Study Finds Inconclusive Evidence for Dry Eye Vitamin Supplements

Vitamin supplements for dry eye aren’t well-studied, but experts say there’s probably potential despite the current lack of existing literature. Future studies should prioritize precise vitamin formulations, baseline nutritional evaluations, standardized outcome measures and control groups. Photo: Scott G. Hauswirth, OD. Click image to enlarge. Vitamin supplements play an important role in the body’s immune and regulatory processes, but, due to a variety of factors, getting the proper nutritional balance can be a challenge. Poor diet is known to contribute to health issues, and research suggests it could have detrimental ocular surface homeostasis effects as well. Researchers say the role of nutrition in the prevention and treatment of dry eye disease has been undervalued. To see whether vitamin deficiency was linked to dry eye severity and incidence, they conducted a review of the literature published in Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics; however, their search yielded few studies of high quality.The paper examined current reports (2017 to 2023) on the effects of oral vitamin supplementation on the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. Their eligibility criteria included the inclusion of Schirmer testing, tear film break-up time, corneal fluorescein staining scores, lid hyperemia, OSDI and visual analogue pain scale.Thirteen studies covering vitamins A, B1, B12 and D met the inclusion criteria. Two independent reviewers assessed their quality and data extraction. Most studies investigated vitamin D (61.5%), vitamin A (23%) and a combination of vitamin B1 and a naturally occurring active form of B12 called mecobalamin (15.5%). No studies reported on vitamin C supplement efficacy. The reviewers deemed none of the studies to be of high quality.With these studies, the researchers weren’t able to confirm the effectiveness of vitamin supplementation for dry eye treatment despite their “biologic potential and mechanistic rationale suggested by experimental and observational research.”“Although it’s been suggested that vitamins A, D, and B complex affect ocular surface physiology through roles in immune modulation, neural function and epithelial integrity, these mechanistic considerations aren’t adequate to support their clinical use in the absence of solid, well-controlled trials.”Click here for the journal source. Heidari H, Markoulli M, Arcot J, et al. The efficacy of oral vitamin supplementation in dry eye disease: a systematic review. Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics 2026. [Epub April 15, 2026].  This article was developed by the editorial staff in conjunction with experts in the field. In the process, AI may have been among the editorial tools used to meet the goals of human editors, who approved all content.