Vision

[whitball]

Has anyone had problems with their vision? I have never noticed this before I was diagnosed, but since my diagnosis in feb 2006 my eyes have been doing weird things. Today, I went to my children's conferences at the high school. I went into the bathroom and when I was washing my hands, I couldn't focus on the mirror in front of me. It felt weird. I walked toward the door and it was only then that I realized that what I thought was the mirror was an opening in the wall. The mirror was really by the door several feet away. I had the same experience earlier in the week with a mirror. I felt like I had no depth perception. Isn't this weird?

[TCA]

I went gluten-free in Sept. I've worn glasses for 22 years and for the first time ever my Rx improved in Jan. Since then I have heard that gluten can cause damage that leads to needing glasses. My Rx is about 1/2 what it was. I was amazed as was the doc!

[amybeth]

In the past, and still on occassion, I have had opthamolic (sp?) migraines. I never got the headaches associated with "normal" migraines (until much later). Instead my vision was impaired.

This is about the time my symptoms related to celiacs first started rearing their ugly head, but I didn't suspect anything yet.

Sometimes my peripheral vision would just go on me-it would feel almost as if invisible blinders had just been put on me. Other times, portions of my frontal vision would go. Scary - especially as I was driving one day and realized I couldn't see all of the car in front of me.......threw my distance and depth perception all off.

My eye doctor said that they could often be brought on by "stimulants" like......chocolate, nicotine, some soft cheeses(!), and caffeine.

I was, at the time, a college student surviving on sweets, a smoker at the time, and addicted to Dr. Pepper (Still am addicted to that vice. ) and I could not trace the incidents to any of those things b/c I used them all the time.

I wonder now if it was celiac disease, and I just didn't know any better. I still have them every so often. I haven't sat down to track yet if it's connected to glutenings.

Of course, with two grandmother's with glaucoma and cataracts I am very acutely aware of changes in my vision. Ask you eye doc about opth. migraines. I'd be curious to see if that's what you're experiencing and if they're linked to celiac disease.

Good luck!

[Fiddle-Faddle]

I had something similar (migraines with no or little pain, just vision disturbances) starting when I was pregnant with my first child. It coincided with preeclampsia in my case (dangerously high blood pressure); it later returned a month after the birth (but without the high blood pressure)--my doctor said that at that point it was caused by hormone changes.

Are you on birth control pills? That might have something to do with it. You also might invest in an inexpensive blood pressure monitor and check out your own blood pressure, just so you can rule things out.

Can you tell if you are using both eyes together, or are you using one primarily and suppressing the vision in the other? You can check this by covering one eye, looking at an object, and then open the other eye and then cover the eye that was doing the looking. Then try this with the other eye. If everything is normal, you shouldn't feel the second eye move as it focuses. If it does, that means you are doing all your focussing with one eye (the other is either just getting peripheral vision or the brain is suppressing theimage so you don't get double vision.

Scary, isn't it? I hope you find some answers.

[Becky6]

I was dx'd with optic neuritis and they thought MS, but now gluten free it has all gone away!

[whitball]

Thanks for all of your advice. My blood pressure is usually pretty good. I am on estrogen as I had a hysterectomy 3 yrs ago. I am planning to see my dr. in a few weeks for my yearly, so I'll ask her then about the vision thing.

[shellbean]

I have had alot of problems with my vision too. (Boy, after you've read all my recent posts you'd think I was a serious mess! ) I have problems with blurry and cloudy vision and also peripheral problems. I have been running into things that I swear was further away than it really was. I grew up having numerous migranes too. My eyesight is getting worse it seems but then again I have only been on the diet 2 months so I guess my eyes haven't had time to straighten out yet. (Plus I have been contaminated alot of times in the 2 months too.) Good luck to you!

[flagbabyds]

my vision always gets screwed up when my thyroid gets out of whack, you might want to check that out to see if you need thyroind meds.

[DonnaD]

in a rush sorry,whitbal!

My daughter had optical migranes with aura on gluten and was dx dyslexic just after her celiac dx in Nov 05.(words blurry on page hated reading, some ADHA symptoms).

Post DX, and on 2 x 100mg fish oil twice a day and berocca (high dose multi vit) Oxford University Dyslexia research unit found she is no longer dyslexic, reading age up 2 years in 5 months, but she did have convergence insufficiency (google it) had eye exercises for 6 weeks, now cured, still has a contrast and depth perception problem and has BRIGHT YELLOW glasses for reading and when tired, she can then see the 'numbers in the coloured spots' on the charts, amazing. She is reading for fun now. They have done a lot of research into the link of diet (esp fish EFA oils and B vits) on vision and attention (being celiac vital vits and minerals are malabsorbed).

