitis, you also have to assess its severity. Although most cases can be safely treated at home, more serious and severe cases require medical assistance. The American Association Of Ophthalmology (AAO)  states you should visit a doctor if you experience the following symptoms:

• You're experience pain
• You have trouble seeing
• Your eyes become sensitive to light
• Your symptoms persist for a week or more
• Your symptoms are getting worse after a few days
• Your eye produces a lot of mucus
• You have a fever or body aches.

If your symptoms are not severe, however, you can safely treat your symptoms at home. Here are some useful tips for treating pink eye at home:

1. Avoid the Cause

The first thing you should do is to avoid the cause of the conjunctivitis, if possible. That means staying away from swimming pools if you suspect chlorine is the cause, closing any open windows if you're suffering from seasonal allergies, and not rubbing your eyes with your hands, no matter what the cause of the condition, as rubbing will only worsen your symptoms and potentially introduce other pathogens.

2. Stop Wearing Contacts and Makeup for a Few Days

Doctors mostly recommend avoiding wearing reusable contact lenses for 10-12 or until the condition clears up in those who suffer from viral or bacterial conjunctivitis, as these can harbor pathogens and be the cause of reinfection in some cases. Makeup wearers should also avoid applying eyeliner, mascara, fake eyelashes, or other eye makeup during any eye infection for the same reasons.

But really, we'd recommend avoiding both of these things for everyone who is experiencing pink eye, not only bacterial and viral cases because both contacts and eye makeup can further irritate the eyes and hinder recovery.

3. Apply Eye Compresses

Depending on the type of pink eye you're experiencing, cold or warm eye compresses can help relieve the discomfort you're experiencing:

• Cold compresses will work well at soothing the itching and irritation if the pink eye is caused by an allergy, irritation, or a virus. To apply a cold compress, simply soak a clean towel or cloth in cold water, remove the excess water by wringing it out, and cover your eyes for a few minutes. You can repeat this process several times a day. 
• Warm compresses will be beneficial to those suffering from bacterial conjunctivitis, as they will help loosen and remove mucus from the eye area. Follow the same instructions as in the cold compresses, but use warm water (not too hot, it shouldn't burn to the touch) and keep the compress on until the towel cools down. 
•  
• 4. Use Hydrating Eye DropsThis method works for all cases of conjunctivitis, as lubricating eye drops, also known as artificial tears, will help moisturize, soothe, and flush out any irritants from your eye. Artificial tears are available in all pharmacies over-the-counter. You can use them several times a day, and you can even put them in the fridge to keep them cool and have an even more soothing cooling effect. Importantly, doctors advise against using Visine or other redness-reducing drops if you have pink eye, as these may sting, feel uncomfortable, and even worsen your symptoms.
  Lastly, we'd like to give you a few more hygienic tips that will help clear out conjunctivitis faster and prevent it from spreading to others if you have a viral or bacterial pink eye:
  1. Don't share towels, pillows, or anything that touches the eyes with others.
  2. Use a fresh face towel, pillowcase, and sheets every day until your conjunctivitis is gone.
  3. Don't touch your eyes with your hands, and if you do, wash them immediately.
  This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     
  

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Ingestible medical devices can be broken down with light

A variety of medical devices can be inserted into the gastrointestinal tract to treat, diagnose, or monitor GI disorders. Many of these have to be removed by endoscopic surgery once their job is done. However, MIT engineers have now come up with a way to trigger such devices to break down inside the body when they are exposed to light from an ingestible LED.

The new approach is based on a light-sensitive hydrogel that the researchers designed. Incorporating this material into medical devices could avoid many endoscopic procedures and would give doctors a faster and easier way to remove devices when they are no longer needed or are not functioning properly, the researchers say. 

"We are developing a set of systems that can reside in the gastrointestinal tract, and as part of that, we're looking to develop different ways in which we can trigger the disassembly of devices in the GI tract without the requirement for a major procedure," says Giovanni Traverso, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the senior author of the study.

In a study in pigs, the researchers showed that devices made with this light-sensitive hydrogel can be triggered to break down after being exposed to blue or ultraviolet light from a small LED. 

