The Screen Time Secret That Every Parent Needs with Dr. Pam Theriot

Dr. Laura: Welcome to another episode of Well Adjusted Mama. This is a podcast dedicated to educating and empowering women from preconception, pregnancy, birth and through early motherhood on wellness lifestyle. I’m your host, Dr. Laura Brayton. I’m a maternity pediatric chiropractor, functional medicine practitioner and mother who is hand selected experts in natural holistic healthcare specialties to shine light on options and choices during this exciting phase of a woman’s life. And today’s topic is the screen time secrets every parent needs. And my Special guest is Dr. Pam Theriot. Dr. Pam Theriot is an optometrist, author and dry eye specialist based in Louisiana with over 20 years of experience in eye care. She leads the dry eye relief center at uh Lusk Eye Specialist where she helps patients find personalized long term solutions to chronic eye irritation. Her own journey with dry eye began early in her career when symptoms like dryness and discomfort began affecting her ability to wear contacts, enjoy running or even apply makeup before work. That frustration turned into a deep professional mission to help others feel at ease in their own eyes as well. Dr. Theriau now shares her most effective tools and strategies through her book Alleviate Dry Eye. Online courses, a weekly blog and her editor’s Pick Award winning TEDx talk. Her work reaches people who struggle with red, irritated eyes and fluctuating vision. Dr. Theriot is on a mission to help 1 million people learn to care for their eyes as routinely as they care for their teeth by building simple everyday habits. And you can find out more about her at, uh, her website anthario.com that’s P A M M T H E R I O T dot com.

Dr. Laura: Hi Dr. Theriot welcome to the show. I’m very excited to have you on today.

Dr. Pam: I’m so thrilled to be here. Thank you, Laura.

Dr. Laura: So we’re going to talk about the screen time secret every parent needs. And I know this is a subject that you’re very passionate about as an optometrist about really how the health of our vision, as parents and especially moms, we will impact our ability to care for those, you know, our children essentially.

Dr. Pam: Absolutely. Of course, as women, we don’t pay enough attention to our own bodies sometimes once we have kids. And there’s so many things that we can do to support our eyes so that our vision supports us for a lifetime. And I’m excited to dig into that and share some tips and tricks with everyone.

Dr. Laura: Yeah. So let’s talk about essentially what are some of these vision habits that that parents can do to protect their vision and especially Pregnant and new moms that are also dealing with massive hormonal fluctuations.

Dr. Pam: Yes. So let’s just start with while you’re pregnant, what are things that you can do to support your eyes? As you and I know, having been pregnant before, your vision actually shifts and changes throughout those nine months. You can have big shifts in your prescription. And it’s a time when the eye, it’s highly metabolic and it’s influenced by hormones. So your core, the front surface of it often swells and so astigmatism can change back and forth, but also dryness can become a big factor and that’ll make your vision fluctuate. So I’ve got a couple of tips. During pregnancy, I would absolutely schedule an eye exam. That way you get a, uh, baseline reading of, uh, what your prescription is. Now, doctors are often hesitant to change your glasses in the middle of pregnancy because it’s going to shift again once you give birth. But finding out what your prescription is during pregnancy is a great step to knowing how much it changes afterwards. So I would schedule an eye exam. They will not dilate your eyes while you’re pregnant, but you might get a photo of the back of your eye, your retina, that’s where your blood vessels are working. And we can catch things that could become problems, especially if you’re having maybe a high risk pregnancy. And then often patients notice that they become contact lens intolerant during pregnancy because of that dryness. Do you ever hear people talk to you about dryness in your own practice with when they go through pregnancy?

Dr. Laura: No. And I wear contacts and I didn’t notice that during pregnancy. I’m actually noticing it more, ah, for perimenopause. So I do see. Can you talk about how hormones, specifically sex hormones for women would maybe cause dryness or, or um, also when you’re saying the vision changes, I’m assuming that means the vision gets worse during the pregnancy and then potentially goes back to its status quo after the birth. Is that what you’re referring to?

Dr. Pam: So your vision shifting is actually because the front surface of the eye, which is called the cornea, swells during pregnancy. And so that often shifts astigmatism. So you might have more and you, or you might have less. So it’s not necessarily that vision gets worse, but it changes because of that swelling. Depending on if you’re nearsighted or farsighted, the vision can change, you know, get worse or get better, depending on what your vision is. When you start out, okay, that’s swelling. And then at some point Generally after pregnancy, the vision may return to normal. Not always. I gained a diopter of astigmatism after one of my children, and it just always remained. So it’s, it’s interesting how it fluctuates.

