Powerful role of fish oil in dry eye treatment.

Fish oil contains omega-3 fatty acids necessary for healthy eye development and features several other benefits. Keep reading to learn how fish oil can help with your dry eye treatment.

Fish oil for dry eye treatment 

Fresh tears spread across your eyes each time you blink. They’re essential to lubricating the eyes so you can see clearly. They also help clear away debris.

Dry eyes can occur if you don’t have enough tears. The tears lack the right balance of water, oil, and mucus to spread evenly without evaporating too quickly.

Dry eyes can burn, sting, or feel scratchy or irritated. They can result in blurred vision, sensitivity to light, and eventually damage to the eye. The causes can include age, inflammation, diabetes, and certain medications.

How Can Fish Oil Help?

Fish oil is made by extracting two types of omega-3 fatty acids from the skin of oily fish like mackerel or salmon. These omega-3 fatty acids are called docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA).

The omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA are an essential part of every cell in the human body. They’re also the building blocks of critical chemical regulators.

This omega-3s may help improve the eye’s oil production for tears making your tears thicker and less likely to evaporate quickly. 

omega-3s in fish oil seems to reduce inflammation. If inflammation of the eyelids or surfaces of the eye worsens dry eye, it makes sense that a supplement could help the problem. “Dry eye is pretty complex, and there is no cure,” she said. “Treating the inflammation, however, can improve some of the symptoms.”

Fish oil improves meibomian oil gland functions.

Omega-3 oils also appear to improve the eye’s meibomian glands, which produce the oily part of tears. Enhanced function of those glands can ease dry eye symptoms.

Fish Oil in Macular Degeneration.

It is also now thought that Omega-3s play an essential role in eye health. DHA is naturally concentrated in the eye’s retina (the layer of tissue that lines the inside of the eye and receives the image formed by the lens) and is thought to promote healthy retinal function. The results of several studies indicate that eating more significant amounts of fish or Omega-3s may help promote macular health1. Studies also show that Omega-3s can help reduce dry eye syndrome, a chronic eye disease caused by a decrease in tear production or increase in tear evaporation.

Fish oil in Sjogren’s Dry Eye Treatment

Sjogren’s syndrome, who typically have dry eyes, hair, mouth, and skin, can benefit significantly from Fish Oil. . It addresses not only dry eyes but also general health in an autoimmune disease unrelenting.

Benefits of fish oil in dry eye treatment

• Studies suggest that the omega-3s in fish oil helps in dry eye treatment because of their anti-inflammatory properties.
• Omega-3s can lower your risk for heart disease and stroke.
• Omega-3s may also help manage your triglyceride levels – healthier cholesterol profile. 

Not all omega-3s are equal. While foods like flax seeds contain omega-3s, they’re a different kind called alpha-linolenic acid (ALA).

The body can convert ALA into needed EPA and DHA. Still, this process is not very efficient: Less than 15% of ALA makes the conversion.

This means it’s much easier to get a decent amount of EPA and DHA from a marine source than a plant source. Notably, people who don’t consume fish may turn to algae-based alternatives.

Benefits of fish oil in eye health. 

• Studies suggest that the omega-3s in fish oil may help treat dry eyes because of their anti-inflammatory properties.
• Omega-3s can lower your risk for heart disease and stroke.
• Omega-3s may also help manage your triglyceride levels.

Taking in a sufficient amount of omega-3 fatty acids has a host of benefits, including a lower risk for heart disease, stroke, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Omega-3 fatty acids also help manage your triglyceride levels and slow the progression of depression and other mental illnesses.

There are also some reported benefits for diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, and inflammatory bowel disease.

Risks of Fish Oil in dry eye treatment

1. Fish oil can cause an increased risk of bruising.
2. Some people may be allergic to certain fish species. 

Is fish oil alone enough to relieve dry eyes?

Fish oil alone is often not enough to relieve chronic dry eyes. Chronic dry eyes involve the reduced cellular activities of tear production, blood circulation, metabolic activities of membrane transport, and more.

