Doctors performing some of the best LASIK eye surgery in Los Angeles recommend you drink at least eight glasses of water a day because of its numerous health benefits for the body. However, did you know that surgeons in LASIK eye centers also recommend you drink plenty of water? That’s because drinking water is crucial to great and optimal eye health!
Here is how hydration is important for your eyesight.
Why Do You Need Water for Your Eye Health?
Tears aren’t just for crying, you know! They serve a lot of good for your eyes by flushing out any dust and debris that accumulates in your eye. You’d be surprised at how dirty your eye can get—with air pollution on the rise; your eyes need to work extra hard at maintaining a clean and pristine environment.
Tears, obviously, are made of water, so if your body doesn’t have enough water for tear production, then your eyes won’t be producing as many tears as they should. This then causes dry eye syndrome.
Additionally, water isn’t just needed for your eye health—it’s needed for your entire body’s health as well. Your brain needs water to perform its cognitive processes properly. Your muscles need water to move efficiently. Your blood needs water to deliver oxygen and nutrients around. They all affect your eyesight in some way or another! Your brain needs water to process your vision properly; your eyes need a steady supply of blood to function properly, and so on.
What Happens to My Eye Health If I Don’t Drink Enough Water?
Dry eyes cause a load of irritating problems for your eyes, including redness, itching sensations, stringy mucus, light sensitivity, and blurred vision. This will then start affecting your vision, making it difficult for you to see things at night, use gadgets for extended periods, or put your contacts on painlessly.
Having dry eyes is not a comfortable situation whatsoever, so why put yourself through that when getting rid of dry eyes could be as simple as drinking a few glasses of water every day?
Additionally, dry eyes are the banes of the existence of even the best LASIK surgeons in Los Angeles. Even with immense technological advancements in LASIK, it’s still highly not recommended to get the procedure done when your eyes are suffering from dry eyes. That’s because tears promote healing in the eye after LASIK—without tears, your recovery process will be much longer and harder. And, while artificial tears might help alleviate some of the aftereffects, it’s a poor replacement for actual tears produced by the body.
What Else Causes Dry Eyes?
Drinking water regularly might be the best treatment for dry eyes, but if you still find yourself still suffering from it, then maybe something else behind the scenes is the culprit. Dry eyes can be caused by several other reasons behind dehydration.
The first is medication. Certain medications like antidepressants, pain relievers, antihistamines, oral contraceptives, and beta blockers decrease tear production in the body. If you take any of these medications, make sure to ask your doctor about potential side effects and additional water intake.
Another reason? You might have conditions like Sjogren’s syndrome or arthritis that inhibit normal tear production. Controlling your dry eye symptoms may just be a matter of controlling any underlying conditions and/or drinking more water.
Lastly, people are sometimes just predisposed to having dry eyes. People who live in dry and windy climates, particularly women, are prone to having dry eyes. This gets even worse when they start undergoing pregnancy or menopause. That’s why it’s critical for people living in this type of climate and pregnant people to drink more water to compensate.
The bottom line is this: dry eyes can be caused by a multitude of reasons but can be fixed with one—drinking more water!
Conclusion
If we haven’t reiterated this enough already, drinking water is super important for your eye health! It keeps your eye at its best performance and prevents things like eye strain and mucus from obstructing your vision. It also counteracts downsides to medications, climate, and other medical conditions that affect your body’s natural tear production.
Besides that, drinking water is also good for you since it can improve your vision. It allows you to get the best LASIK in Los Angeles by ensuring everything from planning to recovering goes smoothly. So, if you plan on maintaining a 20/20 vision for years to come, then you have to start chugging that water.