Dr. Laura: It is. And so as I’m thinking about a postpartum mom, for the average mom who did have changes in her vision during the pregnancy, is it, I don’t know if it’s related to relaxing hormone, does that impact the cornea or how long are we talking after birth, does the vision kind of go back to how.

Dr. Laura: It was pre pregnancy?

Dr. Pam: So generally in the first six months, um, as a hormone settle the. The vision will go closer to what you had been beforehand. Of course, other health issues of the patient’s diabetic or they had preeclampsia, or, you know, other things that could have caused more of a change. Um, it may take longer for things to resolve.

Dr. Laura: That makes sense. And, um, yeah, I think the big picture here is what we’re speaking to is that the whole body is connected. Right. The health of our eyes is really a window to the health of the rest of our body. And I see that the health of our spine, the health of our mouth, like every separate part, if it’s not doing well, there’s other areas that aren’t doing well as well.

Dr. Laura: Right.

Dr. Laura: It’s not like it’s a standalone piece of our body hanging out. So if there is blood sugar issues like you mentioned, or potentially hypertension that’s persisting after the birth, these things could create challenges, I guess, with the health of the eyes and vision.

Dr. Pam: Absolutely, yes. And so another thing that pregnant moms may want to think about is removing the toxins that they’re using in their cosmetics. So because the skin around the eyes is the thinnest skin in the body, any toxins that we, because of eyeshadow mascara creams they’re putting around their eyes are very readily absorbed into the bloodstream. So doing a makeup cleanse and looking for cleaner products, I’m really thrilled that brands like Sephora and Ulta have sections where they’re, uh, of the store, where they’re labeling clean makeup, makeup without toxins and making it easier for the consumer to get these products.

Dr. Laura: I agree. I, um, before that happened, years ago, I was sending everybody to the EWG website and they have apps, you know, too, and you can still use it. Um, it’s a great resource to understand. You know, every single product commercially made has a list of ingredients. And I would say a lot of the Ingredients we can’t pronounce and we don’t really know what they are as a layperson. So it’s helpful that companies, um, like the ewg, it’s a nonprofit, helps us sort through what these ingredients are and how, um, they can impact our health. Are they carcinogenic? Do they impact fertility? Right. This is really important for a woman looking to get pregnant or who is pregnant and generally because for most women these are things we’re doing daily, right? It’s not like a once in a while I do this and it’s a rare exposure.

Dr. Laura: It’s every single day and all day long.

Dr. Laura: And also like once we put it on, it’s on for several hours, right. Until we wash our faces at the end of the day. So, you know, being mindful to clean ingredients in our skincare is huge. And I would say that would be for any type of makeup, um, and hair care products and body care products. But you really bring up a valid point about the specific eye products, eye makeup remover, everything that we’re putting on and around our eye, including, you know, um, eye cream. Like you mentioned, if we’re having, you know, for helping with wrinkles and bags under our eyes, it’s good to know about the cleaner, um, options. And I do, I love with Sephora too, that I really, um, can know. Like these are the brands that have been vetted and I’m going to stick in that aisle because I don’t. There’s plenty of toxins in my environment that I can’t avoid. But this is something that I can consciously choose to avoid and I can be an educated consumer. And also as women, when we spend our money on these clean products, companies make more clean products, right? When we spend our money on toxins, companies make more toxins, right? So we can really vote with our money and how we, um, are spending. And as more of us become aware and educated, we can see the value in buying the better products.

Dr. Pam: Awesome. I’m so glad you brought up the EWG.org website. I refer to that all the time for my patients because they may have a product that they just love. And I, and I tell them, okay, well I don’t think this is the best product for you, but go to the website, plug in, you can put in your xyz long lasting Extra lengthening mascara. You can put it in there and see that they’re going to give you a red, um, yellow or green rating on how toxic is this product and if it’s something that you can’t live Without. Maybe you need to change it to I, uh, can’t live without it on date night versus I can’t live it without it every single day.

Dr. Laura: That’s a great idea. I mean, that’s a good point. You know, for eye makeup, especially date night, we maybe do a lot more makeup and eyeshadows and things to really. But do we do that on a daily basis? Probably not. If. Unless we’re like in Kardashian, I don’t know.

