Natural Help for Red Itchy Eyes

My sister came home from work last night and I couldn't help but notice how irritatingly red her eyes were. She said they felt like there was dust or some kind of grit all over them. I had her dip a fresh lemon slice in a small cup of water and rinse her eyes out with it. She did this and went to bed for the night. Fresh lemon juice in water is recommended as a natural eye wash for red irritated eyes. (To do this, add 2 drops fresh lemon juice to about 1 oz water and rinse or spray into eye. Use several times throughout the day as needed.)

It's ok to put DILUTED essential oils gently on eyelids, but NEVER put essential oils directly in your eyes. 
This morning she looked terrible! Her eyes were swollen, red, and watery. They were so bad she couldn't see to drive to work and had to stay home. I immediately got a bowl of hot water and added 4 drops each of Tea Tree and Naiouli essential oils. I had her use a washcloth dipped in the water to gently place over her eyes, re-dipping the cloth several times over the next 10 minutes. I also put Tea Tree, Naiouli, and Lemon essential oils in my nebulizer (a special kind of diffuser) and turned it on so she could breath this at the same time the treated cloth was on her eyes. These 3 essential oils have antibacterial and cleansing properties, plus the lemon is cooling (to cool the heat of the red eyes).

According to Chinese medicine, physical problems with the eyes are related to Wood energy which includes the season of Spring and the internal organ of the Liver. Right now we are strongly coming into Spring so that energy is very permeating. My sister has also had other Wood/Liver symptoms in the past so I know she can be prone to them and has to watch herself to balance them out as soon as they start to appear.

After the essential oil treatments had soothed her eyes some, I had her sit up so I could do an Auricular Therapy ear treatment on her. This is an acupressure reflexology technique that uses little beads held in place by tape. I used the points Shen Men, Allergies, Liver, Eyes, and San Jiao. I am expecting this to have a significant effect. The beads will stay in for 1 week, then if she needs it I'll repeat the treatment.

I then had her drink a glass of water with 1 drop of organic medicinal quality Carrot Seed essential oil. She enjoyed this, and I recommended she call her eye doctor to at least have her eyes looked at. The Carrot Seed oil is beneficial to both the Liver and the eyes.

Several times throughout the day she used the essential oil water treatment on her eyes - we switched to cold water after the first bowl - and also continued the nebulizer. By 5:00pm she looked and felt amazingly better! It's about 85% improved with barely noticeable swelling. The redness and watering are gone.

I made a very light Spring soup for dinner. The Liver likes light and fresh right now. The soup was baby new potatoes, zuchini, leek, and purple Thai rice (I just found this at New Sagaya and had to try it!!) simmered in chicken broth and water. Once the potatoes were soft I turned it off and added 1 clove chopped garlic, and fresh chopped green and organge peppers. Then I juiced 5 tomatoes and 1/2 lemon with the peel and added that. Topped it off with a squirt of flax seed oil and plain yogurt. DELICIOUS!!

I still want her to see the eye doctor if this is not 100% gone by tomorrow, but at least now she can comfortably drive herself.

UPDATE: The next day her eyes were completely better, and have been for the past week. I asked what made the biggest difference, because this is always very important for me to know - directly from the other person's experience. She said the Auricular Therapy ear treatment immediately calmed her down and she could open her eyes some after that. But she loved the cloth dipped in essential oil drops in water best, saying it was incredibly soothing and created the most noticeable difference.

Learn tons of great information from my On-Line Essential Oils Course series. You can study here at our school in Alaska from anywhere in the world!