In our consumer-oriented industrial culture, the orientation we are given is to let things break down and then hire an expert or buy a product to fix it. Nature, on the other hand, continuously renews and maintains life forms. And so, following Nature’s inspiration, I continuously am looking for ways that I can continueously renew and care for my body, rather than letting it get to the point where there is a problem, and then trying to solve it.

This kind of self-care maintenance includes things like brushing teeth, eating nutritious food, etc.

For some years I have been looking for this kind of self-care instructions regarding my eyes. Some things are obvious, like don’t look at the sun, don’t poke your eyes with sharp objects, and the like, but I haven’t been able to find information on how to care for your eyes to keep them in good health and to maintain optimum vision.

I use my eyes every day for my work as a writer. It would be very difficult to do what I do if I couldn’t see.

Over the past year or so, for the first time in my life I began to have styes on the edge of my right eyelid. Stys develop when a gland at the edge of the eyelid becomes infected. It is like a small pimple on the edge of the eyelid. When I looked up stye on the internet, all I could find was that they are caused by bacteria. Nothing about how to prevent them. Styes are not a big thing. They come and go in a few days, but they are uncomfortable and not very attractive.

At the beginning of July, I got what I thought was another stye, but it didn’t go away. When after a few weeks it was still there, I went on another internet search and found there is another similar bump called a chalazion, which is an enlarged blockage of the same gland. This can last one to three months.

After two months, I finally went to an eye doctor to get a proper diagnosis and see what I could do to heal it or have it removed. And I got some information that surprised me.

Apparently styes and chalazions are quite common. They are caused by the build-up of oil and debris that gathers around the eyelashes. Our eyes are self-cleansing, but debris that is removed from the eye itself can gather around the eyelashes.

Now, around the rim of the eyelid there are meibomian glands, which are responsible for the supply of sebum, an oily substance that, among other things, prevents evaporation of the eye’s tear film. There are approximately 50 meibomian glands on the upper eyelids and 25 glands on the lower eyelids. When these glands are malfunctioning, the result is not only styes and chalazions, but also dry eyes, a very common eye condition for which millions of dollars worth of eye drops are sold.

When I went to the eye doctor, first a technician tested my eyes before I saw the doctor. I asked her if there was any self-care maintenance I could do for my eyes and she said no. Then I asked the doctor the same question, and she said no. It wasn’t until after the doctor examined my eyes and diagnosed the chalazion and I asked, “What causes chalazions and how can I prevent another one?” did she tell me about the meibomian glands and recommended washing my eyelashes as both a treatment and ongoing preventive measure. In fact, she told me that everyone should wash their eyelashes every day–at least once, if not twice–just as we brush our teeth! And, of course, she recommended an expensive product to use to wash them (I purchased it only because I wanted to heal the chalazion).

Now that I understand how the eye works, that these glands can get clogged, and how important it is to eye health that they function, it makes sense to me to take a minute to clean my eyelashes every day. But it makes me wonder, why is this not as widely known as brushing teeth? Especially since there are so many particles in the environment that come into the eye on a daily basis. Instead of maintaining eye health through simple self-care, we are taught nothing about our eyes and then sold myriad problems to relieve the symptoms that could have been prevented.

I have ordered some books on natural eye care and will be doing further research on this. I welcome any tips and comments or resources any of you have on how to care for our eyes naturally to maintain eye health and excellent vision.

Here are a few websites I found on the subject:

• Hanna Kroger: Natural Eye Care


• Natural Eye Care


• Ayurvedic Eye Care