What Makes My Eyelid Sore?
Is Allergic Conjunctivitis Contagious?
Allergic conjunctivitis is not contagious, but other types of conjunctivitis, such as viral or bacterial, are. People can take steps to prevent transmission of the contagious types.
These steps include regularly washing the hands, avoiding touching the eye, and not sharing personal items that touch the eyes, such as towels.
People with allergic conjunctivitis cannot transmit it to other individuals.
Keep reading to learn more about why allergic conjunctivitis is not contagious, how to tell if it is another type of conjunctivitis, and the available treatments.
Conjunctivitis is the inflammation of tissue that covers the front of the eye and the inside of the eyelid. This tissue is known as the conjunctiva.
There are several types of conjunctivitis, including:
Viral and bacterial conjunctivitis, which some refer to as "pink eye," are contagious because they are the result of microbes that can transmit from one person to another.
Allergic conjunctivitis is not contagious because allergies are the result of a person's immune system mistakenly reacting to something that is not dangerous, such as pollen or dust. People cannot transmit allergies to others.
That said, allergies can run in families, so family members may experience allergic conjunctivitis at the same time. This may give the appearance of it being contagious when it is not.
The symptoms of each type of conjunctivitis can be fairly similar. Each one can cause:
However, there are some key differences. The table below compares the types:
The type of conjunctivitis a person has may be apparent from their symptoms. However, if they are unsure, a person may need to speak with a doctor.
To diagnose conjunctivitis, a doctor may ask the individual questions about when the symptoms began and about their medical history. They may also examine the eye area.
If there is concern about damage to the cornea, a doctor may use a special stain to determine if there are any abrasions. If the doctor believes the cause is an allergen, they may refer the person for allergy testing.
Alternatively, they may be able to determine the allergen based on when their symptoms begin. For example, a person may only experience the irritation when they are playing with a pet, which could suggest an animal dander allergy.
Sometimes, people can prevent allergic conjunctivitis entirely by identifying and avoiding the allergen that triggers the symptoms. They can:
Depending on the allergy, it may also help for people to:
When avoidance is not possible or the allergen is unknown, a doctor may suggest further treatments that can help manage the symptoms, such as:
If a newborn develops conjunctivitis for any reason, parents or caregivers should consult a doctor immediately rather than trying to treat it at home.
Allergic conjunctivitis can last for as long as a person is in contact with an allergen. If the exposure was short, the inflammation should calm down with time. If the exposure is ongoing, a person may have chronic symptoms.
Below are answers to some frequently asked questions about allergic conjunctivitis.
Is allergic conjunctivitis serious?Allergic conjunctivitis is usually not serious. It rarely causes lasting damage to the eyes, and it is not life threatening.
However, allergies can cause significant discomfort and affect quality of life. There are also some more serious forms of conjunctivitis, such as vernal conjunctivitis and atopic keratoconjunctivitis, which can affect vision without treatment.
Can you work with allergic conjunctivitis?This depends on the individual. If their symptoms affect their ability to do their job and they do not respond to treatment, then allergic conjunctivitis may affect their career.
Otherwise, a person does not need to stay out of work due to allergic conjunctivitis. The condition usually does not affect vision, and it generally has a good prognosis.
Can you have allergic conjunctivitis in one eye?Allergic conjunctivitis typically affects both eyes. However, if an allergen such as a pet hair has gotten into only one eye, it is possible that a person might have inflammation on one side.
Allergic conjunctivitis is not contagious, but other types of conjunctivitis are. The term "conjunctivitis" refers to inflammation of the tissue lining the eyelid and front of the eye, which can occur for several reasons, including infections.
If a person is certain the cause of their conjunctivitis is an allergen, then rinsing the eyes, using eye drops, or taking antihistamines may help. Avoiding the allergen, if possible, may also help prevent symptoms.
If a person is not certain of the cause of their conjunctivitis, they should take precautions to prevent transmission. They should seek medical advice if the symptoms do not get better, are severe, keep coming back, or affect sight.
Why Is Yawning Contagious?
When someone nearby yawns, we often feel as if we've lost bodily control. Our jaws open involuntarily, overcome by some unseen force and compelled to mimic the gaping mouth in our midst. Merely thinking about yawning can cause you to yawn — an unrelenting problem for anyone pondering and writing about the subject.
No one knows for sure what triggers this automatic (and often unconscious) response, but experts have proposed a few theories. Whether simultaneous yawning raises our collective awareness or strengthens our social connections, it certainly seems that the behavior is infectious.
What Causes Yawning?To understand why we find yawning so contagious, it's important to consider what causes yawns in the first place. For such a common phenomenon — the healthy average is up to 20 times per day — yawning remains somewhat mysterious. So what does yawning do?
One hypothesis is that yawning is simply your brain's way of regulating its internal temperature. Studies have shown that a warm pack held to the forehead induces more frequent yawns than a cold one, suggesting they help your noggin cool down.