Ritu Raman, a postdoc at MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, is the lead author of the paper, which appears today in Science Advances. Other authors of the paper are former technical associates Tiffany Hua, Jianlin Zhou, Tina Esfandiary, and Vance Soares; technical associates Declan Gwynne, Joy Collins, and Siddartha Tamang; graduate student Simo Pajovic; Division of Comparative Medicine veterinarian Alison Hayward; and David H. Koch Institute Professor Robert Langer.

Controlled breakdown
Over the past several years, Traverso and Langer have developed many ingestible devices designed to remain in the GI tract for extended periods of time. They have also worked on a variety of strategies to control the breakdown of such devices, including methods based on changes in pH or temperature, or exposure to certain chemicals. 

"Given our interests in developing systems that can reside for prolonged periods in the gastrointestinal tract, we continue to investigate a range of approaches to facilitate the removal of these systems in the setting of adverse reaction or when they are no longer needed," Traverso says. "We're really looking at different triggers and how they perform, and whether we can apply them to different settings."

In this study, the researchers explored a light-based trigger, which they believed could offer some advantages over their earlier approaches. One potential advantage is that light can act at a distance and doesn't need to come into direct contact with the material being broken down. Also, light normally does not penetrate the GI tract, so there is no chance of accidental triggering. 

To create the new material, Raman designed a light-sensitive hydrogel based on a material developed in the lab of Kristi Anseth, a former Langer lab postdoc who is now a professor of chemical and biological engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder. This polymer gel includes a chemical bond that is broken when exposed to a wavelength of light between 405 and 365 nanometers (blue to ultraviolet). 

Raman decided that instead of making a material composed exclusively of that light-sensitive polymer, she would use it to link together stronger components such as polyacrylamide. This makes the overall material more durable but still allows it to break apart or weaken when exposed to the right wavelength of light. She also constructed the material as a "double network," in which one polymer network surrounds another.

"You're forming one polymer network and then forming another polymer network around it, so it's really entangled. That makes it very tough and stretchy," Raman says.

The material's properties can be tuned by varying the composition of the gel. When the light-sensitive linker makes up a higher percentage of the material, it breaks down faster in response to light but is also mechanically weaker. The researchers can also control how long it takes to break down the material by using different wavelengths of light. Blue light works more slowly but poses less risk to cells that are sensitive to damage from ultraviolet light.

Deflated by light
The gel and its breakdown products are biocompatible, and the gel can be easily molded into a variety of shapes. In this study, the researchers used it to demonstrate two possible applications: a seal for a bariatric balloon and an esophageal stent. Standard bariatric balloons, which are sometimes used to help treat obesity, are inflated in a patient's stomach and filled with saline. After about six months, the balloon is removed by endoscopic surgery.

In contrast, the bariatric balloon that the MIT team designed can be deflated by exposing the seal to a tiny LED light, which would in principle be swallowed and then pass out of the body. Their balloon is made of latex and filled with sodium polyacrylate, which absorbs water. In this study, the researchers tested the balloons in pigs and found that the balloons swelled up as soon as they were placed in the stomach. When a small, ingestible LED emitting blue light was placed in the stomach for about six hours, the balloons slowly deflated. With a higher-power light, the material broke down within 30 minutes.

The researchers also molded the light-sensitive gel into an esophageal stent. Such stents are sometimes used to help treat esophageal cancer or other disorders that cause a narrowing of the esophagus. A light-triggerable version could be broken down and passed through the digestive tract when no longer needed. 

In addition to those two applications, this approach could be used to create other kinds of degradable devices, such as vehicles for delivering drugs to the gastrointestinal tract, according to the researchers. 

"This study is a proof of concept that we can create this kind of material, and now we're thinking about what are the best applications for it," Traverso says.

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What Is Lupus?

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 Lupus is a lifelong disorder of the immune system. Immune cells attack the body's own healthy tissues, leading to inflammation and tissue damage. Symptoms may be limited to the skin, but more often lupus also causes internal problems such as joint pain. In severe cases, it can damage the heart, kidneys, and other vital organs. Although there's no cure, there are treatments that can minimize the damage.Some develop butterfly rash across cheeks, or may develop sensitivity to sun with flaky skin, with rashes on various parts of the body.


