Are Visine eye drops bad?!

Are Visine eye drops bad?

Every spring pollen and fluff from cotten trees affect my eyes. They get extremely itchy, irritated and sore. I went to London Drugs and bought Visine eye drops for eye allergies two springs ago... I was recently using it when my friend told me that it was bad for your eyes. Is this true? I want to see an eye doctor but not sure if it's necesary...

yes, it can be bad for you if it is used chronically. its not too bad for you IMO if you only use it OCCASIONALLY.

i'm going to cut and paste my answer from a poster who said he was using them every day for years at a time (not saying you are doing this...)

here's my answer to the other poster:

"Yes, Visine is bad for you. The package insert says not to use it more than 10 consecutive days, and there's a reason for that: its unhealthy for your eyes when used for more than 10 days.

Visine and Clear Eyes are potent vasoconstrictors. they just make your eyes look "whiter" by vastly constricting blood vasculature on the surface of the eye. This is certainly not "healthy". in fact, your eye *hates* this.

Prolonged use of Visine cuts off blood flow to the limbal region of your cornea...the portion responsible for making new corneal cells. If that area is deprived of oxygen for long enough, you'll eventually develop corneal limbal stem cell dysfunction and potential permanent vision loss.

Obviously that would not happen in an otherwise healthy person over the course of only a few days or weeks, but thats where you're likely headed if you use it multiple times a day every day for years at a time. It can be *very* bad for you when used that way.

Visine also causes "rebound hyperemia" or what I refer to as "visine addiction". Basically your eyes get so used to the drug that not only does the whitening effect eventually wear off...it gets to where you have red eyes all the time, even when you do use the drops. That's right...Visine will actually CAUSE your eyes to be chronically red if you use it all the time.

Visine and Clear Eyes have their place in medicine, just never for chronic use. here's when to use Visine: if you have red eyes not from a serious infectious or inflammatory process and you need to QUICKLY and temporarily look "normal" for a job interview or your wedding pictures or whatever. It was never designed to "keep" your eyes white all the time. in fact it does the opposite...when used chronically it actually CAUSES chronic red eyes."