Dr. Pam: Some people do, but yeah. Choosing when you’re going to go. Once you. Once you educate yourself on how toxic your face favorites are, then you can choose. Okay, well, I know this isn’t great for me, but I’m going to do it twice a month when I do this event versus every single day. Like you were saying, it’s every day for 12, 16 hours a day that we have these products right up against our eyes. And it’s not a fact that you used it yesterday, but that you’ve been using it for 30 years. That’s really having the effect on our eyes and the skin around our eyes as well.

Dr. Laura: And so as I’m thinking about it, that thin skin’s right over our eyeball.

Dr. Laura: So.

Dr. Laura: So, you know, like, is it getting absorbed into the eyeball or just getting into the blood vessels and going systemically or both?

Dr. Pam: So inside the lids, right underneath that layer of fat in the lids are these oil glands called meibomian glands. And this is actually where the damage is occurring. The oil glands are necessary for when we blink our eyes. A little bit of oil is supposed to come out of those glands and then spread across the front surface of our eye. And when it does that, it protects your tears from dehydrating into the air. Right now, in our post pandemic life, we are on our digital devices hours and hours a day more than we were even a decade ago. And the problem now is twofold. Not only are we putting toxic makeup right up against those oil glands and causing them to atrophy, but we’re also on our digital devices. And when we work on our digital devices, we blink a third. Third, um, the amount of times a minute that we would. If you and I were just sitting across from each other talking, we would, wow, no way. Yeah, we would blink 21 times a minute if we were just sitting on the couch. But on this digital device that we’re on, it’s seven times a minute. So it’s significantly m reduced. And that gets. That gets even worse if, like, let’s say we’re playing a video game. And we’re, our eyes are open and we’re playing the game and we’re super excited about it and we don’t blink. So our kiddos who are playing these games and really getting sucked into the action end up not blinking. And then those glands atrophy over decades again.

Dr. Laura: Wow. Okay, so I just learned so much. Number one, I didn’t realize. I’m just thinking tears are what are providing lubrication for our eyes. And what I’m learning from you is that there’s oil glands that help that the tear not just evaporating into the air. And the combination of the oil plus the tears is what actually that naturally lubricates our eyes. And of course it makes sense, the more we blink, the more we’re lubricating and um, hydrating our eyes.

Dr. Pam: Absolutely.

Dr. Laura: Yeah.

Dr. Pam: Yes, you’ve got it. Hands down. And there’s, you know, there’s 2,000 components to our tears. And so just putting in artificial tears, patients will say to me, oh, my eyes are dry. So I just put in artificial tears. Well, it’s not the same as what your body would naturally make.

Dr. Laura: And so, yeah, I’m assuming there could be some toxins in the artificial tears.

Dr. Laura: Artificial tears, yes.

Dr. Pam: If we do preserved tears, then yes, you’re adding that preservative into the ocular surface. If you’re doing preservative free, then the tears are, are lubricating, um, but they’re just not as good as your body’s own tears.

Dr. Laura: Okay, so what would you say to a pregnant mom who is working full time on her screen, 40 plus hours a week to help with her eye health?

Dr. Pam: Absolutely. I’m so glad you asked. So let’s dive in because this regimen I’m going to share with you is great for you and it’s great for your maybe school aged kiddo who’s now on their laptop as well, maybe learn doing some uh, distance learning, playing video games or just, uh, you know, having their entertainment on a screen, whether that be the cell phone or, or an iPad. And so I’ve got a simple three steps that is great for any, any age to really support your, your eyes so that your eyes can give you clear vision. And the first step, uh, is to hydrate. And so I was just telling you that just adding artificial tears is, is not the best option. It, it works well to, to lubricate, but it’s not as good as having your own tears. And I, I built this regimen around the idea of having kiddos do it and having a kid drop drops in their eyes is, it’s probably not ideal. So this is called the Dry Eye Drink. It’s actually a hydration formula where you, um, just add one of these sticks to a bottle of water to increase the absorption of the water. Um, it increases your absorption by three times so that you are better hydrated. And then you have. There’s some vitamins and minerals in these hydration sticks that support the tear film production. So this would be even better doing one of these drinks in the morning before you go to work as a, as a pregnant mama, you’re going to get these additional vitamins and minerals into that glass of water. That’ll help you absorb whatever water it is you’re going to drink throughout the day. The absorption will be better as well. So that would be step one.

Dr. Laura: Pam, is there electrolytes in that stick?

Dr. Pam: Yes.

Dr. Laura: And, um, is there coconut water? Like, what’s the base with that or something?

Dr. Pam: This one you just, um, add to whatever water you’d like. So you could add it to coconut water or regular water. There’s no sugar in this one, so it’s good for diabetics as well.

Dr. Laura: What’s it sweetened with?

