#152: How to Make Your Dry Eyes White

One of the biggest complaints my dry eye patients talk to me about is redness.  Across the board, no matter their age or gender, patients hate having red eyes.  It's just embarrassing.  And, in truth, other people do notice when your eyes are red.  

Let's face it, the eyes are the windows to your soul.  And although rose colored glasses may give you a sunnier disposition, rose colored eyes do not.  There is no beauty in red eyes.  And, we don't like the story that red eyes tend to relate about activities we may have engaged in the night before.

Instead let's concentrate on how to make your dry eyes white again. This week especially, only a few days before Easter, you don't want to be mistaken for an Easter bunny.

Why are your eyes red when they're dry?

Well, dry eye is driven by inflammation, and we know when we've had inflammation in other parts of our body, it makes things swollen and red. So dry eye is driven by inflammation and inflammation causes redness.

How can you decrease the inflammation in your eyes? That is one thing that would help to make our dry eyes more clear or less red.  I discuss seven ways to reduce chronic inflammation in this blog.

How to make your dry eyes less red? Well, there are three avenues you can take.  Let's discuss them...

TIP #1) Reduce inflammation in your body

The first tip is to decrease the inflammation in your body.

• Drink more water: Drink half of your weight (in lbs) in ounces of water each day.
• Get more rest: Adults need 7 - 9 hours to rest, restore, and replenish our bodies.
• Increase your consumption of anti inflammatory foods: Give your body the nutrition it needs to reduce inflammation on it's own.  Here are some anti-inflammatory foods: berries, avocados, fatty fishes (like salmon), green tea, peppers, mushrooms, olive oil, and dark chocolate. 
• Decrease your consumption of inflammatory foods:  Eating less of these foods would be wise: vegetable oil, mayonnaise, snack foods, prepackaged cookies and snacks, fatty meats, and dairy.

TIP #2) Decrease the inflammation in your eyes

Decreasing the inflammation in your eyes is quit easy when you follow my 4- simple steps to get healthy eyes. Learn about these steps in depth here. There are four steps you need to do twice a day, every day to keep your eyes free of inflammation.

Hydrate: Use preservative free artificial tears twice a day to reduce the concentration of inflammation on your eyes. Preservative-free artificial tears often come in single serving vials. You just pop the top off one drop in each eye. Use them one to two times a day. If you don't already have a favorite artificial tear, check out the Guide to Artificial Tears here.

Harmonize: Cleanse your lids to reduce the inflammation that excess bacteria causes. A hypochlorous acid spray is simple to use. It's antiseptic and gets rid of the excess bacteria living on your lids and lashes.

Twice a day, with a clean face and closed eyes, spritz the solution onto your lids and lashes. It comes out like a mist, and you leave the solution on your eyes. You do not have to rinse that off.

Check out Twenty/Twenty Beauty's Hypocholorous Acid Spray, it's called Easy on the Eyes.  It's gentle, yet effective.

Heat: Heating the eyelids with a warm compress will melt the oils that are trapped inside the oil glands that live there. As the oils come out, they'll coat the front surface of your eyes and give you a nice moisturizing barrier between your eyes and the atmosphere. It keeps all those healthy tears inside your eyes.

One of my favorite warm compresses is the Unclog mask. This one is USB powered. You just plug it in and set the timer and the heat setting. Then, lay the mask over your eyes for about 10 to 15 minutes, 

Heal:  Help your eyes by taking a supplement that's anti-inflammatory and specifically designed to give you the nutrients you need to build healthy tears. HydroEye is specifically formulated for the eyes. It includes Omega three fatty acids as well.  Take two pills twice a day is all you need.

Learn all about HydroEye from this blog.

TIP #3) Get whiter eyes fast with Lumify

Lumify  is an eye redness remover. It's an eye drop that you can use once every six hours. I don't recommend that you use this more than twice.  I don't even recommend that you use it every day. But for some patients who have significantly red eyes, they do make your eyes really white, very quickly. Lumify works within about one minute, and it makes your eyes look super white. 

 BEFORE                                                               AFTER Lumify.

CONCLUSION:

There are three tips to make your dry eyes white. Remember, dry eyes are fueled by inflammation.  Reducing the sources of inflammation from in and around your eyes is key in the healing process.

Reduce the inflammation in your body by drinking plenty of water, getting adequate rest, eating  anti-inflammatory foods, and reducing your consumption of pro-inflammatory foods.

Next, reduce the inflammation in your eyes. Use the 4-simple steps for healthy eyes on a daily basis.  You can hydrate your eyes with preservative-free artificial tears. If you don't already have a favorite artificial tear, check out the Guide to Artificial Tears here.

Remove the sources of inflammation from around the eyes by cleansing them with an anti-septic lid and lash cleanser. Heat the eyes using warm compress to release oils from the eyelids.  These oils cushion your tears and give your eyes a barrier from your environment.  And, provide your body with the essential nutrients to make healthy tears by taking a dry eye nutritional supplement. 

Finally, you can use an eye whitener. Lumify will get your eyes looking white fast without worry about rebound redness. 

The best part is that if you continue to reduce the inflammation in your body and reduce the inflammation in your eyes, your eyes will become less and less red over time. And, if you need to have white eyes quickly, Lumify  can be your best friend.