How Drinking More Water Helps Your Eyes

You already know that it’s healthy to drink water. Everyone ranging from medical experts to First Lady Michelle Obama has prescribed increasing our water input. Did you know that drinking water not only benefits your body as a whole, but REALLY helps your eyes?

That’s right: Water helps your eyes in a variety of ways. First and foremost, because your eyeballs are organs and water is essential for each of your organs to function, eyes included!

What do your eyeballs really do with that water?

That lubrication allows your eyes to do everything from producing tears to focusing. Your eyes are one part of the body that should always have fluid present. Without proper hydration, your eyes lack the fluids they need to clear out debris (with tears), to blink comfortably, and even to see without straining. Your eyes are happiest when there is plenty of liquid in there to keep things clean and operating properly.

How much water do you need to keep your eyes healthy?

For your eyes to stay healthy, you should drink at least eight glasses of water every day. If you drink a lot of coffee or other diuretic drinks, you should add one extra eight-ounce glass for every cup of coffee of caffeinated drink. Plan on drinking even more water if the weather is ninety degrees or above, or if you spend a lot of time in a hot environment, exercising, or doing activities that cause you to sweat.

How do you know if you’re drinking enough?

The easy thing about staying hydrated is your body tells you when you are drinking enough. If you constantly have dry mouth, dry skin, lack of urination and dry eyes, then it’s likely you need to increase your fluid intake.

Optometrists say that the number one eye complaint they hear is related to dry eye and its symptoms.

Have you ever felt the symptoms of dry eye? If so, you know how important water is to your eyes’ comfort. When your body is dehydrated and your eyes are lacking moisture, they can feel scratchy, tired and downright uncomfortable. It may even feel like you have something in your eye (debris or dirt) that you just can’t blink out because your eyes are so dry. You can also experience blurry vision caused by dry eye.

If you are still experiencing symptoms of dry eye but have no other symptoms of dehydration, be sure to schedule an eye examination and talk to your America’s Best optometrist about options for relief.