Miri boheme: Pink Eye

Wild Italian Fennel: Foeniculum vulgare

Freakin pink eye. It's a never-ending grody saga. Cure it with essential oils. Here's how:

According to the Mayo Clinic, here's what it is:

Pink eye (conjunctivitis) is an inflammation or infection of the transparent membrane (conjunctiva) that lines your eyelid and covers the white part of your eyeball. When small blood vessels in the conjunctiva become inflamed, they're more visible. This is what causes the whites of your eyes to appear reddish or pink.

Pink eye is commonly caused by a bacterial or viral infection, an allergic reaction, or — in babies — an incompletely opened tear duct.

Okay, I was going to post a picture of it here, but I won't do that to you. And don't google-image it. You'll be sorry. Trust me. I'll just assume that you all know what it looks like (pinkish eyes, glassy eyes, crusty stuff in there when you wake up, itchy) and we'll take it from there. And for the love of all that is holy, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT before it starts getting worse. Lord in heaven. You could lose an eye. This is also extremely contagious, so there's that, too.

Picture from Patient.co.uk

Here's the eye. Notice the conjunctiva covers the white part of the eyeball in the front, and then wraps around and connects to the upper and lower eyelids. That's why your eyelids can become inflamed when the conjunctiva becomes inflamed.

The treatment you choose depends on the cause of the inflammation. To reiterate what the Mayo Clinic says, it can be caused by a bacterial or viral infection, allergies, or an incompletely opened tear duct.

So to cover all bases, you want something antibacterial, antiviral, cleansing, decongestant, and of course, anti-inflammatory. Enter FENNEL!

Fennel is the magical cure-all for pink eye.

The Recipe:

8 ounces distilled water
3 drops Foeniculum vulgare essential oil

Use this as an eye wash, an eye spritz, or just dropper a few drops into the affected eye.

I keep this in a spray bottle and spritz my eyes with it when I feel pink eye coming on. Once in the am, once in the pm. It takes a couple of days to clear it completely.

Fennel EO from Snow Lotus

NOTICE!!!!

This may sting a little. Shake the bottle WELL before using. If you get a drop of straight essential oil in your eye it will HURT LIKE HELL!!!!!

Chamomile can be substituted for the fennel, if you like. This is probably better for kids as it doesn't sting at all.

Also, you can make fennel-seed tea (steep crushed fennel seeds in boiled water) and dropper it into your eye. It's all good!

Why it works

Inflammation

Inflammation is the body's attempt to rid itself of harmful stimuli. Inflammation is the body's reaction to an infection, bacteria, virus, allergen, fungus, or whatever it doesn't like.

Inflammation, then, is the body's immune system. If you combat the inflammation, you better make sure you combat the underlying cause of the inflammation, or it's just going to keep happening.

From Medical News Today:

Within a few seconds or minutes after tissue is injured, acute inflammation starts to occur. The damage may be a physical one, or might be caused by an immune response.

Three main processes occur before and during acute inflammation:

Arterioles, small branches of arteries that lead to capillaries that supply blood to the damaged region dilate, resulting in increased blood flow

The capillaries become more permeable, so fluid and blood proteins can move into interstitial spaces (spaces between tissues).

Neutrophils, and possibly some macrophages migrate out of the capillaries and venules (small veins that go from a capillary to a vein) and move into interstitial spaces. A neutrophil is a type of granulocyte (white blood cell), it is filled with tiny sacs which contain enzymes that digest microorganisms. Macrophages are also a type of white blood cells that ingests foreign material.

Klaus Ley, M.D., a scientist at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology, reported in a study published in Nature that neutrophils are the human body's first line of defense; they are the main cells that protect us from bacterial infections. Their protective function is a positive one, however, they also have inflammatory properties that may eventually lead to heart disease and several autoimmune diseases, such as lupus. Effectively manipulating neutrophils is vital in disrupting inflammatory diseases.

Suppression of neutrophil activity decreases inflammation, which impedes healing of the causal agent. Many inti-inflammatory drugs (such as tetracycline) suppress neutrophil activity. I have found statements, but no hard studies, that fennel increases white blood cell and neutrophil activity. If anyone knows of any such studies, please comment below...

Anti-oxidants

The problem is that the inflammation process causes a burst of oxidation, creating FREE RADICALS, which we all know are not good. So the inflammation is good to a point, but not good after a certain point. Okay.

An antioxidant does not prevent the inflammation process, but prevents the possible side-effects (free radicals running amok).

Anethole is a primary constituent of the essential oil. Anethole and Fennel essential oils have been researched fairly heavily, and they are proven to be powerful antioxidants.

Antimicrobial/antiviral

Antibacterials can work by killing the microbe outright or by disrupting their growth. Fennel was found to be effective against a number of bacteria:

Hot water and acetone seed extracts showed considerably good antibacterial activity against all the bacteria except Klebsiella pneumoniae and one strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Minimum inhibitory concentration for aqueous and acetone seed extracts ranged from 20–80 mg/ml and 5–15 mg/ml respectively. Viable cell count studies revealed the bactericidal nature of the seed extracts. Statistical analysis proved the better/equal efficacy of some of these seed extracts as compared to standard antibiotics. Phytochemical analysis showed the presence of 2.80 – 4.23% alkaloids, 8.58 – 15.06% flavonoids, 19.71 – 27.77% tannins, 0.55–0.70% saponins and cardiac glycosides.

Also:

The present study was conducted to examine the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of essential oil, methanol and ethanol extracts of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) seeds native to Pakistan. The seed essential oil and extract yields from fennel seeds were found to be 2.81 and 6.21–15.63% w/w, respectively. GC and GC–MS analysis of the fennel essential oil revealed the presence of 23 compounds, with trans-anethol (69.87%), fenchone (10.23%), estragole (5.45%) and limonene (5.10%) as the major components. The fennel seed extracts contained appreciable levels of total phenolic contents (627.21–967.50 GAE, mg/100 g) and total flavonoid contents (374.88–681.96 CE, mg/100 g). Fennel essential oil and extracts also exhibited good DPPH radical scavenging activity, showing IC₅₀ 32.32 and 23.61–26.75 µg/ml, and inhibition of peroxidation 45.05 and 48.80–70.35%, respectively. Of the fennel essential oil and solvent extracts tested, 80% ethanol extract exhibited the maximum antioxidant activity, whereas the essential oil showed appreciable antimicrobial activity against selected strains of bacteria and pathogenic fungi. The results of the present investigation demonstrated significant (p < 0.05) variations in the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of fennel essential oil and extracts.

Proof!

MIRI