Dr. Pam: Let’s see. Citric acid, Maltodextrin.

Dr. Laura: Okay.

Dr. Laura: Doesn’t have artificial sweeteners.

Dr. Pam: Oh, stevia.

Dr. Laura: Stevia. That makes sense. Okay, so stevia is a sweetener.

Dr. Pam: Yeah.

Dr. Laura: I think in general, hydration makes perfect sense. And I do think in general, people working on a computer don’t necessarily think about drinking water enough. So you always want to have water next to you. And maybe for some people, we recommend a, uh, timer, a reminder on your phone that you are having drinking at least, you know, sipping every hour and getting up to stretch. Right. And ideally, the amount of water you’re drinking is half of your body weight in ounces a day, minimally. Right. Pregnancy, probably more. And certainly if you’ve exercised and sweated that day, even more than that. So, yeah, just making sure you’re getting enough clean purified water, spring water or reverse osmosis, like a healthy water.

Dr. Laura: Right.

Dr. Laura: Source. And then having some electrolytes, some minerals. And that brand was called the Dry Eye Drink.

Dr. Pam: The Dry Eye Drink.

Dr. Laura: Okay, so that’s a good option to help with the hydration component of your body. And once again, if your whole body is hydrated, your eyes will be more hydrated.

Dr. Pam: Yes, exactly. They’ll have the building blocks of healthy tears. Okay, so step two is a warm compress. So this is a little microwavable mask and if you’re working on the computer and you need a break, this you can pop in the microwave for about 30 seconds and then lay it over your eyes for just about 10 minutes. That’s going to loosen up those oils that we were just talking about in the lids and allow them to come out onto the front surface as they, they melt from the heat. The oils will be released into the tear film and it’ll make your eyes feel more lubricated. They won’t sting and burn as much, and your vision should be more stable as well. So this is the Bruder warm compress mask, and it just gives you that moist heat for about 10 minutes.

Dr. Laura: Do the oil glands can. They can get clogged, I’m like, assuming. And is that maybe from eye makeup or what would cause that?

Dr. Pam: So both the toxins in the makeup we were talking about and then just the lack of blinking as many times as we ought to during the day, um, causes atrophy of the glands. So they’re not, the oils aren’t moving around as much. They start to harden. Our diets, which are really higher in omega3.6 fatty acids than they used to be, um, cause the oil composition to change as well.

Dr. Laura: So that makes also so much sense. So we really want healthy fats in our diet. We want to have more Omega 3s. We want to avoid processed trans fats because the fats we eat are going to impact our oil glands.

Dr. Laura: Yes. Okay, that makes sense to me.

Dr. Pam: The last step is to make sure that our lids and lashes are clean before we go to bed. So then at the end of the day, these are just hygienic wipes that are safe to use around the eye area. They’re specifically formulated for the eyes. Um, and you could get your kids or teens to do this too. Removing the dirt, dust, debris, pollen from your lids and lashes is going to eliminate anything that would cause inflammation the next day. So making sure they’re super clean after you’ve removed your makeup, then using an eye safe cleanser like this one is a great way to. I said remove dirt, dust, debris, pollen, where that could be causing irritation and inflammation the next day.

Dr. Laura: What is that brand?

Dr. Pam: So this is again, Bruder, it’s. These are called hygienic eyelid wipes. There’s lots of brands that are, um, available at your local pharmacy. There’s foaming cleansers. I like these lid wipes for kids because they’re wipe them and then dispose of them. And ideally you would rinse this off. But even if they were to get this in their eyes. It doesn’t sting and burn. So.

Dr. Laura: And I can’t read the brooder. Can you just spell that?

Dr. Pam: Oh, it’s B R U D E R. Got it.

Dr. Laura: And does that work for eye makeup as well or.

Dr. Pam: No, I would use a separate eye makeup remover because this is more of a cleanser. And depending on the amount of makeup that women are using, if they have a heavier makeup, they may want to go with, uh, an oil based makeup remover maybe that has coconut oil as a base to remove more of that makeup, or a micellular water to really pull the, um, cosmetics from the lids. And then this would just be a cleanse after the bulk of the makeup is removed.

Dr. Laura: Yeah, I like micellar water. So you’re saying for a woman wearing eye makeup or a teenage girl. And as I’m thinking about this, how many preteens, teens maybe already starting using mascara, are not educated about how important this is to make. Ah, as a nightly routine, like when you’re brushing your teeth and washing your face, you need to do extra attention for the eye area now that you’re using eye makeup.

