Eye allergy is a type of allergy that is painful and irritating rather than being dangerous. Also known as ocular or conjunctivitis allergy, it gets triggered by indoor or outdoor allergens and irritants. Eye allergies may be seasonal or perennial.
An eye allergy causes you to have bulging eyelids; red, itchy and watery eyes; and burning sensation in the eyes. Avoiding allergens can help prevent the worsening of eye allergy. And when it comes to eye allergy treatment, there are medicines, eye drops and home remedies. Let’s know about them here.
Medical Treatments
Eye allergies are treated with eye drops and medicines including:
1. Oral Antihistamines
Oral antihistamines may help in relieving itchy eyes with problems of runny nose and sneezing. Oral antihistamine pills and liquids including cetirizine (Zyrtec), diphenhydramine (Benadryl), fexofenadine (Allegra), or loratadine (Alavert, Claritin) block histamine so as to relieve watery, itchy eyes.
2. Corticosteroids
Steroid eye drops are known to treat severe and chronic eye allergy symptoms such as redness, itching and swelling.
3. Artificial Tears
Artificial tears or eye drops help in temporarily relieving eye allergies as they wash off allergens from eyes. Dry, irritated eyes also get moisture with the use of these drops.
4. Antihistamine/Mast-Cell Stabilizers
The eye drops having antihistamine as well as mast-cell stabilizers help in preventing eye allergies. Red, itchy, teary and burning eyes can be relieved by using them once or twice.
5. Decongestants (With Or Without Antihistamines)
Decongestants are available as over-the-counter eye drops and they help in reducing redness in the eyes. The one having an antihistamine can also relieve itchiness. It’s recommended to not use these eye drops for more than 2-3 days.
6. Immunotherapy Shots
If an eye drop or medicine doesn’t provide eye allergy relief, then immunotherapy (allergy shots) might work. In this immunotherapy, you get shots that contain tiny amounts of the allergen. The dose is gradually increased over time to help the body get immune to these allergens.
(CAUTION: Do NOT take any of these medicines without your doctor’s recommendations as they might have certain side-effects. Prior consultation is advised.)
Home Remedies
You can even try out these effective home remedies before seeing a doctor for relieving your eye allergy.
1. Honey
Honey can be very useful in treating eye allergy symptoms. For achieving maximum effectiveness, soak your eyes with cold water multiple times and apply small amounts of honey on the eyes with a soft material.
2. Eye Exercises
Apart from strengthening eye muscles and improving vision, exercising your eyes provides relief in eye allergy also. Several eye exercises can be done but the most common and easiest one is compressing the eyes with cold palms one eye at a time. This eye exercise increases the moisture amount in the eyes and might also trigger tears. Dust or other foreign particles that may be causing irritation and redness come out of the eye accompanied by tear flow.
3. Cayenne
A powerful herb, cayenne must be used with additional caution. It must be soaked for 10-25 minutes in warm water to prepare the cayenne mixture. As it is powerful, use tiny amounts of it. Cleansing your eye with this herb can work wonders for relieving eye allergies.
It helps improve blood circulation in the eyes and increases the oxygen amount in the eyes. Good amount of blood circulation in the eyes even helps in getting rid of harmful toxins that results in allowing cleaning of eyes.
4. Red Raspberry Leaves
Red raspberry decreases the size of inflamed tissues and soothes inflamed eyelids and eyeballs. For the preparation of an eye wash from these leaves, gently crush them to get the green extract before mixing them with lukewarm water. Wash your eyes with this mixture at least twice a day. Its regular use ensures easing your eyes of any pain or irritation.
5. Eyebright or Euphrasia
Commonly known as eyebright, euphrasia is a herbaceous flowering plant used for enhancing eyesight and curing eye allergies or infections. It helps in effectively shrinking any irritated tissues and in easing swollen mucous membranes because of its antiseptic properties. Eyebright is works more effectively when combined with cayenne.
Image Source:
- Allaboutvision
- coxshoney
- kagiso
- shirleys-wellness-cafe
- drweil
- authorityremedies
