Conjunctivitis: Natural ways to manage and protect against pink eye

Waking up with sticky, swollen, uncomfortable eyes can be a quite distressing and unwanted surprise. These are common symptoms of conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye. Not only can you feel uncomfortable and run down with pink eye, but it can make you feel quite self-conscious and be less inclined to socialise. It is not at all fun!

While conjunctivitis typically clears up on its own, there are proactive ways that you can help to accelerate the healing process and prevent further flare-ups. In this blog, I’ll share insights into the causes of pink eye, how to prevent it in the future and some effective home remedies that can help you or your child.

Why you might get pink eye and how to tell

Pink eye can affect anyone at any age, but it most commonly hits children under the age of four. It’s easily recognised by red, itchy, swollen eyes; watery or sticky discharge from the eyes; and crusty eyelids or excessive “sleep” in the eyes when waking up.

Thankfully, pink eye usually does not damage eyesight or the eye overall in the longer term, and it usually clears up on its own – but the swelling, redness, and discomfort around the eyes can be a big downer for you. If your symptoms are particularly severe or don’t clear up in a couple of weeks, please seek medical advice to make sure it isn’t something more serious.

Pink eye has two main causes: infections, which are more likely in autumn and winter; and allergies, which are more likely in spring and summer. Very special care should be taken not to spread infectious pink eye as it is very contagious. While allergic pink eye doesn’t spread like that, it can reoccur until you work out what allergen is causing it and you minimise your exposure to that as far as possible.

Viral infection

Viruses such as adenovirus, herpes simplex virus and varicella-zoster (chicken pox) are the most common causes of pink eye. Viruses are easily spread from one person to another and this is why conjunctivitis is seen as being very ‘catching’. Recent contact with someone with pink eye, transmission from one eye to the other, and the feeling of tearing and burning in the affected eye are usually signs of the cause being a viral infection.

Bacterial infection

Bacterial pink eye is the second most common cause of conjunctivitis and is often due to a streptococcus infection which comes along strep throat, scarlet fever and tonsilitis; or a staphylococcus infection which is a skin infection that can cause impetigo or infected eczema. A bacterial infection can be easy to spot with three common tell-tale signs: yellow or green sticky discharge or sticky eyelids on waking and an absence of itching.

Allergic conjunctivitis

Up to 40% of us can experience allergic conjunctivitis from time to time, usually characterised by itchiness, painful or watery eyes. Quite often the pink eye comes alongside hay fever and exposure to allergens such as pet dander or dust mites. People with allergic conjunctivitis usually have a history of other allergy or atopic symptoms such as sneezing, itching or wheezing.

If you wear contact lenses, these can sometimes be the cause of allergic conjunctivitis, and you may need to discuss different contact lens options with your optician.

Natural remedies to ease symptoms of pink eye

Firstly, it’s important to avoid touching your eye directly and to regularly wash your hands with soap and water. Pillowcases, face cloths, and anything else that often touches your eyes should also be washed often to prevent the infection from spreading, and you should avoid sharing anything that touches your face with anyone else.

To clean your eyes, wash your eyelids with fresh water and remove any crusty goo with a damp cotton pad. You can also flush your eyes regularly with clean water.

A compress on your eye can help to reduce swelling and redness. To do this, use a clean, lint-free cloth soaked in cold or warm water to apply gentle pressure to your closed eyelid. A warm compress can help to loosen dried mucus if your eyelids are stuck together.

You may read or hear that you can use compresses out of herbal teas, often chamomile, to reduce the swelling, but you should watch out because it can cause an allergic reaction in some people – a plain simple compress may do the trick instead!

Avoid using chemical face washes until your eyes have recovered. Also avoid using eye makeup too, as this can slow down your recovery.

Over the counter eye drops can help the eye to wash itself and calm redness and itchiness. You can also try specialist colloidal silver eye drops, which may help to reduce inflammation.

How to apply eye drops with wriggly children!

Parents can really struggle to get eye drops into kids, and it is easy for more drops to go on the floor than in the eyes! Children also sometimes find eye drops uncomfortable and don’t like them. Here are my top tips!

• Calmly explain what’s about to happen to them and how they will feel when it is better.
• Get your child to lie down flat and relax with their eyes closed.
• Position the dropper so it’s close to the eye but not touching it.
• Place a drop on the side of the closed eye nearest their nose.
• After applying the drop, encourage your child to open their eye naturally and it should run straight into their eye.

Dietary ways to support Conjunctivitis recovery and prevention

Overall, good nutrition helps your body to fight infection and reduce inflammation, and conjunctivitis is no exception. This means cooking mostly from scratch and becoming an ‘ingredients household’, avoiding ultra-processed foods where possible.

A diet rich in vitamins A, C, and folate (vitamin B9) supports your immune system, and can be achieved by eating a varied diet full of fruits, parsley, green vegetables, pulses, eggs, liver and yellow butter.

Zinc is a helping hand for the immune system when experiencing a viral or bacterial infection and this comes from seafood, fish, meat, dairy, nuts and seeds. Zinc has also been studied in seasonal allergy-related conjunctivitis and when zinc sulphate was given in addition to the usual antihistamine, the results were very good or even excellent in 78% of the cases. You may wish to add zinc supplements for the short term for extra immune support.

Your body also needs plenty of vitamin D, which can be absorbed via sun exposure and topped up with vitamin D-rich foods such as oily fish, egg yolks, outdoor reared meat and organic whole milk. Also add in supplements if the weather is cloudy or wet. This extra boost is particularly important during the winter when there isn’t much sunlight.

Omega-3 fatty acids from oily fish such as salmon, sardines, mackerel, and anchovies can be particularly helpful for people experiencing chronic allergic conjunctivitis. Specialised fractioned omega-3s called Specialised Pro-resolving Mediators (SPMs) have been found to have additional anti-inflammatory properties if the conjunctivitis is not going away easily.

All of these foods and additional nutrients can help to speed up your recovery and support your immune system to prevent further episodes of conjunctivitis.

Round up

Conjunctivitis usually goes away on its own, but it can be uncomfortable in the meantime and waiting for it to clear up sometimes means putting your life on hold. Bolstering your and your child’s diet with supplements and with mineral-dense and vitamin-rich foods is a natural and simple way to manage and prevent conjunctivitis – and it never hurts to stock up on some eye drops as you never know when conjunctivitis might hit!

References

• Conjunctivitis: A Systematic Review of Diagnosis and Treatment
• Conjunctivitis: A Review
• Conjunctivitis
• Clinical Application and Efficacy of Silver Drug in Ophthalmology: A Literature Review and New Formulation of EYE Drops with Drug Silver (I) Complex of Metronidazole with Improved Dosage Form
• Activity of Colloidal Silver Solution against Microorganisms Implicated in Ocular Infections  
• Antimicrobial potency of colloidal silver compared with antibiotic eye drops
• Vitamin A and carotene concentration in serum in persons with chronic conjunctivitis and pterygium 
• Vitamin D and tear fluid cytokines in predicting outcomes in viral conjunctivitis – A new outlook 
• Chronic conjunctivitis in a patient with folic acid deficiency
• Association Between Vitamin Deficiencies and Ophthalmological Conditions
• Zinc and seasonal conjunctivitis
• Discovery of Human Zinc Deficiency: Its Impact on Human Health and Disease
• The roles of omega-3 fatty acids and resolvins in allergic conjunctivitis 
• Dietary ω-3 fatty acids alter the lipid mediator profile and alleviate allergic conjunctivitis without modulating Th2 immune responses