“How can I moisten my eyes naturally?”

Dry eyes are best treated with artificial tears/lubricating drops.

By eliminating environmental contaminants and flow of air to the face, topical neutral sterile tear drops will help.

Warm compresses

I recommend artificial tears without preservatives. You can start using them a few times a day.

There are different ways to approach this question.

First, as we age, and with some skin types more than others, it is common to have the oil glands, (about two dozen each) that lie within our eyelids and open behind our lashes, become thickened and inflamed. When that happens instead of mixing with our tears every time we blink, they become obstructed or their contents more like Crisco. Then your tears evaporate more quickly, and feel more irritated, and sometimes with vision fluctuation.

For natural improvement, the first step I would recommend would be to make a habit of warm compress/massage of the upper and lower lids. Most patients prefer the reusable moist heat masks you can buy and put in the microwave each day for about 20 seconds. Then, heat and massage the lids for about 5 minutes, giving particular focus to the lower lid.

In addition, cleaning away dead cells, bacteria, pollen, excretions and other debris, as well as mites, will help the eyelids be healthier, including those oil (meibomian) glands. There are in office advanced technology therapies which can also be of proven additional benefit to many patients.

Next, before further treatments, consider a good, preservative free artificial lubricating tear replacement. Some of the better newer brands we recommend include: Mega-3 by Refresh, and Oasis Tears Plus.

Best,

Dr. Kurt Andreason, MD

The best thing is to just use artificial tears. You can purchase them without a prescription at the drug store. If you’d like to minimize exposure to preservatives, you can buy the preservative-free tears, but that usually isn’t necessary if you are only using them 1-4 times/day. They are quite a bit more expensive. Some common brands or Refresh and Systane, but the generic should be just fine for most people. If that doesn’t solve the problem, I’d recommend coming in to see an eye doctor and explore the issue further.

Regards,

Eric Downing, MD

It is not easy to do naturally but hydration can certainly help. Most people are in a constant state of dehydration and don’t even realize it. Eye Blink exercises can also be helpful. Go online to see how to do them. Finally, warm compresses at least once a day will not only make your eyes feel good and get rid of small crusts, but also make the oil glands work better. Good luck

Artificial tears, systane or refresh over the counter

Hello,
To improve the quality of your own tears naturally, you can start by doing daily hot moist compresses nightly to stimulate your oily glands and consider taking a good quality Omega 3 fatty acid supplement such as what can be found at PRN (physician recommended neutraceuticals) online

Refresh - preservative free drops

Use of artificial tears may help