Got Watery Eyes with a Cold? Here’s What to Do

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   How to relieve watery eyes during a cold

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Watery eyes can be a bit of an obstacle when you’re trying to appear pulled together despite having a cold. So, what helps watery eyes with a common cold? With our top tips and tricks below, you’ll be able to get on with your day-to-day life. Sniffing and watery eyes often accompany each other, so we’ll also go through what to do when your cold brings both of them to the party.

What helps watery eyes with a common cold?

Watery eyes are a symptom of colds. And a remedy for watery eyes during a cold like the ones below, along with the right supplies, will help you cope with the waterworks. These tips specifically help watery eyes with a cold:

• Cleaning. Keeping your eyes clean with a gentle wash helps to remove any debris or irritants, which is also helpful when you’re suffering from allergies.
• Cold compress. Cool temperatures can, ironically, relieve this symptom of the common cold. A watery eyes home remedy to ease heat and prickliness involves placing a cool, clean flannel over your eyes for as long as necessary.
• Massage. A gentle eyelids massage could pep up the natural functions of your eyes during a cold. This method helps by stimulating the oil glands in your eyelids.
• Be prepared. When you have watery eyes with a common cold, it’s important to have the right kit with you when you’re out and about. That includes a quality pack of soft tissues, to help wipe your eyes whenever the need arises.

Those are the specifics on how to help watery eyes with a cold, but what about when you’re dealing with both sniffing and watery eyes? Watery eyes with a cold demand some slightly different approaches.

How to help watery eyes and a cold – at once!

It’s common to experience a runny nose and tearful eyes at the same time, so here are some general tips to deal with these sorts of cold symptoms:

• Rest. Your immune system will be busy expending energy on getting rid of the virus that has caused your sniffing and watery eyes, so by getting lots of rest you’ll help remove the virus more quickly.
• Stay hydrated. Sipping water regularly and eating clear chicken broth will help your mucus to thin and therefore drain faster from your nose. It will also help restore those fluids that have been lost due to your runny nose and watery eyes.
• Use a warm compress. The warmth of a damp, clean flannel over your nose and eyes can help soothe watery eyes. With a runny nose, it can help ease congestion.

With these tips you can help deal with your watery eyes that’re a symptom of a cold. Common cold reactions often include runny eyes with a cold, but you’ll be one step ahead of that pesky pair with these approaches.

If your symptoms don’t improve within a few weeks, we recommend seeing a doctor.

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Why Do My Eyes Water in Cold Weather

The cold weather months bring snow, sleet, and dry air. Winter walking, skating, and other outdoor activities often come with watery eyes that make your eyes red, makeup smudge, and make you look sad when you’re not.

An eye exam can ease your eye health concerns, but watering eyes are typical in cold weather. As counterintuitive as it sounds, your eyes water when they’re too dry. Dry eyes lead to your tear glands producing extra lubrication. The winter months bring the perfect storm of factors to make your eyes water.

What Causes Your Eyes to Water in Cold Weather?

Watery eyes are commonly caused by windy days and cold, dry air that dehydrates your eyes. As your eyes become overly dry, your tear glands will work overtime to produce excess tears. Instead of just lubricating your eyes, tears can fall when your tear ducts are overwhelmed. Even though you’re not sad, your tear glands might make it look like you are. Like a furnace, they cannot turn off right away.   

Outdoor conditions aren’t the only reason your eyes water in cold weather. Chilly conditions tempt you to blast the heat in your car or home furnace, producing the dry air it takes to irritate your eyes. This irritation can manifest in spontaneous watering eyes and trigger your tear glands  to overproduce lubrication.

As annoying as it can be, watery eyes can sometimes indicate your eyes are healthy. It’s a sign that your tear glands are working as they should and creating the excess lubrication your eyes need as moisture evaporates in cold air.

In other cases, watery eyes can be caused by dry eye disease. When you’re suffering from dry eye disease, watery eyes mixed with other symptoms such as redness, eye fatigue, scratchiness, or pain. Too many tears can indicate issues with your tear film, requiring artificial tears or medicated eye drops to ease the symptoms. 

How to Prevent Watery Eyes in Cold Weather?

Running for tissues to combat watering eyes can leave them red and irritated. Preventing watering eyes before they create real tears is the key to overcoming cold weather waterworks.

Wear Glasses

Wearing your glasses and sunglasses in the winter is a simple method to create a barrier between your eyes and the wind. It keeps the humidity between your eyes and lenses contained, so your eyes don’t become overly dry. Contact lenses can also dry out your eyes, so swapping them for your glasses on cold days tends to be beneficial for your eye health. You can also wear sunglasses over your contacts lenses. 