Dr. Laura: Right.

Dr. Laura: So you’re saying they would do eye makeup remover and then the eyelid wipes afterwards.

Dr. Pam: Correct. Yes. That would get everything completely removed from the eye area.

Dr. Laura: But for everyone else who’s not wearing eye makeup, you can use the eyelid wipes just to help. Well, you know, as you’re saying, like dust and debris, my husband works in construction and he definitely gets dust and debris in his eyes on a regular basis. And so this is a great idea to just keep that area clean and healthy.

Dr. Pam: Right. As women, we think that our eyelashes are there for beauty, but they actually have a purpose. There’s a reason we have eyelashes, and that’s to protect our eyes from anything falling. So pollen dust will actually accumulate in our lashes on purpose by design, to protect our eyes from falling in.

Dr. Laura: And washing our face at night is not enough to get that dirt and debris off.

Dr. Pam: Probably most people aren’t doing a concentrated cleanse in the eye area. And your facial cleanser is that it’s to strip the oils from your face and not necessarily formulated for your eyelids and lashes, like a separate skin cleanser for mine.

Dr. Laura: Okay.

Dr. Laura: Yeah, that’s good to know. I wasn’t aware of that.

Dr. Laura: Yeah.

Dr. Laura: Okay. What else?

Dr. Pam: Well, um, you know, I wanted to talk just a little bit about that postpartum phase. So right after you’ve given birth and perhaps you’re breastfeeding or you’re just up in the middle of the night whether. Whether you’re breastfeeding or just feeding the baby. So your eyes are open more than they should be during this postpartum time. And we have already talked about how hormone fluctuations can decrease the amount of tears that your eyes are producing. So I’ve got a couple of tips for ladies who are in that postpartum phase, or maybe you’re in a phase where your kid’s just not sleeping and you are up in the middle of the night. So let’s start with hydrating throughout the day so that you have those, uh, fluids to make your healthy tears. Then I would recommend doing a gel drop. Now, this is a thicker, artificial tear or even an ointment when you go to bed so that your eye is going to be coated. And if you get two hours of sleep or four hours of sleep before baby or kiddo wakes up, when you do wake up, you have this extra layer of lubrication. Could really make your eyes feel better when you’re not getting a full eight hours of sleep by putting in a gel or an ointment at bedtime.

Dr. Laura: Can you recommend a specific brand?

Dr. Pam: Absolutely. So when you go to the eye care aisle at the pharmacy, every, every brand, whether it be Sustain, Refresh, Thera, Tears blink, they all have a gel formulation and an ointment formulation. Usually the ointment, I’ll say something like PM or bedtime, and it’ll come in a little tube. And then that is actually with clean fingers. You put the ointment on your finger and then roll it inside your eye. The ointment needs to go into the.

Dr. Laura: Eye at bedtime, and that’s obviously after the contacts are removed.

Dr. Pam: Absolutely. Because we’re not sleeping in our contact lenses. Ladies, even if you are getting up in the middle of the night, please don’t sleep in your contact lenses.

Dr. Laura: Pop your glasses on.

Dr. Pam: Exactly. And the last postpartum tip I want to talk about is blue light. So while you’re up in the middle of the night and you’re feeding baby or nursing baby and you’re like, oh, what am I going to do with myself so I don’t fall asleep, and you open up your cell phone and you put a video on or something that’s gonna keep you alert while you’re feeding the baby, that blue light that’s coming from the screen is exciting your serotonin levels and perhaps waking you up even more so that you’re gonna have.

Dr. Laura: A harder time sleeping as well as the baby. This came up with a previous Podcast about screen time use. And we’re like, babies don’t need to be exposed to that either. Right. So it’s not good for either mom or baby’s melatonin, uh, levels and their ability to go right back to sleep right after. Like that middle of the night nurse.

Dr. Pam: Exactly. So wearing some blue light blocking glasses or putting the screen to the side or even just reading a book, no screen at all.

Dr. Laura: I would say no screen if it’s middle of the night. Honestly, I don’t think that’s serving anyone.

Dr. Pam: Mhm, absolutely. Go right back to sleep because you didn’t even stimulate yourself. So.

Dr. Laura: Right. Yeah, maybe some music, Something relaxing, calming.

Dr. Laura: Yes. You can listen to some music popping.

Dr. Pam: In some earbuds, then it doesn’t disturb baby.

Dr. Laura: Right.