I have also found myself that what I though were 'tired eyes' looking at the computer etc and driving at night is 80% better gluten-free. I don't shut one eye anymore when reading at night!

Hope this gives you some ideas to try,

D

[whitball]

I have had alot of problems with my vision too. (Boy, after you've read all my recent posts you'd think I was a serious mess! ) I have problems with blurry and cloudy vision and also peripheral problems. I have been running into things that I swear was further away than it really was. I grew up having numerous migranes too. My eyesight is getting worse it seems but then again I have only been on the diet 2 months so I guess my eyes haven't had time to straighten out yet. (Plus I have been contaminated alot of times in the 2 months too.) Good luck to you!

I have had problems with peripheral vison too. I can no longer use my glasses. I try to use my bifocals, but can't use them with my computer. My vision has been worse since this diet. Not sure of what is going on. good luck to you also. We've got a long road ahead of us. Tara

[Fiddle-Faddle]

. I don't shut one eye anymore when reading at night!

Hope this gives you some ideas to try,

D

That's fascinating, DonnaD! I have ALWAYS shut one eye when reading--but I never connected it to gluten before. I did all sorts of eye exercises (for either strabismus or ambliyopia, depending on which doctor you believed) as a child, but they never worked. Come to think of it, I haven't had time to read much lately--I'll have to check it out now that I'm off gluten!

[Steve798]

Hi,

Funny you should mention this. Since have problems with gluten, my eyesight seems to worsen. Sometimes it just feels like there is something over one of my eyes that needs to be rubbed away (a slight blurring). I do wear glasses for reading, but can still read without them.... but there are days, since having this gluten problem, that I can't read unless I have plenty of light and my glasses on.

Steve

[penguin]

I feel like my night vision isn't what it should be, but I went to the eye doctor and they told me to be a pilot because my vision is better than 20/20

Like, a lot better. Read the bottom line of the chart with one eye better.

Doesn't mean I don't get eye strain though. Since doing this gluten challenge my eyes are itchy all of the time, though.

[queenofhearts]

I have visual migraines (always preceding the actual headaches, which I can sometimes head off if I immediately lie down in a dark room) & also notice that my eyes are extremely sensitive to bright light. Also, I find that my eyes will sometimes feel very "sludgy" & slow to focus (sort of as they do when I first wake up) during the day for no apparent reason. Who knows, maybe that too is Celiac-related!

Curiouser & curiouser!

Leah

[Ashley]

Went to the eye doctor, nothing wrong I have 20/20 eye sight, but my eyes do the weirdest things. I don't know if I'm blacking out, but, a lot of the times my sight will nearly completely black, I can only see about around the middle of my sight, I have no idea what this is but when I'm not dealing with that, my eye sight is vivid as ever!

-Ash

[**Sunni**]

I have also had problems with my eyes, I have noticed especially in the early to mid morning. Feels like I cannot focus and when looking into the mirror it's as if my eyes aren't dilating. Could this be related to a rxn to a breakfast food? Has anyone else had a similar vision prob.?

[MelindaLee]

About 3 years ago I had a short episode where it seemed like I was looking through a black and white calidascope. It only lasted about 20 minutes. When I saw my eye dr. I told her, as I was on a medication that can cause eye problems (due to arthritis). She said is was a "visual migraine". About a year ago, I had another episode like this, so thought nothing of it until my left arm and nose and lips went numb. I ended up at the ER (had to rule out stroke and heart attack) and was diagnosed with a migraine again. I had to follow up with a nuerologist. He recommended getting off birth control, which I did. This summer they found my celiac, so I have been gluten-free since August. In October I had a bad dining experience where I was very ill right after, so I know I had gluten. One week to the day later, I had another "visual migraine" with the numbness. I called the neurologist as I didn't automatically equate it to the gluten. Once he learned of my celiac diagnosis, he accused me of cheating on the diet. It was only then I made the connection with the gluten exposure. My visual migraines have been as simple as the black dots that float, to feeling like I was looking through a distorted window. "Tunnel vision" is often part of this as well. Hopefully this gives you some ideas of what to check out with your physicians.

[Bella001]

Has anyone had problems with their vision? I have never noticed this before I was diagnosed, but since my diagnosis in feb 2006 my eyes have been doing weird things. Today, I went to my children's conferences at the high school. I went into the bathroom and when I was washing my hands, I couldn't focus on the mirror in front of me. It felt weird. I walked toward the door and it was only then that I realized that what I thought was the mirror was an opening in the wall. The mirror was really by the door several feet away. I had the same experience earlier in the week with a mirror. I felt like I had no depth perception. Isn't this weird?

