well at least your "motor" won't freeze up as you run to the potty! LOL

Weird ingredients for eye drops to be sure.
But have you priced antifreeze lately? DH just bought some & it was something like $20 a gallon... NOT cheap like it used to be.
(Considering the tiny amount that would be in a couple of tsp of eye drops, I wouldn't think that would impact their price that much... but what do I know.)

Good thing you read labels. I used to use eyedrops with Thimerusol, which contains Mercury! Glad they are gone. I might have been putting a toxic element in my eyes. At least I can still see! (with glasses)

There is also a pharmaceutical grade of PG. Its in so many things now. They also use PG in the electronic cigarette liquid and people have been using it for many years.

I'm sure the FDA considers it safe. But the FDA and I don't always agree. :-)

That ingredient is most likely used as a preservative in the eye drops. I read something a few months ago (can't remember what magazine) that said that nearly all of the eye drops you buy in little bottles have some type of preservative that can actually irritate your eyes. The only drops you will likely find that do not have a preservative are the single use tubes. There is way more in each tube than you can use at one time, but you cannot really save the remainder for future use. Those drops are much more expensive than the bottles, then add to that the fact that you must dispose of more than you use and the cost is truly great. So what do I do? I end up using the drops with preservatives and complaining about it the whole time.

don't care what is which ..but if you done this routine at the comedy store you'd had the crowd loling...(just read your post to dh, and he's still chuckling!)

Maybe the laxative helps your eyes to "go" more (weep) and that's how the lubrictaing part works.

Ron

Do you guys always operate like this on Saturdays - or just after Good Fridays?

Hope you all have a great weekend.

o j

I started Systane Ultra Wed and been laid up with acute bronchitis since Sat night after applying the drops four times a day. Don't laugh, I was so perplexed because I haven't had this in almost twenty years, thanks to oil of oregano......so while coughing in bed all week I got the bottles out and read. Damn it! I haven't trusted doctor's drugs in years.....dig this google can Systane Ultra cause bronchitis........ I'm not the only one. I'll just keep the dry eyes. I say fifty dollars later. Note to self can't trust eye doctors either.

MY friend who is 80+ went to the doctor for dry eyes. He prescribed her some drops. She is really fit and could do anything. After she started putting the drops in, a few days later she noticed she couldn't even turn over in bed. It was getting worse and she decided she would go to a chiropractor who also does holistic medicine. The chiropractor told her to put her arms straight out and she could do it with one but not the other one. Someone had to hold her arm up for her. I think it was the chiropractor who asked her if she had started taking any different medicine and she told her about the eye drops. Jessica the chiropractor told her that's what was causing it. She quit using them and she could roll over in bed again. She went back to the doctor and I think he prescribed her something else, and they never had the same side effects or maybe she doesn't use any drops now. I live in a town of about 45 people and after this happened, another lady here in town told her that her son who was about 40+ at the time had the same thing happen to him. I will see if I can find out what the name of the drops were.

Due to an eye injury, I tried probably every OTC and several Rx ophthalmic lubricants. Systane works best for me; most others irritate my eyes.

Ingredients polyethylene and propylene glycols are lubricants in many, many products.

BTW - UIC Eye Infirmary is a great resource. Was lucky to have the only Level-1 eye trauma center in the region, nearby.

I have chronic dry eyes from having laser surgery years ago. Been using Systane drops this whole time. No issues at all.

I use Alrex 2x a day (rx) and TheraTears (the regular ones, not the gel) first thing in the AM and maybe once more during the day if needed.

Another happy Systane user here.

Both chemicals have been used in the food, cosmetic, cleaning products and medical uses for ages. They do make a "safer" antifreeze from propylene gycol but it's effectiveness is debatable among the automotive industry.

The dangerous chemical in original antifreeze is ethylene glycol which is not present in foods or medicines.

All sorts of harmful and harmful sounding but innocent ingredients can be found in various products and it is up to each of us to research and decide what to use and what not to use.

I've been singing the song of research and personal responsibility for years. The effort is worthwhile in my opinion.

Some products which at first glance might appear to have safety issues and may have ingredients that you might question (and validly so) but further research may give you the tools you needs to make a more informed decision about whether use is harmful or beneficial.

There are harmful products out there. There are all sorts of reasons from political to financial why a product that has safety issues might remain on the market either for a short while or indefinitely.

Research.

This thread is six years old. I've been using Bausch & Lomb's Advanced Eye Relief and Walmart's version (a lot cheaper) ever since. Yup, propylene glycol. It works well.

like coumadin (blood thinner) helps prevent strokes but KILLS rodents as ingredient in rat poison! a bit of an "apples & oranges" discussion to me?

Yeah, a bit of helter-skelter reasoning. Like - I stopped drinking water when I learned it's used to remove mud from the greasy parts of heavy construction equipment.

Another Systane user for several years (at the recommendation of my optometrist). She also recommends Retaine which I have also used lately. I have not checked the ingredients of either, but have had no problems with them.

I read the ingredients of my Systane Long Lasting eye drops. The active ingredients are: Polyethylene Glycol 400 at 0.4%, and Propylene Glycol at 0.3%. Both of these are eye Lubricants.

Inactive Ingredients:

Boric acid, calcium chloride, Hydroxypropyl guar, magnesium chloride, polyquatermium-1 as a preservative, potassium chloride, purified water, sodium chloride, zinc chloride. It may contain hydrochloric acid and/or sodium hydroxide to adjust pH.

Boric acid can be used to kill roaches and sodium hydroxide is lye which is used to make soap.

I was looking up natural remedies for dry eyes and there are people posting online that they use castor oil. If you look up Restasis (eye drops with all the commercials and are pretty expensive even with insurance) they contain castor oil.

Read labels it's interesting what you'll find. If you look a lot of OTC sleep meds are actually just Benadryl (diphenhydramine).

@ Hareball, The active ingredient in Restasis is Cyclosporine, an immunosuppressive drug, used to prevent rejection after organ transplant, and to treat rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and chronic dry eye.

I'm not surprised Restasis is expensive. I had to use prescription eye drops for a short time before and after cataract surgery, and the cost was ridiculous. A teensy little bottle with a big fat price.

@mdln castor oil is one of the inactive ingredients yes. But med companies can't patent natural items. With Restasis a lot of people may experience relief from dry eyes but what actually caused the relief? Who's to say it's not the castor oil?

Antifreeze is made with ethylene glycol.

Yes, and it's also made with propylene glycol.

Yes. hydrochloric acid is an acid;

Sodium hydroxide is lye and is a base.

Note that the eye drops are not "laced" with these two chemicals. These two items are used to adjust the PH of the solution after all the other ingredients have been mixed together. Only enough is used to bring the PH of the mix to match the PH of normal tears. If the PH of the mix was correct, then none of these two chemicals would be used.

For example. if the mix was too acidic, then a little Sodium hydroxide would be added to neutralize the solution. It would react with the acid to bring the PH to 7 (which is neutral) and there would be no acid or base remaining, just the products of the acid-base reaction.

The scary part is that one little mistake and the mix would be too acidic or basic and could have the potential to damage the eyes.

I was just saying that everyday things are used in medications :) but yes you have to be careful especially since it's going in the eyes