Dry Eyes: Natural Remedies To Calm Irritation

Having dry, irritated eyes can cause great discomfort, which is often worse at night. This is what happens in the increasingly frequent dry eye syndrome, a type of chronic dryness that affects the ocular surface and that, in the long term, can cause visual problems and damage to the cornea and conjunctiva.

What is dry eye syndrome

Dry eye syndrome is characterized by irritated and itchy or stinging eyes, as if a speck of dust had gotten into us.

Other symptoms of dry eye are that the eyes feel fatigued, which is known as eye strain, and a great sensitivity to light usually develops . Hence, people with constant dry eyes are often advised to wear sunglasses.

Paradoxically, despite having dry eyes, the syndrome is often accompanied by tearing.

Dry eyes occur when the eye glands do not secrete enough tears, or when the quality of the tear is lower. In the latter case, it generally happens that the fat content of the tear is reduced.

This happens very frequently in older people, since with age the eyes dry out, but this problem also happens in younger people.

The most frequent causes

There are many external factors that can irritate the eye such as the use of computer screens, smoking, environmental pollution, working in a sick building, wearing contact lenses, taking certain medications or some ophthalmological interventions such as, for example , laser surgery.

However, constitutional factors may be the most important, including dry eye syndrome, which is very common and is sometimes associated with fibromyalgia.

Home remedies for dry eyes

To hydrate dry eyes, calm irritation and itching and prevent dryness from deteriorating the surface of the eye further, some natural remedies and habits can be very useful:

• Warm eye compresses: The compresses soothe itching, but they also help us clean our eyes. With gauze or a cloth soaked in hot water, we can carefully wash the eyes, especially the two ends. If instead of hot water, we use an infusion of chamomile or tea, we can improve the effectiveness of the compress.
• Eye drops for dry eyes: There are many preparations, natural and not so, to treat dry eyes. In general we will say that, if we have to use them with a certain regularity, we opt for a simple eye drops, based on plants and without preservatives, since eye irritation can sometimes be aggravated by contact with them. The plants most used as eye painkillers are eyebright, cornflower, witch hazel, tea or chamomile.
• Blinking: Blinking performs a kind of washing of the eyeball, and if we carry out any activity in which we have to strain our eyes, such as working with the computer, we can take the precaution of closing our eyes for a while, like 15- 30 seconds, before continuing to work.
• Moisturize the eyes: The first moisturizer is the tear that our eyes secrete. Tea compresses (the used tea bag can be applied on the eyes) or chamomile compresses can be useful, although the most indicated plant to hydrate dry eye is eyebright. There are commercial eyebright-based preparations such as eye drops. It can also be useful to wash with witch hazel, of which there are also eye drops and preparations that you will find in herbalists and pharmacies. Another solution is to use artificial tears : there are many suitable eye drops.
• A diet rich in omega-3: The contribution of good quality fats can help the tear to have a more adequate composition. The virgin olive oils, sunflower or linen, consumption of nuts in oil and proximity (to avoid oils from becoming rancid), or oily fish fresh, if a vegetarian diet is not followed, we can bring these oils as essential for our health.