While you're quietly playing Diablo 4 or just sitting at your computer, you suddenly get that unpleasant feeling of having a grain of sand in your eyes. They start to sting, turn red… in short, the kind of unpleasant symptoms you unfortunately know all too well.
Whether it's due to an allergy, a medical condition, or overexposure to screens, dry eye syndrome is probably making your life a little miserable. Well, know that it's possible to take care of your vision and your dry, tired eyes with certain vitamins. But which ones? Read the guide, we'll tell you everything!
In this article:
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👀 Why are my eyes dry?
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💊 Vitamins to prevent dry eyes
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👌 Simple daily habits to avoid dry eyes
The main cause of dry eyes: dry eye syndrome
❓ What is dry eye syndrome?
If you often feel like your eye is irritated, if it’s reddish or watery, if you feel tingling, itching, or even burning sensations, then you are probably suffering from dry eye syndrome.
This phenomenon stems from poor quality tears or a decrease in tear production.
😭 What is the role of tears?
For many, tears are a sign of emotion.
For example, you might cry from sadness when you've just been soundly beaten in League Of Legends, you might cry from joy when you find a legendary item in WOW, or from pain when you miss your jump in Fall Guys.
👉 But you should know that tears play a much more important and essential role for the health of your eyes.
Produced by the lacrimal glands, they are mainly composed of water and fatty substances, forming a lubricating and moisturizing film that protects your eyes from all external aggression, such as dust, pollution, or germs.
This tear film is therefore essential for the health of your cornea and visual comfort.
What causes dry eye syndrome?
Several factors can explain dry eyes:
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🧓 age: dry eye syndrome is particularly common in people over 60. As we age, tear production decreases because the lacrimal glands atrophy.
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🤧 the environment: allergies, hay fever, but also pollution, dry or air-conditioned air, cigarette smoke, dust…
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💊 certain medications such as antidepressants, antihistamines, and painkillers. These medications have the side effect of reducing or altering the composition of tears.
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🚬 tobacco: smoking is bad, we’ve told you that enough times.
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🫄 hormonal changes related to pregnancy, menopause, or andropause.
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🧐 wearing unsuitable contact lenses, or lenses that are poor quality or used without proper hygiene and application rules.
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💻 prolonged exposure to screens without proper blue light protection.
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💉 certain diseases such as diabetes, conjunctivitis, or rheumatoid arthritis.
👁️ eye surgery: dry eyes can appear following laser surgery but it is generally temporary.
What are the symptoms of dry eye syndrome?
Dry eye syndrome can manifest in different ways:
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🔴 irritation, tingling, swelling, redness
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🔥 itching, burning sensation
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😵 sensation of sand or a foreign body in the eyes
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🫣 increased sensitivity to light
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🌫️ visual discomfort that can lead to blurred vision
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😭 lack of tears or, conversely, excessive tearing
As you might suspect, these symptoms can quickly become very handicapping in daily life, especially since with prolonged overexposure to screens, more and more people are affected.
But don’t panic! You aren't necessarily doomed to end up like DareDevil. There are indeed simple, natural solutions to help relieve the symptoms, especially thanks to certain vitamins that are good for your eyes.
Which vitamins to take to avoid dry eyes?
Even if they aren't revolutionary and won't solve all your problems at once, certain vitamins and nutrients can strengthen your vision and ensure good ocular health.
Vitamin A
A true ally for dry eyes, vitamin A helps stabilize the cell membrane of the conjunctiva and cornea for better distribution of the tear film over the eyes. It is therefore fundamental for healthy eyes, and its importance is widely recognized! Present as retinol in animal products and as carotenoids (or beta-carotene) in plant products, you can find vitamin A in many foods:
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🥕 orange vegetables and fruits such as: carrots, pumpkins and squashes, sweet potatoes, mangoes, melons, apricots…
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🐮 fish and livestock livers (this might be less appetizing, but the retinol content is particularly high in these foods, though they are less accessible)
Be careful, however! Overconsumption of vitamin A can lead to certain risks in pregnant women. It can indeed be responsible for fetal malformations during pregnancy. It is therefore recommended that pregnant women do not consume liver regularly, but vitamin A intake from colored fruits and vegetables remains safe, even during pregnancy.
Vitamins C and E
Both have antioxidant properties that help slow down the aging of the eyes and prevent certain eye diseases, including cataracts (as demonstrated by a study published by Ophthalmology) and AMD (age-related macular degeneration). Vitamin C is necessary for the proper functioning of retinal cells, while vitamin E plays a role in protecting eye cells against damage caused by free radicals, thus slowing the aging of these cells. If you want to load up on vitamin C, you can consume foods like:
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🥝 kiwis and oranges
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🥦 broccoli or red peppers
As for vitamin E, you can find it in:
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🐿️ nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts…)
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🌻 seeds and vegetable oils such as soy or sunflower oil
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is known for its many benefits, notably because it helps increase calcium and phosphorus concentrations in the blood. All of this helps our muscles stay healthy and ensures good nerve transmission.
