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eyes and tears
how come theres salt in your tears but they dont hurt ur eyes. why does your eyes need sodium
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so it wont dry out your eyes and i just dont know what else
~tiffany harrison
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Your eyes don't "need sodium". Like any bodily fluid, there is salt present. This is done to maintain electrolytic balance and osmotic pressure. Blood, tears, saliva, etc... they all contain various salts. Chlorides, iodides, potassium, sodium, etc... your body maintains a balance of osmotic pressure (effecting the uptake and regulation of water and ions in and around cells), and of pH as most of your organs need a rather tight pH range to function (pH of blood is 7.6 give or take a tiny bit).
If you've ever read the ingredients to bottles of eyedrops - they don't contain just water - they contain salts and buffering salts and acids. This is done for the reasons mentioned above - pH and osmotic pressure. If you were to pour distilled, deionized (ultra-pure) water in your eyes, it would hurt like a bastard. But saline eye drops don't hurt at all... because saline solution is more like your tears.
Probably more technical than you really wanted, but hey, you asked, I answered.
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