How To Get Rid of Styes

Hey guys,

I had an email recently telling me that the best way of getting rid of styes is to rub a copper penny on it. The sender was adamant (and quite aggressive) that this was the only method that should be used and I was wrong to recommend the warm compress!

After a little research on the Internet, I discovered a few variations to the ‘copper penny method’:

• Rub the copper penny on a piece of cloth so it gets warm, then hold the edge against your eye.
• Boil the copper penny to sterilize it, wait for it to cool then hold it against your eye.
• Freeze the copper penny in the freezer, take it out and hold it against your eye.

When I used to get styes (pretty much every month or two) I tried the copper penny method and it didn’t work for me. In addition, like the Gold Method, there is no scientific or medical evidence to back up the claim that it is a bona fide stye remedy.

Therefore, I can not recommend this as a way to get rid of a stye.

I appreciate that other people may have used this method and had success with it but my gut instinct tells me that their stye disappeared despite the copper penny rather than because of it.

Scientifically speaking, copper itself should not affect the healing process of a stye at all. The only part that makes any sense to me is the variation that says to warm it up before putting it against your eye because increasing the temperature of the eyelid promotes blood flow to the area, which can help recovery (which is exactly the same reason why the warm compress is warm).

If you want to get rid of a stye using a tried and tested technique that has been proven to work almost 100% of the time, use the warm compress.

Tags: copper penny