Does the left eyelid jump represent a good thing or a bad thing to happen?

As the saying goes, "the left eye jumps for wealth, and the right eye jumps for disaster", so some people worry about bad things when they jump with their right eyelids, and they are thinking about lowering their heads to buy lottery tickets. The result is obviously neither a catastrophe nor a windfall. Then why are your eyelids jumping? Let's talk about this topic.

Among the muscles that make up the eyelids, there is a kind of oculomotor muscle, which surrounds the eyes like a flat round wheel. When it contracts, its eyes close. The orbicularis oculi muscles of the two eyes are controlled by two "facial nerves" respectively, and these two facial nerves are controlled by the "nucleus" deep in the brain.

Usually, our eyes keep blinking, so that we can brush our tears on the cornea and conjunctiva, thus nourishing and protecting the structure on the surface of the eyeball, but people will not feel anything obvious. However, if the nerve in charge of the eyelid muscles is over-stimulated, it will command the muscles to contract repeatedly, so that the eyelids will keep moving, and people will feel that the eyelids are jumping. What's the big deal about eyelid jump? Who hasn't had several eyelid jumps in life? Most eyelid jumps will be "fleeting" and it will be over before you have time to figure out what's wrong with it.

In fact, most eyelid jumps are really not a big problem, just eye fatigue or excessive tension. Just like when you run 800 meters, when you just stop, your leg muscles must still be jumping, which is the same for your eyes. For this physiological eyelid jump, just take a rest.

However, if your eyelids are always disobedient, and you have to jump many times a day, and it is getting more and more frequent, and it is not good to last 1 month, then you should go to the hospital to have a look, whether it is monocular or binocular. If your eyelids keep jumping, you should see a doctor in two weeks. If your eyelids jump at the same time, don't wait, go to the hospital at once.

The most common diseases that can cause eyelid jump are hemifacial spasm and eyelid spasm. These two diseases sound very similar, but in fact they are completely different.

Let's start with the root cause. If you can see through your brain, you will find that there is complicated and busy "traffic" in your brain. Between our soft brain and hard skull, there is a network of blood vessels, each of which beats with the heartbeat and supplies blood to the brain all the time.

Control all kinds of nerves in the whole body to shuttle between dense blood vessels. Among them, the two nerves emanating from the brain stem are called facial nerves, which control the left and right sides of our faces respectively, and are in charge of the expression and taste of the two faces. At ordinary times, the nerves and blood vessels perform their duties and live in peace. But with the growth and aging of people, blood vessels are slowly changing.

When we are young, our blood vessels are like a vibrant poplar, and all branches extend straight into the distance. With the increase of age, blood vessels seem to relax and become longer, and gradually become tortuous. Curved blood vessels sometimes accidentally touch the surrounding nerves, and with every beat of the heartbeat, this blood vessel will compress the nerves.

After a long time, the bone marrow on the nerve surface wears off slightly, just like the plastic skin outside the wire wears off after a long time. If the plastic skin of the wire is gone and the insulation becomes worse, it may be short-circuited with the surrounding wires, and the nerves are similar. If the facial nerve is "short-circuited", the electrical conduction of the local nerve will change, and the facial muscle activity will increase, so we will have eyelid jump and even the whole face twitch.

Medical research shows that the most common cause of hemifacial spasm is that the facial nerve root is compressed by blood vessels. Our left and right facial muscles are controlled by two facial nerves respectively, and the two nerves are rarely compressed at the same time. Therefore, hemifacial spasm is often unilateral, such as early single eyelid jump. In severe cases, not only single eyelid jump, but also ipsilateral corners of the mouth twitch. Some people even have tinnitus and jaw twitching on the same side, but they rarely jump on both sides.

Some patients with facial paralysis will also have hemifacial spasm during the recovery period. Facial paralysis is caused by the pathological changes of facial nerve itself. If the nerve in a certain position is blocked, in the recovery period, some tiny nerves will gradually emerge in the brain to re-dominate the facial muscles, but the newly-born nerves are not fully developed, which will lead to facial convulsions, such as eyelid jumping, mouth twitching upwards, and eyes closing involuntarily when chewing. This kind of convulsion occurs after facial paralysis, but not before facial paralysis, so people with no history of facial paralysis need not consider this reason, but patients with long-term facial paralysis will show signs of mild facial paralysis.

Facial nerves can command our facial muscles, and the movements of these two nerves and other nerves in the human body are under the unified command of a higher-level "headquarters". The conductor is the nucleus deep in the brain (our nerves all have roots, called neurons, and the place where a bunch of neurons stay is the nucleus). If there is something wrong with the nucleus, it may lead to eyelid spasm. This time, the problem is at a higher level. There is something wrong with the "headquarters" that controls the facial nerves, so the two facial nerves and the muscles they control will be randomly commanded, so patients with ocular spasm will jump at the same time with both eyes and both upper and lower eyelids.

In addition, Meire syndrome can also cause eyelid jump, and the cause of the disease is also the increase of excitability of brain nuclei, so scholars are still debating whether it is the same disease or two different diseases complicated with ophthalmofacial spasm. Early Meire's syndrome is also characterized by bilateral eyelid jump, which is almost indistinguishable from eyelid spasm. However, in the later stage, most people will be diagnosed as Meire syndrome when their mouths are constantly moving, and doctors can only judge by this now.

Many people don't care about eyelid jumping. Some people may jump for 1 year until their mouth twitches before going to see a doctor. If it's hemifacial spasm, it won't have too serious consequences, but one eye often twitches and there will still be obstacles in reading books and newspapers. If it is ophthalmofacial spasm, daily life is likely to be affected.

The symptoms of blepharospasm are not only eyelid jumping, but also the tightness and heaviness of eyelids, which makes eyes hard to open, and sometimes it seems that eyelids are pulled down.

Eyelid spasm is that both eyelids go wrong at the same time. In severe cases, if both eyes can't be opened at the same time, the problem will be in trouble. Some patients can't open their eyes when pouring boiling water, and some patients close their eyes when crossing the road. This kind of "functional blindness" can easily lead to serious consequences. And this disease is always difficult to treat in the later stage. When the ophthalmofacial spasm is serious, it may be out of control to take medicine, and it needs long-term injection of botulinum toxin to control it. So remind everyone that if you are sick, treat it quickly, and it is easy to treat it early.