Is Honey Good for Eyes?

Many of us use honey as a replacement — a healthier and long-lasting one — for sugar. Asides from sweetening your cup of tea or favorite beverage, why else do you consume honey? Is it a conscious decision you’ve made to cut down on the refined sugar or is it a remedial ingredient you’ve decided to include in your meals more often? Either way, honey is a great (if not the best) option for sweetening your meals.
Honey has several purposes which are by no means limited to food preparation. But first, what makes honey so sweet? The combination of glucose, fructose, and some monosaccharides as major components enable the ever sweet taste. You must have heard that honey doesn’t go bad either. The shelf life of honey is rather impressive. Honey can maintain its nature for thousands of years — a food substance that literally lives through several lifetimes.

We will particularly discuss how honey has improved eye health and how you can take advantage of this. Before now, honey has been used to treat different eye disorders. Centuries ago, honey was well known in Egypt for its usefulness when dealing with conjunctivitis, eye irritations, eye infections, glaucoma, and other eye conditions. Regular consumption of honey can also reduce the possibility of having severe eye diseases like cataracts. Amazing, right?

13 Health Benefits of Honey for Eyes

Cures Eye Ailments

Honey cures several eye ailments and disorders. It’s best to use pure and undiluted honey for this. Some of the eye ailments honey works for include corneal ulcers which are of inflammatory or traumatic origins. It also cures conjunctivitis and ulcerative blepharitis. Honey has natural antibacterial properties that can handle these disorders.
Freshly packed comb honey is ideal for treating more severe eye conditions such as cataract and dimness of the cornea. It will work more effectively if you start this treatment early enough.

Cures Dry Eyes

You may experience dry eyes more often than most people around you. For some, this is more likely to come up after staring at the computer or phone screen for too long. For others, it may be dust or a lesser humidity around them. Whatever the case may be, dry eyes are caused by low lubrication (tears). Honey combats dry eyes by restoring hydration to your eyes and cleansing them. You can simply make a kind of eyewash using honey and warm water to wash your eyes before going to bed. Use this honey eyewash three times weekly.

Protects Eyes from Glaucoma

Glaucoma is no joke; it is one of the most widely spread and severe eye conditions. Those suffering from glaucoma will experience a gradual build-up of fluid in their eye, this will then cause an increase in the intraocular pressure of the affected eye. Glaucoma can lead to blindness by first causing permanent optic nerve damage.
Honey prevents this eye ailment and reduces the intensity of its growth if it’s already present. You are advised to apply pure honey to your eyes like an eye drop.

Refreshes Tired Eyes

We all get this sometimes. After a hectic day with extended periods of staring at a computer screen, your eyes literally feel exhausted and heavy. As a result, you may require some extra effort to focus on an image. This strain and exhaustion become mild when you use some honey on your eyelids while they are closed. Allow the honey dry up for about thirty minutes before rinsing it off with cold water.

Improves Eye Lens Protein Oxidation

Honey can help preserve your vision by improving your eye lens oxidation. Consuming honey regularly or using it as an eyewash will encourage proper development of the components that make your eye function better.

Prevents Macular Degeneration

Just like many other organs, aging affects eye health. As we get older, our eyes get weaker, and our vision gets blurry. Macular degeneration is associated with the development of blurred vision.
Honey, with its antioxidant properties, can help prevent macular degeneration by maintaining your eye muscles and keeping them healthy enough to function properly over a long period of time. So, stick with your honey as the years go by.

Keeps Vision Intact

The vitamin and mineral contents combining with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties make honey a protective food for your eyes.
Its zinc content particularly enhances the functions of your optical nerves.

Cures Conjunctivitis

The pink eye, a contagious eye ailment, is quite unpleasant. It is characterized by itching, redness, swelling and watery eyes. You can use honey as eye drops to get rid of conjunctivitis and its unpleasant symptoms in a few days.

Treats Sore Eyes

Having sore eyes is a problematic condition usually caused by sleepless nights and eye infections  You can combat sore eyes with honey. It’s simple; just consume honey more often than usual, and have a mild honey rub once in a while.

Reduces Eye Wrinkles

You may love growing old and looking graceful, but you definitely don’t want to embrace the wrinkles. Some people don’t care much about wrinkles, but most of us just cannot accept it. Honey keeps wrinkles and lines around your face at bay as long as you naturally shouldn’t have them. Rub some honey around and on your eyes while closed. Leave the honey on for some 15 minutes before using some warm water to wash it off.

Cures Eye Infections

There are a couple of eye infections you can combat with honey and be alright in no time. Whether the infection is caused by bacteria, virus or some other microbes, honey can be very effective in dealing with them. The antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory content of honey will make a great remedy for such infections.
All you need is a mixture of honey and boiling water in equal measure. Then you may apply this mixture using a cotton ball once every day until you are relieved.

Effective Optic Nerve Tonic

You can use honey as an optic nerve tonic. This will help to increase the production of nitric oxide and enable more efficient blood flow to your optic nerves. Honey also protects your eyes from disorders and ailments which may cause optic nerve damage. You can apply honey as an eye drop or drink it like a tonic regularly in order to protect your optic nerves and retain a better vision.

Relieves Irritation and Inflammation

A topical application of honey or using it as eye drops will cure inflammation and irritation. You can stick to using honey as your home remedy for eye problems except you are allergic to pollens. Some types of honey are acidic or diluted. Ensure to use undiluted and pure honey.

Some Honey Facts

• Honey bees gather nectar from two million flowers to make one pound of honey.
• One bee has to fly about 90,000 miles – three times around the globe – to make one pound of honey.
• A honey bee visits 50 to 100 flowers during a collection trip.
• A honey bee can fly for up to six miles, and as fast as 15 miles per hour.
• Honey bees communicate with one another by dancing.
• A colony of bees consists of 20,000-60,000 honey bees and one queen.
• The queen bee can live up to five years, and is the only bee that lays eggs.
• The natural fruit sugars in honey – fructose and glucose – get digested quickly by the body. This is why athletes consume honey for a natural energy boost.
• Honey bees have been producing honey the same way for 150 million years.
• An explorer found a 2000-year old jar of honey in an Egyptian tomb and said it tasted delicious. Honey lasts that long!
• The bees’ buzz, which is the sound made by their wings, beat 11,400 times per minute.
• When a bee finds a good source of nectar, it flies back to the hive and shows its friends where the nectar source is by doing a dance called the ‘waggle dance.’