so if you have ever experienced dry red or irritated eyes then you may be one of
the millions of people who suffer from dry eye syndrome this condition occurs either when you
don't produce enough tears on the surface of the eye or your tear film evaporates too quickly and
the reality is it's often a combination of both of those things now dry eye can be caused by many
different factors but the number one best natural treatment for dry eyes that has been confirmed by
research to not only improve the amount of Tears produced on the eye but also prevent tear film
evaporation and improve dry eye symptoms is that of omega 3 fatty acids so in today's video we're
going to break down everything you need to know about Omega-3s and dry eye for sharing what the
published research says about Omega-3s and dry eye Then followed by how to get more
Omega-3s naturally in your diet and even some tips on omega 3 supplements including how much
to take and what types to take and this video is not sponsored in any way I am not here to sell you
Omega-3 supplements you will not find affiliate links to any Omega 3s in the video description
below or anything like that this is really just information I've been researching and
I think will bring a lot of relief for a lot of people with dry eyes so first off what are
omega 3 fatty acids Omega 3s are polyunsaturated fats that are considered essential for our human
health and well-being they're termed essential fatty acids because our bodies do not make them
on their own we need to get them from an outside Source such as through our diet there are three
major forms of Omega-3s that are abbreviated as ala EPA and DHA in fact if you ever look on the
back side of like an omega-3 supplement bottle you'll usually see at least two of these forms
listed usually you see EPA and DHA listed now the Ala form of Omega-3 is found in plant-based
sources such as ground flaxseed and walnuts for example where the EPA and DHA forms are
found most notably in and fatty fish such as salmon mackerel and maybe a little bit in tuna
and even in fish oil supplements however I do want to point out that there are many
types of oils in fish oil supplements and it doesn't necessarily mean that there is much
omega 3 content in fish oil we'll talk a little bit more about that later in addition to the dry
eye syndrome benefits of Omega 3s. Omega-3s also have been extensively studied in helping not only
General inflammation within the body but also for heart health joint health and retinal Health
in the back of the eye and even brain health in reducing risk for Alzheimer's you can definitely
go fall down a rabbit hole into the research like I did but the general consensus is that
Omega-3s are really good for the whole body so now how do Omega-3s help with dry eye syndrome well on
the very technical side of things and I just want to nerd out for a second for the doctors who may
be watching but Omega-3s play an anti-inflammatory role through competitive inhibition of arachidonic
acid as substrates for the enzymes cycle oxygenase and five lipooxygenase but in very layman's terms
it means Omega 3s helps shut down inflammation and this reduction in inflammation has been found
to not only increase tear film production but also improve the clarity of the meibomian gland
secretions in the eyelids both of which been led to improved signs and symptoms of dry eye
see the majority of your tears are formed in your lacrimal glands which lie just above and to the
side of both eyeballs and Omega-3s have been shown in research to reduce inflammation within those
lacrimal glands allowing them to produce and form More Tears on their own and it's even been shown
to reduce inflammatory biomarkers within the tears themselves and then we have the meibomian glands
the meibomian glands are specialized oil glands within the eyelid that produce a very thin layer
of oil that mixes with your tear film and prevents them from evaporating well these meibomian glands
can become inflamed and then the oils become very thick and cloudy and then the glands can
even stop producing oils altogether and then your tear film evaporates very quickly and even if you
produce a good amount of Tears if you blink and your tear film just evaporates instantaneously
you're still going to have terrible dry eyes but in the research Omega-3s have been shown
to improve the fluidity and the clarity of these meibomian gland secretions therefore helping it
produce more oils better oils and prevent that tear film evaporation and at this time there's
even some evidence in animal models that Omega 3s can help with the Regeneration of corneal nerves
on the eye which play a vital role in the healing of damaged surface cells on the eye from things
like dry eye so I think from a very broad spectrum view of what we know about dry eye the different
causes and different treatments I think Omega-3s can play a huge role in just kind of leveling the
playing field for a lot of people so how do you get more Omega 3s into your diet and how much is
recommended some of the food foods that are known to contain higher amounts of Omega-3s are that of
oily fish such as salmon mackerel and Herring for example and the American Heart Association and
the Arthritis Foundation both recommend eating at least two servings of oily fish a week now
you can get Omega-3s from vegetable sources as well such as eating walnuts or ground flaxseed
for example however there is some evidence in the research that does support that ala the again the
plant-based omega-3 sources doesn't convert very well in your system to EPA in DHA very efficiently
and so you may not really get much usable form from just solely relying on vegetable sources
of ala and with all this you're ideally not just getting more Omega-3s in your diet but you also