Just like with snowboarding and skiing, all winter sports, like snowshoeing and winter hiking benefit from eye protection goggles to prevent eye-watering, irritation and U.V damage.

Add Moisture

It may seem odd to add moisture to eyes that are already watering, but because dry eyes are the cause, eye drops can stop your eyes from producing excess water. Before you go out into the windy, snowy cold, a few drops can keep the surface of your eyes lubricated.

You can also add humidifiers to your indoor spaces to keep moisture in the air. It will counteract the drying effects of your furnace on cold days and promote natural lubrication of your eyes.

​​Tips to Take Care of Your Eyes in the Winter

 In the winter, your eyes need special care. Some tips to keep your eyes extra safe in winter include:

• Keep your eyes safe from snow-related damage and scratches. Shards of icy snowflakes can scratch the cornea.
• Despite the festive season, don’t share mascara or eyeliner with anyone. The risk of spreading bacteria is not worth flawless makeup.
• Don’t be afraid to blink excessively. Your eyes are trying to find the right balance of moisture, and blinking is the best way to lubricate your eyes.

Should You See an Optometrist for Watery Eyes?

If you notice your eyes water in cold weather with no other irritation or symptoms, your eyes are likely trying to prevent your eyes from getting overly dry.

If you’re noticing that your eyes are persistently watering, regardless of the environmental conditions, you may be experiencing epiphora––which is the scientific term for tearing or watery eyes.

Epiphora

When the tear film can’t drain properly, or there is an overproduction of tears, you can experience watering eyes. There’s a balance between healthy tears that keep the eye’s surface healthy and too much tearing that negatively affects your vision.

People who develop consistent watering eyes may notice other symptoms, including:

• Redness in the eyes
• Swelling
• Blurred vision
• Eye fatigue
• Mucus around or in the eyes
• Difficulty wearing contact lenses

In cold, windy weather, these symptoms can intensify.

These indicators of watering eyes can be uncomfortable, and you may notice difficulty when driving at night and more sensitivity to screens or other lights. These markers are a sign that you need to see an optometrist.

Dry Eye Disease

When your eyes are overwatering, it’s a common sign of dry eye disease. Your eyes are trying to lubricate themselves by flooding with tears. It indicates a problem with your tear film where your tear layers are out of balance. Your tear film can be affected by:

• Too much exposure to screens
• Poorly fitted contact lenses
• Eyelid inflammation
• Certain prescription medication
• Ocular surgery 
• Meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD)

Dry eye disease is common, but you don’t have to live with it. Detail your symptoms to your optometrist to start treating dry eye disease and stop your eyes from overwatering. 

Still Experiencing Watering Eyes?

If you’re concerned about watering eyes in cold weather or any other season, York Mills Eye Care can thoroughly examine your eyes and tear ducts to get to the root of your concerns. Book an appointment with our team to discuss your eye health and learn how to keep your eyes at their best in cold weather.

Pain and watery eyes with a cold

Rinza®

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Colds and flu

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What to do if your eyes hurt and watery during a cold

What to do if you have pain and tears eyes open in case of a cold

• December 26, 2022

• 8 minutes

Author, editor and medical expert

Klimovich Elina Valerievna.

Editor

Harutyunyan Mariam Harutyunovna

Contents:

• Why do eyes hurt and watery with a cold
• What should I do if my eyes hurt and watery with a cold?
• Eyes hurt and watery – is it always a cold?

Did you know that we get more than 70% of information about the world around us through vision ¹ ? That is why we seem to lose the opportunity to fully live and communicate if our eyes hurt and watery during a cold. Of course, other unpleasant symptoms, such as headaches, “aches” in the joints and muscles, or fever with a cold, are no less disturbing. But it is precisely because of discomfort in the eyes that we cannot calmly read a book, watch our favorite series, and even hardly type a message on the phone.

What causes cold and watery eyes? How to alleviate these unpleasant symptoms? We will answer these questions in the article.

Why eyes hurt and water when you have a cold

The common cold is the popular name for acute respiratory diseases (ARI). The group of acute respiratory infections includes infections of the upper respiratory tract caused by various pathogens ⁸ . But most often the respiratory organs are attacked by viruses, therefore, speaking of a cold, many people mean an acute respiratory viral infection (ARVI) ⁹ .

Why do the eyes hurt and watery when the respiratory tract is inflamed? There are several explanations for this, which we will discuss below.

