A patient sent this post about this natural option. Anything natural, as long as it possess knows me, is a great option. Thank you to Lou for posting this.
I see you drink green daily. After four probe procedures I had a little improvement, but a week after each procedure my glands would get blocked again because my oils were so thick and dried. After my fifth probe, I added fresh lemon juice to my 2x daily green tea, and within a week my eyes started feeling more moist, and have continued to get better. I have not had another probing since that last one, which was almost two years ago. I’ve since read adding lemon enables the body to retain 80% of the antioxidants in green tea, vs. 20% when drinking the tea by itself. Just wanted to pass that on to you since you already drink green tea as part of your daily regimen, in case you want to see if adding lemon helps you even more. Below is a Purdue study I subsequently found on the power of adding lemon or citrus to tea, and also an NIH study on green tea helping with inflammation of the ocular surface and MGD:
http://www.purdue.edu/uns/x/2007b/07…rruzziTea.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5376801/
Have you considered sclerals instead of regular contact lenses? If you can tolerate them, it can really help with the dryness, and may prevent potential future damage to your cornea. I wear mines 12+ hours a day since I have some remaining dryness from lost/atrophied glands.
MGD1701, I also use Cevimeline (brand name Evoxac) as needed. It does not help MGD, but does give the eyes and mouth moisture for about four hours after taking it. I usually use it if I’m going to drive, or use my eyes a lot like when attending an all day event or if I need to use the computer several hours in one day. It’s helpful when you need just a little extra moisture. The one side effect is it can temporarily make your heart beat a little faster, but that side affect seems to have subsided for me, maybe because my body got accustomed to it.