Dr. Pam: But uh, yeah, really protecting your sleep as much as you can during that time that when sleep is so scarce and so precious. And during the day again with these, these mamas that are, you know, have newborns, wearing a sleep mask could help you to sleep better in the daytime if you’re trying to nap. When baby naps, blocking out the light completely can help you to sleep faster.

Dr. Laura: Oh, I love that idea. And how does during that fourth trimester where sleep is so interrupted, how does essentially less sleep or interrupted sleep impact also the tears and the lubrication of the eye? Because I guess when you’re sleeping your eyelid is closed and there’s, is there lubrication happening with that eyelid closed similar to like blinking more?

Dr. Laura: Yes.

Dr. Pam: So actually a third of our tear film comes from breathing. So the act of breathing air through our nose stimulates a nerve in our, in our nose that goes to the brain that says to make tears. So even when your eyes are closed, you are producing tears through the night. And our eyes, like our bodies do the healing process and rejuvenation regeneration while we are asleep. And when that gets interrupted, then we don’t get the, the healing that we need during that time. So extra lubrication when you’re not sleeping a full eight hours is super important. And adding that on top with an artificial tear or that gel at bedtime can be very comforting to the front surface of the eye.

Dr. Laura: Oh my God, that’s so fascinating. And now you just gave me another like aha, uh, moment. What if somebody’s m. A mouth breather and they’re having struggling with sleep apnea? We know about how that impacts the oxygenation of brain and all the symptoms, but now I’m wondering, is that person also producing less tears if they’re Breathing less through their nose and instead through their mouth.

Dr. Pam: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Dr. Laura: I talk so much about airway, you know, even with the infants coming into my office for cranial work and how we optimize their airway development and really help teach them to be nasal breathers. But I didn’t even know about that connection with the eye health.

Dr. Laura: Yeah.

Dr. Pam: If it’s. If that nerve is not being stimulated in the nose, then. Then they’re going to have a reduced, uh, tear production.

Dr. Laura: Is it the olfactory nerve that you’re referring to or.

Dr. Pam: It’s the trigeminal nerve.

Dr. Laura: Oh, the trigeminal nerve.

Dr. Laura: Got it. Wow, that’s so fat.

Dr. Laura: I didn’t know that one. Cool. So it’s one of the cranial nerves. And I would say, like, this is a big deal. And children can have sleep apnea as well. Right. So, you know, it’s really. I mean, I have other episodes on my podcast about airway development and supporting that for children. But if anyone isn’t getting good sleep or, or optimal sleep and breathing through their nose or there’s an issue why they can’t breathe through their nose, this is detrimental to their overall health.

Dr. Pam: Yeah.

Dr. Laura: Wow. Very cool.

Dr. Laura: Well, Pam, is there any last thoughts you want to share with the audience?

Dr. Pam: Well, I would love to give your guests, uh, a free gift. And I have a. I have two freebies for you guys. So the first would be my makeup remover list. So it, it has all the makeup removers that I recommend to patients with sensitive eyes and at the end of also some links to clean beauty products that I love. My favorite mascara, is there some under eye cream, some eye bag reducers. Just some really great products that I believe in. And the other is that, uh, in January, I was honored to give a TEDx talk about digital eye strain and the tips that you could use to reduce your eye strain. And so if you’d like to download that, it is also on my website. So the first one is Pam Theriot which is my name, Pam the riot.com remover for the makeup remover list and forward/tedx for the digital eyestrain guide, which is great for people of all ages using digital screens.

Dr. Laura: Awesome. This is such great information. Well, Pam, I’m so grateful for you taking the time to come on and share with the audience about your work, wisdom and knowledge around eye health. I have to say, I learned a few new tips and tricks today, so this is wonderful. Thank you so much.

Dr. Pam: Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure.

Dr. Laura: Well, I hope you enjoyed Today’s episode with Dr. Pam. She was a wealth of knowledge around eye health and especially addressing any eye uh, health issues like dry eyes, vision changes related to hormone fluctuation during pregnancy, postpartum, um and beyond. And I think it’s just empowering for us as women and parents to understand how to better care for our eyes because our vision and our eye health is crucial for our overall health. Right. And it’s also indicative of how well we’re taking care of our body. So like she shared, if you want to get more information about the most effective ways to clean your eye eyelid and removing makeup, duster and allergens like pollen, you can check out her website at pamtherio.com that’s P A M UM T-H-E-R-I-O-T.com remover or to check out her TedX talk you can also go to her website backslash TedX. And don’t forget to check out her book as well. The Alleviate Dry Eye Book.

Dr. Pam: Mhm.

Dr. Laura: Sam.