Runny nose

Often with a cold, the eyes water because of a runny nose. The inflamed nasal mucosa thickens significantly and often covers the lumen of the nasolacrimal duct. As a result, the tear fluid is not removed through the canal into the nasal cavity – its excess causes a feeling of pressure in the eyeballs and lacrimation ² .

With a cold, the eyes water also because our body believes that any irritant that enters the nose has a high chance of getting into the eyes. Therefore, when we sneeze, we involuntarily close them, and the lacrimal glands begin to produce more liquid in order to flush the irritant from the surface of the eyes ² .

Intoxication

Feeling unwell with a cold is a manifestation of intoxication. It is part of the body’s overall response to invading pathogens ¹⁰ . Intoxication develops when viruses and decay products of infected cells are absorbed into the blood from the focus of inflammation. All this “toxic mass” is carried with the blood flow throughout the body, causing various unpleasant symptoms of a cold, such as fever, headache, weakness and “aches” in the body ^6,10 .

If your head hurts when you move your eyes, it is likely that the cold was caused by the influenza virus ⁴ , which triggers a pronounced intoxication of the body. With an influenza infection, a so-called “cytokine storm” develops – a lot of products that provoke inflammation are released, while there is a deficiency of anti-inflammatory substances ³ . Therefore, the symptoms of an inflammatory reaction and intoxication are very pronounced.

Features of viruses

There are viruses that attack not only the respiratory tract, but also the eyes, which makes them ache and watery when they catch a cold ^3,4,7 .

• Rhinoviruses may cause watery eyes and red eyes ^3.4 . Pain may mean that rhinoviruses have triggered inflammation of the mucous membrane of the eye – conjunctivitis ^3.7 .
• adenoviruses cause simultaneous inflammation of the throat (pharyngitis) and conjunctivitis ³ . Such a combined lesion is called pharyngoconjunctival fever ⁷ . If a cold is caused by adenoviruses, its symptoms begin gradually. Some time after a runny nose, signs of conjunctivitis appear: first one eye hurts and waters, and after 1-3 days the second one is involved in the process ⁷ .

Sinusitis

Sometimes with SARS recovery is delayed. The symptoms of a cold persist for more than 5 days, and a feeling of pressure in the face and a decrease in smell are added to the existing complaints. With such complaints, the doctor can diagnose sinusitis – inflammation of the paranasal sinuses. Sinusitis may mean that a viral infection has weakened the body’s defenses, and bacterial inflammation has occurred ¹¹ .

With sinusitis, several areas hurt at once – the forehead, eyes, teeth, cheekbones, and sometimes discomfort is felt at the inner edge of the orbit ¹¹ .

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What should I do if my eyes hurt and watery when I have a cold?

If you have a cold, stay at home to avoid infecting others, stay in bed and follow your doctor’s instructions.

Drink plenty of warm liquids, preferably in the form of tea, juices or fruit drinks – drinking plenty of water relieves the symptoms of intoxication. Increase intake of dietary meat, fish, dairy products, vegetables and fruits ⁵ . For colds caused by viruses, doctors usually prescribe drugs to relieve symptoms ⁶ . Antibiotics can only be prescribed by a doctor and only if he has found that the eyes are sore and watery due to a bacterial infection ⁷ .

To relieve the symptoms of SARS and flu, you can use the combined preparations of the Rinza® line ^{12.1 3.14} .

Rinza® tablets contain 4 active ingredients ¹² :

• paracetamol – has an antipyretic effect, relieves various types of pain associated with colds and flu, including muscle and joint aches, headaches and sore throats ¹² ;
• caffeine – increases the effect of paracetamol ¹⁵ ;
• phenylephrine – reduces nasal congestion, thereby facilitating nasal breathing ¹² ;
• chlorphenamine – reduces itching in the eyes, throat and nose ¹² .

Rinzasip® with Vitamin C – powder for preparing a hot drink – not only fights the symptoms of a cold, but also strengthens the body’s defenses thanks to ascorbic acid ¹³ . Rinzasip® also contains an increased dose of paracetamol (750 mg) ²⁰ , caffeine (enhancing the action of paracetamol ¹⁵ ), pheniramine and a vasoconstrictor component phenylephrine ¹⁴ . Rinza® and Rinzasip® can be used by adults and adolescents over 15 years of age ^12.13 .

Rinzasip® for children with raspberry flavor is recommended for a child from 6 years old. It contains a “child” dose of paracetamol (280 mg), vitamin C and pheniramine ¹⁴ .

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Eyes hurt and watery – is it always a cold?

Pain in the eyes and watery eyes are not always associated with infectious diseases. Some symptoms may be similar to a cold, but there are differences.