This is why TheraLife uses both TheraLife eye capsules to restore normal cell function and fish oil combination to get faster and better results.  

To learn more, click here

Learn how TheraLife Eye works,

Why molecularly distilled fish oil?

By now, most fish in the ocean is contaminated with PCB and Mercury. The molecular distillation process collects the lighter-weight molecules from the fish oil. It leaves behind heavier molecules that contain toxins. Therefore molecularly distilled fish oil is 100% pure. 

TheraLife prefers this approach to prevent long-term toxic effects to our customers.  

Dosage

We recommend 4000mg/day of Omega 3 fish oil for chronic dry eyes until symptoms improve.  

And there are indications that too much of a good thing is possible, as too much fish oil may lead to a greater chance of bleeding and other problems.

Learn more about TheraLife Omega 3 Fish Oil

The American diet is notoriously deficient in the high-value foods. Rather than becoming a dietitian, I just recommend it to everyone. It can’t hurt, with the exceptions of seafood allergy and coagulation deficiency conditions,” he said. Additionally, patients can use omega-3 to help treat dry eyes and help prevent other eye conditions such as age-related macular degeneration condition.

References

1. Dry Eye Assessment and Management Study Research Group N-3 fatty acid supplementation for the treatment of dry eye disease. N Engl J Med. 2018;378(18):1681–90. Epub 2018 Apr 13.
2. Epitropoulos AT, Donnenfeld ED, Shah ZA, Holland EJ, Gross M, Faulkner WJ, et al. Effect of oral re-esterified omega-3 nutritional supplementation on dry eyes. Cornea. 2016;35(9):1185–91
3. Miller KL, Walt JG, Mink DR, Satram-Hoang S, Wilson SE, Perry HD, et al. Minimal clinically important difference for the Ocular Surface Disease Index. Arch Ophthalmol. 2010;128(1):94–101.
4. Bhargava R, Kumar P. Oral omega-3 fatty acid treatment for dry eye in contact lens wearers. Cornea. 2015;34(4):413–20.
5. Bhargava R, Kumar P, Phogat H, Kaur A, Kumar M. Oral omega-3 fatty acids treatment in computer vision syndrome related dry eye. Cont Lens Anterior Eye. 2015;38(3):206–10. Epub 2015 Feb 16.
6. Bhargava R, Kumar P, Kumar M, Mehra N, Mishra A. A randomized controlled trial of omega-3 fatty acids in dry eye syndrome. Int J Ophthalmol. 2013;6(6):811–6
7. Bhargava R, Kumar P, Arora Y. Short-term omega 3 fatty acids treatment for dry eye in young and middle-aged visual display terminal users. Eye Contact Lens. 2016;42(4):231–6.
8. Deinema LA, Vingrys AJ, Wong CY, Jackson DC, Chinnery HR, Downie LE. A randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled clinical trial of two forms of omega-3 supplements for treating dry eye disease. Ophthalmology. 2017;124(1):43–52. Epub 2016 Nov 3.
9. Oleñik A, Jiménez-Alfaro I, Alejandre-Alba N, Mahillo-Fernández I. A randomized, double-masked study to evaluate the effect of omega-3 fatty acids supplementation in meibomian gland dysfunction. Clin Interv Aging. 2013;8:1133–8. Epub 2013 Aug 30.
10. AAO Cornea/External Disease PPP Panel, Hoskins Center for Quality Eye Care. Dry eye syndrome PPP – 2013.San Francisco, CA: American Academy of Ophthalmology; 2013.
11. Farrand KF, Fridman M, Stillman IÖ, Schaumberg DA. Prevalence of diagnosed dry eye disease in the United States among adults aged 18 years and older. Am J Ophthalmol. 2017;182:90–8. Epub 2017 Jul 10.
12. Pucker AD, Ng SM, Nichols JJ. Over the counter (OTC) artificial tear drops for dry eye syndrome. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016;(2):CD009729.