One of my problems before going gluten free was my night vision getting really bad. Add rain to it and I couldn't drive with glasses on. My Mom was with me one night and she had to finish driving us home. Since going gluten free my eyes have improved a great deal. I don't even need glasses to drive at night now.

[seriously confused]

I was dx'd with optic neuritis and they thought MS, but now gluten free it has all gone away!

This is where I'm at. I was diagnosed over 8 years ago with MS. Had optic neuritis th first year, then nothing. I got diagnosed with Celiac last year but am positive that I have had it since I was a teenager(which was before the MS). I just had my second MRI and they phoned to say they dint find anything. So I am wondering if I don't have MS and maybe it was the Celiac that resembled MS symptoms. The biggest problem I have is when I went to my doc questioning the MS diagnoses, she said there was no question whether or not it was ms, even after I asked her about the connection between the two. So when I go now, she is probably going to say the same thing.......I wish there was a Celiac specialist around here that I could talked to......This is the next best thing..

[ravenwoodglass]

This is where I'm at. I was diagnosed over 8 years ago with MS. Had optic neuritis th first year, then nothing. I got diagnosed with Celiac last year but am positive that I have had it since I was a teenager(which was before the MS). I just had my second MRI and they phoned to say they dint find anything. So I am wondering if I don't have MS and maybe it was the Celiac that resembled MS symptoms. The biggest problem I have is when I went to my doc questioning the MS diagnoses, she said there was no question whether or not it was ms, even after I asked her about the connection between the two. So when I go now, she is probably going to say the same thing.......I wish there was a Celiac specialist around here that I could talked to......This is the next best thing..

How were you diagnosed with MS? Did you have a spinal tap that was positive for it or did they diagnose based on symptoms or a previous MRI that showed white lesions? If you were diagnosed with a positive spinal tap with MS then as far as I know you unfortunately have MS. MS isn't always a disease that has constant symptoms though so perhaps it could be in an 'off phase' after the eye symptoms resolved. I don't know I am far from an expert with MS.

There is a neurological celiac form that is called gluten ataxia. That can make you very off balance. That can cause lesions and symptoms that are similiar to MS but the spinal fluid will be clear of the debris that comes with MS.

Doctors unfortunately don't know a great deal usually about celiac's impact on the brain. There is quite a bit of stuff out there on everything from gluten ataxia to glutens relationship to some mental illnesses but most doctors have no knowledge of this. Sometimes printing out peer reviewed studies from places like the NIH can help them understand why your questioning.

[AVR1962]

One of my vry first signs two years ago was vision problems. Went to eye doc and nothing was wrong with my eyes. That didn't explain the blurry vision and sometimes double vision. At it's worst I was having vertigo, just real weird stuff happening like a white wall behind a person would make it hard for me to see the person, going down a escalator my eyes seemed to focus on the lines in the steps which were very bright. And my depth perception was off so when I would drive I felt like I was squeezed between two lines and it felt like I could easy go over the line. I actually ended up hitting a curb at a corner at a fairly good speed and flattened a tire.

[yepunsarang]

I've also had an experience where my eyesight improved.. I went to the eye doctor, and he exclaimed that my prescription went down and what did I do?! Well, the only thing I changed was going on the gluten free diet!

[ncallier]

Went to the eye doctor, nothing wrong I have 20/20 eye sight, but my eyes do the weirdest things. I don't know if I'm blacking out, but, a lot of the times my sight will nearly completely black, I can only see about around the middle of my sight, I have no idea what this is but when I'm not dealing with that, my eye sight is vivid as ever!

-Ash

Please know that I have no medical experience or knowledge!! I do, however, have 2 relatives with macular degeneration, and that's how they explain what their vision is like.

Also, when I had ovarian cysts, I had migraines with auras, then my vision would do something similar to yours. I hope neither of these is your problem!! Hope everything readjusts for you soon!

[Christine0125]

I had optic neuritis after the birth of my son 6 years ago. I had an MRI and 2 follow on MRIs in the next 2 years with no signs of MS. The doctor indicated that 20% of the time there is no known reason and I likely fell into that category. I have just been diagnosed with celiac in the last 2 months and my gut tells me that it was the celiac that caused the eye problems. I'm relieved because I felt like I had an MS cloud hanging over my head for the last several years. I'm feeling so much better overall on the gluten free diet and it's nice to have answers to several unexplained symptoms.