Eye Misalignment

[fedora]

My son just got diagnosed with a vertical misalignment of his eyes. It is not noticable when looking at him. It causes double vision while reading.

Has anyone linked eye misalignment with gluten intolerance. He has not been tested at all for celiac or gluten intolerance.

Thanks

[ravenwoodglass]

I am not sure this is the same thing that your son is experiencing but in my celiac family 2 of us have quite noticeable effects on our eyes. When glutened two if us, my DS and I, both will have one eyelid that droops. In us this is a neuro side effect and before diagnosis my right eye was often almost half closed and I was unable to open it fully. It makes the eyes appear a different size. This did resolve as the neuro damage resolved but still appears if severely glutened 5 years later.

[fedora]

Thanks for responding. What you describe happens to me too. I also use to get upper eyelid twitches on my left eye and sometimes it would droop. This was a more rare symptom for me.

My son actually has issues with his eyeballs. They look fine but they are not aligned correctly. I don't know if this has any thing at all to do with gluten, just checking in. His other problems include occasional leg pains at the growth plates mostly at nights but have started in the knees and hips and during the daytime now too. Also he has some speech issues.

[Ursa Major]

Thanks for responding. What you describe happens to me too. I also use to get upper eyelid twitches on my left eye and sometimes it would droop. This was a more rare symptom for me.

My son actually has issues with his eyeballs. They look fine but they are not aligned correctly. I don't know if this has any thing at all to do with gluten, just checking in. His other problems include occasional leg pains at the growth plates mostly at nights but have started in the knees and hips and during the daytime now too. Also he has some speech issues.

Your son's problems sound like symptoms I had at his age. Try making him gluten-free as well, to see if all those problems resolve on their own without any medical interference.

What is your optometrist suggesting to do with the eyes? I think that wearing an eye patch for part of each day might fix that problem (if it isn't caused by gluten).

[fedora]

Ursa,

Did you have problems with your eyes? I remember before you said you had bad leg pains. I did too as a child. It is sad when he cries from pain.

Right now they are giving his eyes time to try and realign on their own. He was already reading with only one eye open. The dr. says he needs to be reading with both eyes open more. His is a misalignment where one pupil is slightly higher than the other. Most people with eye misalignments have eyes that wander off to the side(wandering or lazy eye). If they don't realign on their own then we will have to drive 5 hours away to see specialists at the big universities where they have computer assisted eye therapy.

He did go off gluten for a little bit. That was before we knew about his eyes.

[mamaw]

Wow, someone else having this problem.I thought it was just some of the weird things I seem to get!

First off, I have cornea erosion where bits of the cornea flake off & makes one feel like something is in the eye. Its painful at times , red & watery. I use oinment at night to help clear this up.

Recently in the last few months my one eye appeared to be different than the other. Once it got droppy & almost was like I had an infection . I went to eye specialist & he had me put warm compresses on it & didn't seem to know what it was. It did go away in a few weeks but after that one eye seemed smaller than the other.

Out of the blue I started to get very blurry , sometimes double vision in my one eye. Back to eye specialist he says oh dry eyes use otc tears to help. $75.00 & bye.

I went back at least eight times & always the same answer. So it got to where I could only truly see well for about 3-4 hours a day & couldn't drive.. I went into the big city to get another opinion. I seen a cornea transplant specialist which she gave me good news, then she referred me to her partner another specialist. He to exaimed my eyes & came to a answer of either the beginning of mystenia gravis or Dysthyroid Orbitopathy. He thinks it is the second but can't be sure just yet. This can have something to do with the thyroid or it doesn't so it happens to people wih thyroid problems & also ones withot thyroid issues.

It has an active phase which can last 6 months to five years & the a chronic phase. If you are young it can happen twice or more in the lifespan. Older people like me it probably will not happen again once it goes through its cycle active & chronic.

I was so worried about going blind.These doctors will be watching me closely every couple months to get treatment if it progresses to where something has to be done to save my eyesight. Until that time I'm on the new restasis & gen-teal gel at night. Easy so far. The treatments are not something I want to do .. Injections in the eyes, radiation in the eye or removing some of the orbital bone .........

The reason for the treatments is because the muscles in the back of the eye swell, get imflamed & push the eye out of the socket. I was having eye pain but it has gone now.

Another thing is if the eyes do not re-align on their own surgery is needed to correct this.