Computer Vision Syndrome

Many regular users of personal computers begin to complain that eyes that are tired from eye strain are watery and sore. As a rule, discomfort appears within 4-6 hours of work at the monitor. Office workers who are typing and entering other information into a computer experience a large load ¹⁶ .

Allergy

Lachrymation, itching or burning in the eyes may also indicate an onset of an allergy. Other manifestations of an allergic reaction – nasal discharge, itching in the nose and cough – are very similar to a cold, but usually with allergies, the eyes hurt and watery without fever ¹⁷ .

Headache attack

Another cause of eye symptoms is cluster headache. It can be suspected if you have watery eyes and very bad pain in or around one eye. It is easy to confuse an attack with a cold, since nasal congestion and discharge from it can join the eye complaints. But what is very typical for cluster headache is that all the symptoms are expressed only on one side of the face ¹⁸ .

Thyrotoxicosis

Ophthalmic (eye) symptoms often develop with thyrotoxicosis, a disease of the thyroid gland. Many people with this disease are concerned about watery eyes, pain in the eyes, and limited mobility of the eyeballs. With thyrotoxicosis, as with a cold, body temperature may rise. To clarify the diagnosis, an immunological blood test is used ¹⁹ .

As you can see, there are many causes of eye symptoms, so the help of a doctor is necessary. Even if you are sure that pain in the eyes and watery eyes were caused by a cold or flu, it is better to have a doctor prescribe treatment. So you can get correct and useful recommendations from a specialist, speed up recovery, and, most importantly, avoid complications ²¹ .

The information in this article is for reference only and does not replace professional medical advice. For diagnosis and treatment, contact a qualified specialist.

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Watery eyes with a cold what to do?

Published: October 20, 2018

Respiratory viral diseases do not pass without a trace and are always accompanied by pathological changes in the body. From the first days, patients feel weakness and malaise. Later, these symptoms are joined by a rise in temperature, cough and sore throat, runny nose and lacrimation.

Many people know how to cope with a sore throat, bring down the temperature and restore normal nasal breathing. But what if you have watery eyes with a cold? To answer this question, it is important to know what is the cause of lacrimation against the background of a viral infection.

Contents of the article

Possible causes of lacrimation

The main cause of lacrimation in colds is sinusitis. Viruses attack the mucosa, damage it and invade cells, changing their structure. Infected cells divide rapidly, which leads to the spread of germs in the body.

The inflammatory process involves the sinuses and the entire nasopharyngeal mucosa. As the edema increases, the nasal septum increases in size, the passages to the sinuses overlap partially or completely. This makes it difficult for the mucus to pass. It begins to quickly accumulate in large quantities and puts pressure on the forehead and eye sockets.

With severe inflammation, swelling of the tissues of the nasolacrimal canal occurs, tear fluid collects in it. The only way to get it out is through the lacrimal canal. This is the reason that the eyes watery with a cold.

If the disease is not treated in time, complications may arise. With the addition of a secondary bacterial infection against the background of a weakened immune system, not only sinusitis often develops, but also conjunctivitis. This is due to the anatomical proximity of the nasopharynx and the orbital region.

Damage to the mucous membrane of the eyes provokes redness, itching and burning, profuse lacrimation. The tear fluid may include pus. In such cases, self-medication is unacceptable. It is necessary to seek help from an otolaryngologist and an ophthalmologist as soon as possible.

How to stop lacrimation: folk recipes and pharmacy remedies

If you have watery eyes due to a cold, a lot can be done even before consulting a specialist. To cope with lacrimation, it is important to remove the swelling of the nasal mucosa. To achieve this, washing the nasal passages with the following means will help:

• with a weak salt composition – 2 teaspoons of salt per glass of water,
• baking soda solution – add 1 teaspoon of baking soda to a glass of water and mix thoroughly.

Rinse the nose 2-3 times a day. As soon as the swelling of the mucosa subsides, the eyes will water less. Herbal infusions will also help get rid of severe lacrimation.

• Pour boiling water over a spoonful of blue cornflower flowers, cover and let it brew for one hour. Strain the liquid, moisten cotton swabs and apply to the eyelids for 15 minutes.
• Add flowers and leaves of lily of the valley to boiling water, leave for 30 minutes, strain. Apply cotton pads moistened with a decoction to the eyes twice a day for 20 minutes. Instead of lily of the valley, you can use dried clover flowers.

The symptoms and treatment of acute respiratory infections in adults are interrelated, so an integrated approach is important when choosing therapy. To quickly get rid of watery eyes, runny nose and other signs of a cold, you need to follow the doctor’s instructions and use proven drugs. In the treatment of viral diseases, specialists often use Derinat.