Your eyes are one of the first things that people see, so keeping them clean and healthy is important. Avoid any redness, itching, swelling, or impaired vision by being proactive with your eye health. Read on for natural remedies for irritated eyes.

Exercise

The benefits of exercise are hard to ignore, even when it comes to maintaining your eye health. Regular exercise helps increase blood flow throughout the body, which includes your eyelids, eyes, and optic nerves. Increased blood flow brings higher levels of oxygen, which can help your eyes fight off any bacteria or infections.

Additionally, exercise has long-term benefits when it comes to your overall eye health. Not only does exercise increase the amount of oxygen to your eyes, but it also helps lower the pressure in your eyes, which studies have shown to decrease the likelihood of developing glaucoma. While the decrease in pressure comes with exercise over the course of years, upping the oxygen in your eyes is a relatively immediate benefit of exercise that can help with eye irritation.

Topical solutions

Aside from physically washing out your eyes, there are many solutions you can turn to for relief. A great natural option to try is rose water, as it is both soothing and can help with overall eye health. Rose water acts as a lubricant and has analgesic properties that can help your eyes fight off infections and irritants. For the best results, put drops in your eyes or rub rose water around your eyes and eyelids.

While many people believe that coconut oil is the perfect superfood to get healthy fats into your diet, there is some cause for concern. Though many use it as a moisturizer, including around the eyes, it’s not the best solution for lubricating the eye itself. This is in part to the fact that it’s an oil. It’s best to use a product made specifically for lubricating eyes.

Sometimes, your eyes can become irritated due to tiny mites that live around your eyes called Demodex. These microscopic mites are actually pretty common and can cause symptoms like redness and itching. A great way to help alleviate these symptoms as well as getting rid of Demodex is by using products with 4-Terpineol like Cliradex. 4-Terpineol is an ingredient found in tea tree oil and is a natural way to kill those mites in your lashes. This compound is also great at cleaning the skin and offers some relief for itching, swelling, and redness around your eyes.

Diet

Believe it or not, how and what you eat affects the overall well being of your eyes. Irritated eyes can be the body’s way of telling you that your diet lacks the proper nutrition for lubrication, which is why it feels like there’s always sand in your eye. Increasing the amount of Omega-3 fatty acids, found in foods like walnuts, salmon, and flaxseeds has shown to improve overall eye health.

While there are lots of other remedies out there, you’ll have to try each of them to find a solution that works best for you. From long-term health to immediate relief, try some of these natural remedies for irritated eyes.