 Joint and muscle pain is often the first sign of lupus. This pain tends to occur on both sides of the body at the same time, particularly in the joints of the wrists, hands, fingers, and knees. The joints may look inflamed and feel warm to the touch. But unlike rheumatoid arthritis, lupus usually does not cause permanent joint damage.

Changes in Nails-as the nails can crack or fall off. They may be discolored with blue or reddish spots at the base. These spots are actually in the nail bed, the result of inflamed small blood vessels. Swelling may also make the skin around the base of the nail look red and puffy.

One of the warning signs of lupus is low grade fever and fatigue which can interfere with daily chores.

 Some people with lupus develop a condition called Raynaud's phenomenon. Their fingers and toes become painful, numb, and tingly in response to cold temperatures or emotional stress. This happens when small blood vessels spasm and restrict blood flow to the area. During an attack, the fingers and toes may turn white or blue. People can also have Raynaud's without having lupus or any serious health complications.

 One aspect that sets lupus apart is the combination of skin rashes with joint pain and fatigue. There are also lab tests that can help distinguish lupus from other diseases. There is no one test for lupus, certain proteins usually show up in a patient's blood. A blood test for antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) can provide a critical clue. Other lab tests may check cell counts, kidney function, and clotting time. A tissue biopsy of an involved organ such as the skin or kidneys sometimes helps with diagnosis.

When people say "lupus," they usually mean systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), the most common and serious type. But there are other types. Cutaneous lupus erythematosus -- also called discoid lupus -- is limited to the skin and doesn't cause the organ damage that sometimes occurs with SLE. The most common symptom is a circular rash. Drug-induced systemic lupus causes temporary lupus symptoms in people who take certain medications.

 There are ways to control  lupus which include corticosteroid creams for rashes and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for joint pain and fever. Antimalarial medications can help fight joint pain, ulcers, and rashes. 

How to reduce lupus flare-ups: Cover up when you're in the sun. Quit smoking. Exercise regularly.Improve your stress management skills. Get plenty of rest. Some people with lupus need up to 12 hours of sleep a night.

 As the disease progresses, it can interfere with the body's organs. Up to three out of four people with lupus can develop kidney problems. These problems may not cause symptoms, though some people notice swelling in their legs or ankles. Most patients only learn about their kidney trouble when a urine test reveals blood or abnormal protein levels.

The most common heart problem linked to lupus is an inflammation of the sac around the heart. This may cause severe pain in the left side of the chest. People with lupus are also more likely to develop plaques that narrow or clog the arteries leading to coronary artery disease. Other complications include heart valve disease and inflammation of the heart muscle.See your doctor at once, when these symptoms are there.

The tissue surrounding the lungs becomes inflamed in some people with lupus. This may lead to painful breathing, or chest pain, or it may be symptom less. Sometimes lupus causes chest pain that is not related to the lungs or the heart. Instead, the pain comes from an inflamed chest muscle or rib joint. Any chest pain should be promptly evaluated by a doctor.

 Lupus can trigger a wide range of problems with the nervous system, most commonly headaches. Mild memory problems are a less common complaint that may come and go over time. Some people with lupus have a greater risk for a stroke, and in rare cases, the disease can lead to seizures.

Artificial retina could help restore vision

Researchers have developed a novel wireless, light-sensitive and flexible film that could potentially act as a substitute for damaged retina.

Investigators at Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Centres for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and Newcastle University in UK, tested the film with a chick retina that normally does not respond to light.

They found that the film absorbed light and, in response, sparked neuronal activity.

In comparison with other technologies, the researchers conclude theirs is more durable, flexible and efficient, as well as better able to stimulate neurons.

Patients with one type of eye disorder called age-related macular degeneration (AMD), for example, could potentially benefit from such a device, researchers said.

AMD usually affects people aged 60 or older who have damage to a specific part of the retina, limiting their vision.

Scientists are trying different approaches to develop an implant that can "see" light and send visual signals to a person's brain, countering the effects of AMD and related vision disorders.

But many attempts so far use metallic parts, cumbersome wiring or have low resolution.

Researchers combined semiconductor nanorods and carbon nanotubes to create a wireless, light-sensitive, flexible film that could potentially act in the place of a damaged retina.

The study was published in American Chemical Society (ACS)'s journal Nano Letters.

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