Another hypothesis is that yawning heightens alertness, which makes intuitive sense considering we typically do it during behavioral transitions — between sleeping and waking, between sitting around and getting active. Some researchers suggest that the way it contorts your face and neck may stimulate the carotid artery, raising your heart rate and jolting you to attention.
All of this can happen while you're by yourself, of course. When a yawn isn't triggered by someone else's, it's called a spontaneous yawn. But this garden variety reflex doesn't usually pique our interest. What baffles us is the contagious yawn, with its strange ability to overpower us.
Read More: Why Do We Yawn?
Is Yawning Contagious?So, why do we yawn in response to another person? It could be an evolutionary adaptation to synchronize group behavior. Imagine a band of prehistoric humans, keeping watch through the night against predators and foes. If one of them starts to doze off, it's likely the rest are getting sleepy as well. When the first person yawns, that cue prompts everybody else to do the same, raising the group's overall vigilance and safety.
Some research also points to a link between contagious yawning and empathy, the capacity to understand and share the emotions of another person (an essential trait for a species like Homo sapiens, with our complex social interactions). In support of this link, a 2020 study found that people are more likely to catch the contagion among family and friends. The deeper the bonds, the deeper the yawns, the study suggested.
Skeptics note, however, that a yawn doesn't necessarily transmit the emotion that inspired it, perhaps undercutting the empathy hypothesis. As psychologists Jorg Massen and Andrew Gallup wrote in a paper from 2017, "it seems rather unlikely that people suddenly become bored when they see someone yawn as a result of uninteresting stimuli, or stressed when sensing yawns elicited by anxiety-provoking situations."
Read More: Why Are Emotions Contagious?
Skeptics Question Just How Contagious Yawning IsWhatever its purpose, contagious yawning certainly seems tied to big brains, and to sociality. Though many animals — from birds to fish to reptiles — have been caught agape, only highly intelligent, highly social species such as primates yawn as a reaction to their peers. In 2022, researchers found that humans even yawn in response to yawns from other animals.
Given that the yawning contagion is limited to the most intelligent and social creatures, it seems natural to connect it to their well-developed cognitive architecture. Though the evidence has been inconsistent so far, one theory holds that contagious yawning is the product of mirror neurons, copycat brain cells that fire both when we carry out an action ourselves and when we see someone else do it.
Beyond these theories, it's worth noting that some researchers question whether yawns really are contagious. Psychologists Rohan Kapitány and Mark Nielsen have suggested that even if they aren't, our knack for pattern recognition and confirmation bias could lead us to the wrong conclusions — we notice the few cases where yawns seem contagious and miss the far more numerous cases where yawns occur spontaneously. "We may have been doing little more than seeing faces in clouds or reading tea-leaves," they wrote in 2017.
According to Kapitány and Nielson, additional research, with more creative and contentious methodologies, is needed to determine how contagious yawning really is, if it is contagious at all. How many yawns are spread in the course of that research, well, that's something only time will tell.
Read More: Animals That Sleep the Least and the Most
Is ALS Contagious: Can You "Catch" It?
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurological disease that affects voluntary muscle movement. It is not contagious, but various factors may put certain people at risk.
When a health condition is contagious, it means that one person can actively pass it to another through direct or indirect contact.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is not contagious. ALS is a disease that originates inside a person's body and is not "caught" from contact with a person or surface.
The only way you can acquire ALS directly from another person is genetically. This means that if your parents have the genes for ALS, you may inherit them and may be more likely to develop the disease — but even this isn't so simple.
Researchers do not know exactly what causes ALS.
Most cases happen at random but may be associated with:
A family history of ALS only slightly increases someone's risk of developing the disease. About 5–10% of people who have ALS inherited it genetically through around a dozen possible gene mutations that are associated with ALS.
Other risk factors include:
There is currently no cure for ALS because damage to motor neurons cannot be reversed once it has already happened.
ALS treatment is aimed at addressing symptoms, slowing the progress of the disease, and improving quality of life.
Treatments may include medications to slow disease progression or manage symptoms, as well as lifestyle modifications to help with mobility, eating, and breathing.
Treatments may also involve a number of healthcare professionals, including:
How many people have ALS?Experts estimate that nearly 30,000 people in the United States are living with ALS.
What are the early signs of ALS?Early signs of ALS may include:
No. People with ALS do not typically have difficulty with their sense of touch, sight, hearing, taste, or smell. The muscles in the eyes and bladder are also not typically affected.
You cannot "catch" ALS from someone who has it. A family history of ALS may increase your risk of developing the disease, but the cause is mostly unknown.
If you have symptoms that concern you, make an appointment with a doctor. Diagnosis includes tests like:
Early diagnosis can help you manage the disease and possibly slow its progression with medication and therapies.
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