want to be reducing omega-6s in your diet which are found to be very pro-inflammatory and are
found in a lot of Highly processed foods so you want to be getting more Omega-3s and also reducing
the amount of processed foods in your diet now if you're not a fish eater you don't like the taste
of fish or you're concerned about the overfishing of the oceans which is a topic of concern or you
are worried about Mercury or other contaminants in the fish then a lot of people do turn toward
Omega 3 supplements as an option okay I just want to pause right here because in the process of
editing I didn't realize I forgot to mention a few things namely because in this video we
talk a lot about fish oil supplements or Omega-3 supplements and you don't necessarily have to get
Omega 3s from fish you do have the option of trying out what's called an algae-based
omega-3 in fact that's where fish get their Omega 3s to begin with is because if they eat algae and
then it passes down the food chain to the fish so if you're somebody who again is concerned about
overfishing of the oceans or you don't want to take fish oil supplements you can choose to get
your Omega-3s from an algae-based Source I just encourage you if you go that route make sure that
you do read the milligrams and the concentration because that can vary between Brands so otherwise
let's get back into it but if you do want to go that route of taking a supplement the next tips
I'm going to be sharing are going to be very brand neutral tips I don't want to talk about
specific brands in this video I'll save that for another video if people are interested but
specifically I just want to share information that you can take with you to look at any
brands at the store or online so that you feel really kind of well armed and understanding how
to read labels and really what the science is suggesting is going to be best for dry eye so
first from looking at the research the majority of the studies do support that at least around 1
000 milligrams a day of Omega-3 is beneficial for dry eye with a little bit more compelling
research suggesting that around 2 000 milligrams a day may be a little bit more beneficial or maybe
at least result in Faster resolution of symptoms but I personally wouldn't go over 3000 milligrams
per day because that's kind of the safety upper limit and again this is omega-3 content not fish
oil content so when you look on the back label of like an omega-3 supplement bottle make sure
that you're reading that it's the omega-3 content or milligrams of Omega-3 and not just milligrams
of fish oil speaking of looking at the labels you'll probably see both EPA and DHA listed
separately it is largely agreed that both EPA and DHA are good for the eyes with EPA maybe being a
little bit better for dry eye and with DHA being a little bit more supportive for retinal Health
but again both EPA and DHA a mix of the two are good for dry eye the other key thing to know about
Omega 3 supplements is that they come in two different forms there's a triglyceride form of
Omega-3 and then there's an ethyl Ester form of Omega 3 and your body absorbs these differently
the triglyceride of Omega-3 that one is more similar to that of the what you get from an
oily fish just eating fish naturally where the ethyl Ester form of Omega-3 has to be processed
by adding ethanol to it so if you can try to find an omega-3 supplement that offers a triglyceride
form the main benefits of the triglyceride form is that your body basically absorbs it a lot
easier than what's in the ethyl Ester form and there's research to support it so you get kind of
a better bang or oomph out of taking that type of Omega-3 and then the triglyceride form is not as
associated with kind of upset stomach issues kind of like fishy burps or digestion upset stomachs
but either way I do encourage people to take Omega-3 supplements with food because that'll also
help with any digestion and absorption issues now another really important thing to understand about
Omega-3s is that they are not a silver bullet and they will take time to work in most of the
compelling research that shows benefits of these Omega-3s with dry eye they take about two to three
months of taking them consistently to show some level of improvement and this will largely depend
on how much Omega-3s are naturally in your system before taking anything and then also how much
omega-6 is in your diet as well and stay tuned because soon I'll be releasing a video which will
showcase my own experience testing out omega-3 supplements as I was able to do a blood test
first to see where my omega-3 content is then I started taking the supplements and I tracked my
dry eye symptoms over time and then took another blood test at the end to compare really where my
blood levels of Omega-3 were along with my dry eye symptoms and how they were changing and
then finally while I do personally believe that Omega-3s are the best natural dry eye
treatment that we have right now I know a lot of people do have pretty extreme forms of dry
eye and will still require medication or in-office procedures will really benefit
from that so I do encourage you definitely see a local eye care professional an optometrist or dry
eye specialist to make sure you're getting appropriate diagnosis to make sure it is
dry eye and not something else and that you're getting the best treatment possible and whether
Omega-3 supplements are not only what's right for you but even safe for you but hey if you found
value in this video please hit the like button for us as well as share it with friends and family
who you think it may help otherwise if you want to learn more other natural dry eye treatments
things that you can do at home check out our other videos coming up over here otherwise again this
is Dr Allenn here from Dr Eye Health keep an eye on it and we'll see you in that next one