Floaters in eyes are spots that move through the field of vision. Eye floaters may appear grey or black, cobweb like or stringy and they may drift, dart or move on movement of your eyes. Changes related to age-for instance, liquefaction of the jelly like substance present in the eye may result in eye floaters. You should visit an ophthalmologist if floaters in eyes appear suddenly or increase quickly. The natural remedies mentioned below may also help you in getting rid of floaters in eyes.
How to Reduce Floaters in Eyes Naturally
1. Do Gentle Massage of Your Temples
Place a cloth dampened in lukewarm water over closed eyes. After this massage your temples gently. This helps in reducing stress levels, which helps in preventing the occurrence of eye floaters.
2. Try to Focus Your Vision
Focus your vision on a particular object and it will help in relaxing your eyes. You can take a coin or a pencil and train your eyes to focus on this object. Now take the object slowly towards yourself (keep it at a distance of 6 inches from your eyes). Take back the object to its original place. Repeat the process, at least 10 times in a day.
3. Do Eye Exercises
Roll the eyes clockwise and anticlockwise. This exercise of eyes not only cures floaters of eyes but also relieves stress from eyes due to working for long in front of computer or watching television.
4. Do Yoga
Extra stress on eyes can cause eye floaters. Yoga is a great way to relieve stress. Doing yoga calms both body and mind; thereby, relaxing the eyes and curing the discomfort associated with eye floaters.
5. Drink Plenty of Water
How to reduce floaters in eyes naturally? In some cases floaters in eyes may occur due to build up of toxins in your body. An excellent way to remove toxins from the body is by consuming lots of water. When the toxins in the body are removed, the eyes floaters get reduced remarkably.
6. Consume Bilberry
Bilberry contains large amounts of anti-oxidants. It also toughens the retinal tissue. Due to these properties, it helps to improve eye function and prevent eye floaters. You can either eat them raw or consume them with jams and juices.
7. Increase Your Intake of Foods Rich in Anti-Oxidants
There are numerous other foods, ingredients and herbs that are rich source of anti-oxidants. You can eat these foods to treat floaters in eyes. Some such foods are oranges, kiwis, strawberries and green leafy vegetables. Green tea is also a rich source of anti-oxidants. It can be safely assumed that anti-oxidant rich foods are quite useful for preventing and treating floaters in eyes.
8. Increase Consumption of Taurine
How to reduce floaters in eyes naturally? Taurine is present is meats and sea food such as shrimps and scallops. It is excellent to enhance eyesight. Eating foods containing taurine helps in improving vision and in reducing the occurrence of eye floaters.
9. Take Ginko Biloba
Ginko biloba helps in increasing blood flow; thereby, improving vision quality. It is usually taken by persons having glaucoma. Hence, it can be assumed that if it can prevent glaucoma, which is a serious condition of the eye, then it may prevent or avoid eye floaters efficiently.
10. Use Sunglasses
Exposure to direct rays of sun may cause harm to the eyes. Hence, protect your eyes by using sunglasses while you are going out in the sun. By doing this you can reduce direct exposure of your eyes to sunlight and prevent eye floaters.
11. Drink and Eat Organic Supplements
It is quite useful to eat organic supplements to avoid eye floaters. You can improve the eye sight by drinking various kinds of vegetable and fruit juices. You can also eat foods such as thyme, apples, raspberries, parsnip, beets, carrots and celery to prevent eye floaters.
12. Quit Drinking Coffee and Alcohol
How to reduce floaters in eyes naturally? Alcohol and caffeine may produce adverse effects on your eyes. Hence, if you consume alcohol and coffee in excess then reduce their intake to prevent the occurrence of eye floaters.
13. Quit Smoking
A person who smoke claims that smoking relieves stress; however, this is far from truth. In fact, smoking increases stress, particularly when the smoke is inhaled, this is also not good for the vision. Hence, you should quit smoking if you are a smoker to prevent eye floaters.
14. Get Plenty of Sleep
Many a times, your eyes get stressed due to not sleeping well and adequately. The stress is increased by spending most of your time sitting in front of a laptop or computer. This can result in many eye ailments including eye floaters. Hence, you should get plenty of rest and sleep properly to avoid eye floaters.
15. Get Used to Eye Floaters and Do Nothing
One of the ways to deal with floaters in eyes is to get used to them and do nothing. On most occasions, eye floaters generally do not bother much. Hence, if none of the home remedies work for you, then you should get used to having eye floaters and do nothing.
What Should You Avoid?
When you have floaters in eyes, the following should be avoided:
- Watching TV or using computer in dark
- Watching lots of movies
- Reading in dark or poor light
- Putting on sunglasses for long duration
When to Visit an Ophthalmologist?
If eye flashes and floaters appear suddenly, then you should visit an ophthalmologist immediately as they may indicate detachment of retina that can result in blindness.
During regular eye exam you should mention any eye problems or vision changes whether floaters or anything else to the eye doctor. Occasionally, floaters are only noticeable during exams of eyes, particularly if they are present close to retina.
Medical Treatment for Eye Floaters
Majority of the floaters in eyes don’t require treatment. However, when they are large or numerous that they cause impairment of vision, you may be recommended laser therapy or surgery by your doctor to remove them.
Laser Therapy
During this, the doctor aims a beam of laser at debris present in the vitreous so that they can be broken and made smaller and less noticeable.
Laser therapy is in experimental stage and is not used widely. While improvement may be seen in some individuals, it may produce no change in others and it may even cause damage to the retina if laser is not aimed properly.
Surgery
The surgery is referred to as vitrectomy where the doctor removes vitreous in the eye via small incision and replaces it with solution so that the shape of eye is maintained. A new vitreous is naturally created by the body that replaces this solution gradually. The surgery may not always remove floaters in eyes completely. Moreover, new eye floaters may form after the surgery, particularly if surgery has caused retinal tears and bleeding.