5 Natural Treatments for Dry Eyes| Eye Doctor Explains

Want some natural treatments for that debilitating dry eye? I've got you. Keep watching. Hello, everyone. I am Dr. Rupa Wong, board-certified ophthalmologist. And on this channel, we talk about eye health, eye surgery, eye makeup health, and a little bit of my doctor mom life here in Hawaii. Today, we're focusing on eye health. And dry eyes is something that affects so many people and specifically more women than men. The thought is because of the androgens and estrogens, the hormone levels, even thyroid, cortisol, all of these hormones affect women more than men and can exacerbate dry eyes. If you are not interested in doing the lasers or all different other kinds of things, then this video is for you. First, what are the symptoms of dry eye syndrome? Well, if you've experienced it, you probably know. But blurry vision, burning, stinging, redness, irritation, and tearing. Yes, even tearing. What happens is when your eyes are dry, your body's reflex is to make more tears. So this always really makes my patients very confused. They come in saying their eyes feel dry, but then they're noticing tearing, and I'm explaining it to them that that's actually part of one of the symptoms. And it seems really counterintuitive. But the body's reflex tears that it makes when your eyes are dry, they're just not as good at lubricating the surface of the eye as the regular tears. And that's why it's problematic. But let's get into the five ways that we can treat these dry eyes. The first is super simple, hydration. Drinking water and staying hydrated helps you produce natural tears. You probably noticed when you were really dehydrated, your throat feels parched, your mucous membranes, your lips, all of that feels really, really dry. And the same thing with your tears. You're just not able to produce enough tears. In fact, that's one of the things that we measure in the office. We measure the hyperosmolarity of your tears to see how dry you are. So we have a little portable instrument that checks your tear osmolarity level. So a high number indicates that your eyes are very dry. And that makes sense. If you go back and remember your high school chemistry with osmolarity and the direction of flow of water versus salt, if you are just not having enough water in your tears, then they're going to be more salty. Just stands to reason. So staying hydrated is a super simple but very effective way at combating dry eyes. They even did a study of dry eyes and whole body hydration. And they found that they were linked, not just feeling like that they were linked, but actually examining how dehydrated people were by looking at their plasma osmolarity levels and then comparing it to the osmolarity of their tears. And they found, just as we would suspect, that if you are less hydrated, then you tend to have dry eyes. Okay, so the second natural treatment is supplements. Now, I am not the best about taking my vitamins, but in this case, vitamins and supplements can be really beneficial. It's one of the few times that I actually recommend it. A lot of studies have shown that omega-3 vitamins, especially the EHA and the DHA, are really helpful at stabilizing the tear film. Now, here's the thing. Not all omega-3s are the same. So the omega-3 vitamins that you buy from your bulk store aren't exactly the same as what you can buy that might be specialty. And the reason for that is just the different concentrations, what's bioavailable, and the ratio of the EHA and DHA. Now, gamma-linolenic acid, GLA, has been also shown to help with the inflammation of dry eyes. It helps with inflammation all over your body. And that's why omegas are so helpful at just heart health and even for brain development and brain health. So in this particular case, dry eyes is not just about not having enough tears. We talked about hydration, but it's really the entire body. So a lot of the treatments, especially the natural treatments, are going to your entire body and not just your dry eye syndrome. But GLA is not found in fish or in a lot of readily available food. It's available in breast milk, which is why you have access to it if you were breastfed. But it's really important and it's being shown in so many studies to help with inflammation. And dry eyes is a cascade. It's a cascade of inflammation and then a feedback loop as to what your brain does with all of that information about inflammatory states. And it releases a lot of different types of chemical mediators. And that's what we're trying to interrupt when we treat dry eyes. There are a couple different vitamins that have not just the omega-3s, but also the antioxidants like vitamins A, C, and E, as well as the GLA. So you want to look for your nutritional supplements to have a combination of these, especially if you are trying to combat dry eyes. Now, the third natural treatment, this is really going to be involving the entire body. Now, we're understanding that dry eyes is not just not having enough tears or that your tears are evaporating too quickly, but it's a combination of neurosensory input as well. So what that means is that there are so many different things that can affect dry eyes. And all of these things, your cortisol level, your stress, or your sleep, or lack thereof, they are all going to stimulate the hormone release and cause this feedback loop. And that actually is what is going to either tell your lacrimal apparatus to make a nice healthy tear or not to. So that's why it's really important to understand that when we're treating dry eyes, it's not just treating the eyes themselves, but it is treating the whole body. And something else that gets really neglected with dry eye syndrome is how debilitating it can be. And it's very uncomfortable. The irritation, the burning, the constant fatigue and eye strain feeling, the redness, all of that can be challenging to live with. And that in itself can cause anxiety and depression. And I don't want to underplay the importance of that. I think it's essential to treat everything. So if you are having issues that need to be addressed, make sure you do so because that might actually help your dry eyes. Now there's also a lot of different medications, especially antidepressants, that can cause dry eye in and of itself. So it's something to always be mindful of and make sure you ask your eye doctor if any of the medications that you're on could be causing it. It might be possible to switch you to a different class of medication that might not cause as much dry eyes. Getting better sleep, decreasing your stress and cortisol levels, that's ultimately going to help your dry eyes and that's been shown in studies. And then the last two natural treatments, first is just being really cognizant of your environment. Fans and high AC tend to really exacerbate dry eyes by causing the tears to evaporate more quickly. So if you can make sure that your fan is not directly pointed at your face or even turn fans off, that's going to be of tremendous help. One of the first things that I ask my patients when they come into my office, if they notice their dry eye symptoms are worse at work, I ask them, do you have a lot of air conditioning? Do you have a fan going on in your office? And if that can be changed, that can help. Take control of your environment. Sometimes even placing a humidifier in your room to sleep at night, that can be really beneficial. People that are on CPAP for obstructive sleep apnea often get really, really dry eyes. So a lot of these things in terms of natural treatments might just be improving your environment so it's not drawing you out as much. And then the last thing is hot compresses or warm compresses. This might be super simple. A perfect teardrop is not just water, it's a combination of water, oil, and fat. And the oil glands all along your eyelashes, those are called your meibomian glands. Oftentimes they get very blocked up and there's a lot of different reasons for that. That's where the omega vitamins really help in liquefying those oil glands so it's not so caked and stuck and clogged. It's more liquidy like canola oil. And when you do a hot compress, that's what you're doing. You're softening those oil glands so that the oil can get into the tear film where it needs to be so that your tears are not evaporating at such a quick rate. So there you go. Five natural treatments for your dry eye syndrome. Next I'll be talking about actual interventions for your dry eyes like IPL. And I'm happy to also discuss the different levels of dry eyes. Evaporative versus aqueous tear deficiency. Dry eyes is really important because it affects so many women and it can be really cumbersome. So any education that I can give on this topic, I am more than happy to do so. All right guys, that's it for now. I am Dr. Rupa. Please like and subscribe so that I know what kind of content to produce for you. I would really appreciate it. Until next time, it's good to see you. Bye-bye.