Castor oil has been around forever. Your grandparents probably used it. And chances are, if you've clicked on this video, you've heard somewhere on the internet that castor oil was super good for the eyes.
Claims saying that it helps with dry eyes, that it helps with eyelashes, eye bags, even cataracts and eye floaters. But does it really? Well, I've been digging into the research to find out these answers.
And here is what I found. And I'll let you know, there's some cool stuff that I learned about castor oil and the eyes. So first, let's talk about castor oil for dry eyes, because that's where I think most eye doctors are familiar with castor oil being put onto the eye.
And that's because castor oil is found as an ingredient in a lot of over-the-counter eye drops. If you go to the store and look at the inactive ingredients, you may notice castor oil in a lot of those drops. It's also been used as a vehicle for some prescription medications for dry eye, including Restasis, for example.
The reason that castor oil works with dry eye is because it helps prevent the tear film on the surface of the eye from evaporating into the air, and it acts as an extra lubrication for the top eyelid to not rub so hard on the eyeball itself. One thing I loved in this study here is that they showed images of how irregular the tear film was before treatment here on the left side, and then how stable and better the tear film looked here on the right side after treatment with castor oil. And in that same study where they used eye drops that contained castor oil six times a day for 2 weeks, the participants had not only improved symptoms of dry eye, but they had improved signs of a more stable tear film and less problems with meibomian gland disruption, which is really significant because so many people have problems with meibomian gland dysfunction or these clogged oil glands on the eyelids.
However, the one big thing of this study I do want to point out is that they did not use 100% castor oil in these drops. Instead, they used only a small amount of castor oil diluted in the drops. So why not just use 100% castor oil and put that directly onto the eye?
Turns out there are some safety concerns, and I want to review those with everyone. But first, I want to talk about some cool studies that show benefits of using 100% castor oil for the eyelids. This study here from 2021 is a randomized study where they applied castor oil to the eyelid as a treatment for blepharitis, which is a condition of inflammation that affects the eyelids and the eyelashes.
And in this study, they applied 100% cold pressed castor oil to the eyelids just outside of the lash line as seen in this picture here. And they did this twice a day, both morning and night, for 4 weeks. And what they found was not only a significant improvement in the signs and symptoms of blepharitis, but they found a reduction in the lid margin thickness, they found a reduction in telangiectasia, which are the growth of spider veins on the surface of the eyelid, they found a decrease in madarosis, which is the loss of eyelashes, and they found a decrease in eyelash crusting as well as lid wiper epitheliopathy, which is, again, the kind of friction between the upper eyelid pushing on the eyeball when it's dry.
So overall, some pretty awesome findings and support for the use of castor oil on the eyelids. And while, yes, it was a small study, I think overall it showed some pretty awesome support for the use of castor oil on the eyelids. Alright, so what does this all mean?
Because there's a lot of claims out there about castor oil and the eyes. For example, one benefit for castor oil is that it can help with under-eye bags because castor oil has some anti-inflammatory properties in it. Well, I couldn't find any studies out there specifically looking at eyebags and castor oil, but at least this one study did show that there was a reduction in lid margin thickening.
So perhaps it could help reduce the swelling of under-eye bags, maybe. But of course, we still need real studies on that subject. But certainly, let me know if you've used castor oil ever on your eyelids and you feel like it helped with eye bags.
Let me know in the comments. I want to know that. So what about castor oil for eyelash growth?
Because even for this bottle that I found at the store, it's kind of advertising that it supports stronger, fuller-looking hair, lashes, and brows. Well, again, could not find anything in the research specifically showing that castor oil helps grow your eyelashes. However, it has been used historically for early treatment of hair loss and shares a very similar chemical structure to that of prostaglandins which are known to promote hair growth, including growth of the eyelashes.
In fact, that's how glaucoma medications and some eyelash serums work. They have prostaglandin analogs in them to help grow eyelashes. And remember that this study reported a reduction in madarosis or a loss of eyelashes.
So perhaps castor oil can help support the health of the lashes themselves and prevent them from falling out. Okay, now what about the two big questions? Does castor oil help with cataracts and eye floaters?
Well, again, could not find a single study on castor oil for either of these two things. So we really have no evidence for or against these sort of claims. But a good question that I had in my investigation was, is it even possible for castor oil to absorb into the ocular tissues?
Because both cataracts and the vitreous humor where the floaters form inside the eye, they're both deep structures inside of the eyeball. So I sifted through a lot of research in pharmacokinetics to try and find out if it was even possible for castor oil to penetrate that deep into the eye, to get past the cornea, the conjunctiva, the sclera, or the blood vessels. And I'll admit, some of that research is a bit above my pay grade, but it seems highly unlikely that castor oil would be able to penetrate that deep inside of the eye.
So even though hypothetically, knowing that castor oil has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, it just seems super unlikely that it would be able to penetrate deep enough into the eye to help prevent things like cataracts or help with eye floaters. And I think that anybody who maybe has tried castor oil for these reasons and noticed an improvement in their eyesight has probably just been either noticing placebo effect or it's been treating some of their dry eye and their vision has improved because of it. That seems a lot more likely to me.
But as always, and just like before, we need more research. Alright, so now after everything being said and the research I've shown you, I know there's some people out there who still will think that they want to try and get 100% castor oil and just put it directly onto their eyes. But first, there are some safety concerns and some things I think you should know about first.
Remember that it's all about concentration. The studies using castor oil as an eye drop for dry eyes, they always dilute the castor oil down so that it's about 2% in those formulations. And that's because castor oil at 100% is very thick and will not mix well with the tear film and leaves kind of ropey strings on the eye as you can see in this photo here, and that results in very blurry vision.
Secondly, castor oil has been found to be cytotoxic to conjunctival cells. The conjunctiva is that clear membrane that covers the white part of the eye, and so it can result in irritation and damage to those cells when castor oil is in a high concentration. Also, that previous study on castor oil eye drops did raise a concern about the storage of castor oil, as they found that castor oil kept at a warmer temperature for those four weeks ended up resulting in a lower pH or acidity level of the castor oil, dropping down to 5.
8, which ends up resulting in more irritation to the eye. And then finally, and this is probably the reason that most doctors are concerned about people ever using castor oil and putting it in their eye, is because castor oil you get from the store is not regulated the way medications are, and so there's no way to know exactly what is in it, and it's usually not sterile, and so it could potentially cause infection or other complications to the eye. Plus, again, there's no real research to tell us if it's even safe to be putting in the eye.
So no matter what, please, before you put anything, anything in the eye, ask your local doctor what they think about it, so they can at least share their two cents as well as document and follow you over time if there are any benefits, yay or nay. But at least from this research, even though there's smaller studies, it seems like castor oil can be beneficial for eyelid health in the cases of blepharitis, as well as being helpful for dry eye syndrome when there are eye drops that contain diluted castor oil, especially in the cases of meibomian gland dysfunction. From here, please let me know in the comment section if you've ever used castor oil for anything and what kind of benefits you had from that.
Plus, let me know any questions you have about castor oil specifically as it pertains to the eyes. If you're wondering what brands of eye drops at the store have castor oil in them, or if you want to know some of my favorite eye drops for dry eyes, then check out this video over here to this side. Otherwise, want to say thank you so much for watching.
I hope this video helps you out in some way. Otherwise, keep an eye on it, and we'll see you in that next video.
