A Clear Look at Styes vs. Chalazion: Causes, Symptoms, and Natural Care Artwork

Natural Eye Care with Dr. Marc Grossman, Holistic Optometrist

Leading Holistic Optometrist Dr. Marc R. Grossman, O.D., L.Ac. hosts the Natural Eye Care Podcast: approaches to vision problems, eye health, and overall health backed by research and his 40+ years of experience with patients. Most eye diseases strike seniors. Find out how lifestyle, diet, and nutrition can help maintain healthy vision and even improve eyesight. An Holistic Eye Doctor is dedicated to helping people with such conditions ranging from myopia and dry eyes to potentially vision-threatening diseases like macular degeneration and glaucoma. Dr. Grossman's podcasts cover a multi-disciplinary approach including nutrition, eye exercises, lifestyle changes, and Chinese Medicine. Dr. Grossman founded the Rye Learning Center in 1980, a multidisciplinary center for learning problems, in 1996 co-founded Integral Health Associates in New Paltz, New York, and in 1999 co-founded Natural Eye Care, Inc. His background includes degrees in Optometry, Biology, Physical Education and Learning Disabilities, coupled with yoga, bioenergetics, nutrition, Chinese medicine and acupuncture, the Alexander technique and Feldenkrais. He is co-author of half a dozen books on vision, including "Natural Eye Care: Your Guide to Health Vision and Healing" in 2019. Dr. Grossman takes an integrated approach to vision and its influence on the body, mind, and spirit. His lectures and private consultations are in high demand.

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Natural Eye Care with Dr. Marc Grossman, Holistic Optometrist

A Clear Look at Styes vs. Chalazion: Causes, Symptoms, and Natural Care

October 30, 2025 • Dr. Marc R Grossman, OD, L.Ac. • Season 6 • Episode 16

Dr. Marc Grossman explains what a stye is and how it differs from a chalazion. He describes practical steps to calm pain, reduce swelling, and prevent recurrences. He also shares when antibiotics make sense, which natural tools can help, and how to protect long-term eyelid health.

stye definition, signs, and typical course
chalazion vs stye, key differences and timelines
risk factors including hand hygiene, contact lenses, blepharitis, rosacea, dry eye
symptom cues like tenderness, white head, lid location
natural care with warm compresses and herbal compress blends
lid hygiene using tea tree, hypochlorous acid, hyaluronic acid, aloe
when to pause contacts and seek medical care
resources and where to learn more

For more information, visit naturaleycare.com and drgrossman2020.com
Our email address is info@naturaleycare.com

If you have any questions, call us at 845 475 4158.

And if you don't already subscribe to this podcast, please subscribe and review us.

SPEAKER_01: 0:04

This is the Natural Eye Care Podcast, hosted by leading holistic optometrist Dr. Mark R. Grossman. Senior citizens are at the highest risk of developing macular degeneration, glaucoma, cataracts, dry eye, and more. The Natural Eye Care Podcast provides complementary and natural approaches to vision problems, eye health, and overall health. Find out how lifestyle, diet, and nutrition can help maintain healthy vision and even improve eyesight. Dr. Grossman has degrees in optometry, biology, physical education, and learning disabilities. He is a New York State licensed acupuncturist. With forty years of experience, he has co-authored the book Natural Eye Care: Your Guide to Healthy Vision and Healing. Dr. Grossman.

SPEAKER_00: 0:58

Styes of the eye are inflammation or infections of an eyelash follicle or one of the mybobian glands that lie along the eyelid edge. Styes present as red painful lumps which can develop whitish heads of a pus, like a little pimple. They are contagious but rarely spread to other people. Most people have one at some time in their lives. A sty is also called a hordiolum. It is actually an abscess, a lump filled with pus, which is usually caused by a staph infection. Our skin is naturally coated with all sorts of bacteria. They generally happily coexist with us, but just the right conditions and perhaps extra contamination from eye makeup or outside contamination can contribute to the development of a sty. Sometimes styes develop, especially in children, when we rub our eyes with unwashed hands. As I said, styes are the result of a bacterial infection of the mybobian glands or the glands of zeiss and mole, gland supplying oil to the eyelashes. Staph infections are usually the cause. This means that styes almost always involve redness, soreness, and localized swelling in the eye, which is not typically the case with a salasium, which is an internal sty underneath the eyelid. Sty are tender and painful to touch. Ordinarily they swell for about three days and then they break open and drain, and healing usually occurs within a week. Salasiums are not caused by infection. Rather, they are caused by a foreign body cell reaction with the oily sebum secreted by the Mygobian glands. Salasiums usually, but not always, do not involve redness soreness and swelling. 25% of salasiums show no symptoms other than a visible bump and they usually disappear without treatment. But they can grow to a bothersome size and even blur vision because they distort the shape of the eye. Schalasiums tend to take longer than styles to resolve, sometimes up to several months. Some chalesiums, however, do act more like styes, becoming red, swollen, and tender. In these cases, they're easily mistaken for styes. To distinguish the two, styes develop closer to the edge of the eyelid than a salasium. Styes develop more rapidly and are smaller and are more superficial than a salasium. Styes almost always look like a pimple. Styes have a small white dot in their center, signaling an infection. There are two types of styes. External, this type of sty emerges from the edge of the eyelid at the base of the eyelash and can be filled with pus and looks yellow and painful when touched. Or internal styes, swelling develops on the inside of the eyelid. Symptoms, the skin around the eye is tended to touch. Increased eye watering due to irritation. Sensitivity to light. Causes. Touching your eye without washing your hands can spread staph if you've rubbed your nose, inserted contact lenses without washing your hands. Chronic dry eye can create styles. Sometimes they're related to blepharitis, which is an inflammation of the eyelid. Rosacea, ocular rosacea, skin condition by facial redness is a risk factor. Sometimes we prescribe antibiotics. Sometimes we do warm compresses. We tell the patient not to wear contact lenses. But what can we do naturally to help with styes? Let's talk about it. On natural eye care, we have the eye E's formula, which is about eight to ten different natural antibacterial herbs that we make a compress with and we make it warm to put on the eye to help decrease that sty. Then we may use an eye mask that you heat up in the microwave or the oven and you put it on the eye because warm compresses will definitely help with styes to break it up. In that eyes formula, you will see certain herbs like burdock, forensia, golden seal, and echinesia, and eyebrite. Very, very helpful. Then you might use a lid wipe. There's many lid wipes out there, many good companies make them. The one that we recommend is from Opte. It has hyaluronic acid, tea tree oil, aloe in it. But there are lots of good eye wipes. Then there's lid hygienics, which is an eye scrub that you can use. And there's also another scrub called Avanova with hypochlorous acid to help with any staph infection that might be occurring. So there are natural things you can do to help with styles. So thank you for visiting us at naturaley care.com to learn more about your precious gift of sight.

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For more information, visit naturaleycare.com and doctorgrossman2020.com. Our email address is info at naturaleycare.com. If you have any questions, call us 845 475 4158. And if you don't already subscribe to this podcast, please subscribe and review us.