Women who eat a diet rich in tuna are less likely to have dry eye syndrome.Dry eye syndrome afflicts more than 10 million Americans. Artificial tears help but offer only temporary relief.Might diet play a role? A clue comes from the nearly 40,000 female health professionals aged 45-84 enrolled in the Women’s Health Study.Brigham and Women’s Hospital researcher Biljana Miljanovi?, MD, MPH, and colleagues looked at whether essential fatty acids -- the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish and the omega-6 fatty acids found in meat -- play a role.It seems they do. Women who ate the most omega-3 fatty acids had a lower risk of dry eye syndrome compared with those who ate the least.
