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It’s hard
to look fresh and dewy when your eyes feel like sandpaper! Nothing kills a
glistening gaze like dry eye, a condition that affects millions, especially
women. Symptoms include a feeling of dryness along with itching, irritation,
blurred vision, sensitivity to light, and feeling like something is in your eye. Eyes can become dry either because you are not producing enough tears
or because the tears you have are evaporating at an unusually high rate. Common
causes of dry eye include air-conditioning, forced-air heat, cigarette smoke,
high altitude, prolonged use of the computer, long periods of driving, wearing
contact lenses, and exposure to environmental factors like wind, dust, and
allergens. Certain medications—including antihistamines, diuretics, oral
contraceptives, and some antidepressants—can cause dry eye, and the condition
also can be caused by aging, hormonal changes due to menopause, and different
illnesses.
If you
find yourself reaching regularly for a bottle of artificial tears to ease your
eyes, make an appointment with an eye doctor before the problem progresses. Dry
eye may become so severe that reading, driving, working, and other activities
become difficult or impossible.
BEAUTY MYTH
Eating Carrots Will Improve Your Eyesight: Are your eyeglasses cramping your
style? Are you tired of searching for lost contact lenses? Go ahead and eat
more carrots—but don’t throw away your contacts or glasses. Including carrots in
your diet won’t keep you from needing glasses or correct your
nearsightedness or farsightedness. Strictly speaking, carrots
cannot improve your sight. However, the beta-carotene in carrots will
help keep your eyes healthy because it is converted by the body into vitamin A, a vitamin that is especially protective of eye
health. In your retinas, vitamin A helps prevent night blindness. Generally we
think of betacarotene as being converted into vitamin A in the liver, but it also is converted
by the eye itself, by the retinal pigment epithelial cells. The
presence of this alternative pathway suggests that the body does
not want to take any chances when it comes to having a constant
supply of vital vitamin A to protect your eyes.
Beauty Nutrients Related to Dry Eye
Vitamin A
deficiency can cause dry eye. The typical American diet has adequate amounts of
vitamin A, but you may have problems absorbing nutrients from the foods
you eat, or you may not be eating enough foods that contain either retinol or
beta-carotene. Boosting your consumption of whole, natural foods rich in
retinol or beta-carotene will provide your body with plenty of
beauty-enhancing vitamin A. Many people take vitamin A supplements, but when it
is taken in large amounts, vitamin A can accumulate in the body to toxic
levels.
If your
dry eyes are accompanied by dry skin and brittle nails, you may
not be getting enough omega-3 fatty acids, which help keep your skin
hydrated. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found
that a high intake of omega-3 fatty acids protects against dry eye. In the study,
women with the highest levels of omega-3 fats in their diets reduced their risk
of dry eye syndrome by 20 percent compared to women with the lowest levels of
these fats in their diet. Additionally, women who reported eating at least five
servings of tuna per week had a 68 percent reduced risk of dry eye, compared to
women who ate only one serving of tuna per week. A higher intake of omega-6
fatty acids, found in many cooking and salad oils and animal meats, may increase
the risk of dry eye syndrome.
BEAUTY MYTH
If You Get a Black Eye, Put a Steak on It: According to this old wives’ tale,
“enzymes” in the steak will help a black eye heal. Is there any truth
to this advice? No scientific evidence supports using a raw steak to heal a black eye.
Using raw meat may actually cause more harm than good, since
it contains potentially dangerous bacteria that could do serious
harm, especially on sensitive areas such as the eye.
What a raw steak has going for it is temperature. The
meat is cold, and that is what reduces swelling—not any extraordinary therapeutic
enzymes or other magical properties of raw steak. Your best bet is to use an
ice pack, a cold compress, or even a bag of frozen vegetables (wrapped in a
clean cloth) during the first 24 hours to minimize bruising and swelling.
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