Even though this is still to be verified, some studies show that vitamin D helps to alleviate the symptoms of dry eye syndrome. Including this vitamin in the diet would promote tear production, stabilize their quality, and reduce inflammation on the surface of the eye. The most effective way to provide your body (and your eyes) with its necessary dose of vitamin D is regular exposure to the sun, 10 to 15 minutes, without forgetting, of course, to protect yourself with your Horus X sunglasses!
If roasting in the sun isn’t your cup of tea, you can also find vitamin D in certain foods such as:
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🐟 fatty fish (salmon, tuna, herring, sardines, mackerel…)
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🥚 egg yolk
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🥛 certain dairy products enriched with vitamin D
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🍫 dark chocolate (a good excuse to gobble up a few squares or the whole bar 🤭 while watching the latest John Wick)
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🧈 butter and margarines enriched with vitamin D
Omega-3 fatty acids
Known for their anti-inflammatory properties, omega-3s can help reduce the symptoms of dry eye syndrome. They are present in many foods such as:
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🐟 fatty fish
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🥜 nuts
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🌱 seeds and certain vegetable oils such as flaxseed, rapeseed, or walnut oil
Zinc
Zinc is important for the health of your eyes because it contributes to maintaining good vision. In addition, it plays an essential role in transporting vitamin A from the liver to the retina to produce melanin, which is a protective pigment for the eyes and the body in general. This mineral is found notably in:
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🦞 seafood (oysters, crab, crawfish, lobster)
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🎃 pumpkin and sesame seeds
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🥜 cashews, pecans, and peanuts
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🐄 meats like beef, veal, or game.
If you have trouble including these foods in your diet or fail to meet your needs for certain nutrients, you can take these vitamins as dietary supplements. But be sure to consult a healthcare professional first. Indeed, even if more and more studies are underway to determine the beneficial effects of vitamins on dry eyes, it is best to remain cautious for now.
And don't forget that simple daily habits can also help limit the effects of dry eyes.
Good habits to adopt to avoid dry eyes
You've surely read them several times in our articles, but a quick reminder of these best practices can't hurt:
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💧 water, water, and more water: proper hydration is essential to keep your body and eyes healthy. Remember to keep a water bottle with you to stay hydrated throughout the day (as a reminder, it is recommended to drink 1.5 liters of water per day).
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🥗 a good diet: as you've understood from reading this article, a balanced and varied diet allows you to meet your body's needs for nutrients, vitamins, and minerals essential for it to function properly. Opt for foods rich in vitamins A, C, E, and D, zinc, and omega-3s, which are beneficial for dry eyes, and don't hesitate to introduce fatty fish, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds into your meals. You can also drink herbal teas to soothe your tired eyes.
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🚭 watch out for alcohol and tobacco: excessive alcohol consumption can greatly affect the health of your eyes, as can cigarette smoke, which tends to irritate them.
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👁️🗨️ good eye hygiene: whenever you can, remove your contact lenses to avoid prolonged wear and prefer glasses if possible. If you wear makeup, don't forget to remove it thoroughly every evening and ensure you use non-expired products to avoid eye contamination. Finally, remember to clean your eyes daily (you will find all our grandmother's remedies in this article) and avoid rubbing them, as this can worsen the symptoms of dry eye syndrome.
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😎 good protection for your eyes: protect your eyes from external elements that can be irritating, such as wind, sun, dust, smoke, etc. Also, beware of air conditioning and fans, which tend to dry out the eyes. You can, for example, use a humidifier to increase the air humidity and thus avoid a dry environment.
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📱 limit screen time: we know that today, between work, Netflix, Instagram, and Resident Evil 4, it's complicated, but if you can, try to avoid spending long hours in front of your phone or computer. And when you do, don't hesitate to take regular breaks (every thirty minutes) or do some exercises that will be good for your eyes (you can test the famous 20-20-20 method, blink voluntarily so that they maintain good hydration, or even practice eye massage).
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💦 use of artificial tears: only if your ophthalmologist has recommended it, you can use artificial tears to help keep your eyes hydrated.
Final word: vitamins for dry eyes
As you've understood, it is possible to prevent the onset of dry eye syndrome or reduce its symptoms by opting for a balanced diet rich in vitamins and minerals and by adopting good daily habits now. But don't forget that your diet, these vitamins, and these few tips are not miraculous. If you suffer from dry eye syndrome with chronic symptoms, the best solution remains to consult an ophthalmologist who can perform the necessary examinations and prescribe the most appropriate treatment.