Now, I wonder if there is a connection between this & celiac? The doctors do know of the several other autoimmune things I have but didn't say anything.

The booklet stated that it happens most in middle-aged women but is more severe in middle-aged men. Children affected usually show milder forms of this disease.

80% of patients with this have overactive thyroid glands; 10% have underactive thyroid glands, and the remaining 10% have normal thyroid glands.

Also these doctors said that taking steroids for any reason can cause the muscles in the eye to become damaged. I have always refused steroids but at one point when my thyroid put me into Afib & I almost died ( ICU for over a week) they gave me steroids to save my life. Much longer story but this is a very short version & no details.So another good reason to not take steroids when they push them. Smoking also damages the muscles in the eye. I don't smoke but never knew that before.

mamaw

[fedora]

mamaw,

thanks for responding. I hope your eyes improve. How long have you been gluten free?

His eyes are healthy except for this horizontal(I accidentally said vertical before) misalignment. A patch won't help this. When he looks all the way up one iris is lower than the other.

He has no symptoms of thyroid problems. he has never had steriods. He saw an optometrist and I am taking him to an opthamologist this summer. The optometrist did not see anything wrong with his eye or the shape. There was no sign of auto immune problems. I will definately remember everything you have said and look it up.

Something is going on with the muscle and how the eyes work together.

Yesterday he tried out colored overlays to read with. Yellow caused the double vision while readin to go away!!!He read so much faster and with less frustration to me today.

[home-based-mom]

Yesterday he tried out colored overlays to read with. Yellow caused the double vision while readin to go away!!!He read so much faster and with less frustration to me today.

In that case, see how he does when he is not exposed to fluorescent lighting. That is getting harder and harder to do, but you can still buy incandescent bulbs and there is always good old sunshine!

[mamaw]

Hi Fedora

I've been gluten-free for over five years & I'm very strict...This disease is actually fairly common as these specialists told me they have thousands who have this & some people just think its something else & continue on but it is a muscle disease of the eye.Droppy eye is one of the first things to take place & for some that is all they ever get & others it seems to flourish. Now when I see a person with one droppy eye , that bell goes off in my head!!!!!

Just like myself I did not worry or get scared about it until I started to get blurry vision & at times the double vision. I do close my one eye when that happens. And I've found cold compresses help a little probably taking down the swelling.

take care

mamaw

[veggienft]

He to exaimed my eyes & came to a answer of either the beginning of mystenia gravis or Dysthyroid Orbitopathy. He thinks it is the second but can't be sure just yet. This can have something to do with the thyroid or it doesn't so it happens to people wih thyroid problems & also ones withot thyroid issues.

It has an active phase which can last 6 months to five years & the a chronic phase. If you are young it can happen twice or more in the lifespan. Older people like me it probably will not happen again once it goes through its cycle active & chronic.

I was so worried about going blind.These doctors will be watching me closely every couple months to get treatment if it progresses to where something has to be done to save my eyesight. Until that time I'm on the new restasis & gen-teal gel at night. Easy so far. The treatments are not something I want to do .. Injections in the eyes, radiation in the eye or removing some of the orbital bone .........

The reason for the treatments is because the muscles in the back of the eye swell, get imflamed & push the eye out of the socket. I was having eye pain but it has gone now.

Another thing is if the eyes do not re-align on their own surgery is needed to correct this.

Now, I wonder if there is a connection between this & celiac?

Apparently the answer is ..........Usually.

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Dysthyroid orbitopathy (DO) is an autoimmune disorder usually associated with Graves' disease.........

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Graves' Disease

Graves' disease is a thyroid-specific autoimmune disorder in which the body makes antibodies to the thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor (TSHR), leading to hyperthyroidism, or an abnormally strong release of hormones from the thyroid gland. Normally, the release of thyroid hormones is mediated by thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), a hormone secreted by the pituitary gland that binds to TSHR to stimulate the thyroid to release thyroid hormones. This normal cycle is self-regulating: the hormones secreted by the thyroid keep more TSH from being produced (Janeway, 2001).

The autoantibodies produced in Graves' disease are not subject to negative feedback, so they continue to be produced and bind to TSHR even when thyroid hormone levels rise too high. These antibodies act as agonists, stimulating more hormones to be released and thus leading to hyperthyroidism.

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And there is an extremely strong correlation between autoimmune thyroid disease and celiac disease:

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