Eyesight Problems

[MikeyG]

Hi,

Hope someone can answer this from personal experience. Last December my regular doc ran some blood tests because I was having bloating problems, the results said boderline celiac. She advised me to cut our the gluten and see how I felt. I did just that, eliminated all gluten from my diet, basically just ate meats and vegetable, didn't seem so bad. The bloating never really went away, but I stayed on the diet until last week. I went to a GI doc to see what he could do and he said he wanted to do an endoscopy, but I would have to go back to eating gluten for a few weeks for it to be accurate, so we made an appointment to have the endoscopy a month from now and I started eating gluten again.

About 4 days after I started, I began to have vision problems in one eye. Blurred vision, at any distance. Up until now, I have never had any vision problems and never needed glasses for any distance. I made an appointment with an opthomologist, he ran all the tests including sending me for an MRI, all good. He gave me some drops and said give it a week. I am doing just that, but now, my other eye is causing me problems, not as bad, but not normal. All of a sudden it comes to me, maybe the gluten I am eating now is causing this problem. Perhaps, now that I have been clean for several months, I am more susceptible to it than I used to be. It seems from reading posts of others, that they became more sensitive after stopping. Anyone run across something like this. I am thinking of stopping the gluten again and see what happens in a few days or so. Any ideas? Thanks.

[Nova Scotian Celiac]

Hi MickeyG,

Others with long term experience with Celiac may have more to add but here is my take on it:

I'm only newly diagnosed, however, I had been experiencing the same vision problems. Before learning of my diagnosis I couldn't understand why my vision would constantly go blurry - night time, morning - depended on the day. I was concerned and saw my optometrist who assured me that my eye sight had not changed AT ALL.

Clearly I wasn't dreaming the vision problems. Fast forward to my first meeting with my nutritionist, post diagnosis and BINGO! She confirmed that as a symptom of malnurishment, the vision problems were due to my body's (villi) inability to absorb vitamin A. So my guess is that upon reintroducing gluten into your system, your body is having a difficult time absorbing vit A....

[captaincrab55]

Hi,

good. He gave me some drops and said give it a week. I am doing just that, but now, my other eye is causing me problems, not as bad, but not normal. All of a sudden it comes to me, maybe the gluten I am eating now is causing this problem. Perhaps, now that I have been clean for several months, I am more susceptible to it than I used to be. It seems from reading posts of others, that they became more sensitive after stopping. Anyone run across something like this. I am thinking of stopping the gluten again and see what happens in a few days or so. Any ideas? Thanks.

MikeyG, Have you had your blood sugar checked lately??? One may also have a gi issue with dairy, H PYLORI or both...

Good Luck

[MikeyG]

Hi MickeyG,

Others with long term experience with Celiac may have more to add but here is my take on it:

I'm only newly diagnosed, however, I had been experiencing the same vision problems. Before learning of my diagnosis I couldn't understand why my vision would constantly go blurry - night time, morning - depended on the day. I was concerned and saw my optometrist who assured me that my eye sight had not changed AT ALL.

Clearly I wasn't dreaming the vision problems. Fast forward to my first meeting with my nutritionist, post diagnosis and BINGO! She confirmed that as a symptom of malnurishment, the vision problems were due to my body's (villi) inability to absorb vitamin A. So my guess is that upon reintroducing gluten into your system, your body is having a difficult time absorbing vit A....

I really doubt this, vitamin A is stored in the body and I have been eating carrots every day as part of my vegetables, so not having them for a few days would not cause a deficiency, though long term it could be a possibility. Thanks for the reply.

[MikeyG]

MikeyG, Have you had your blood sugar checked lately??? One may also have a gi issue with dairy, H PYLORI or both...

Good Luck

Last blood test, my glucose was 80, same as it always is. We tested for pylori, but it was negative. Dont't really have much in the way of dairy, not recently anymore. Thank you for replying!

[captaincrab55]

Dont't really have much in the way of dairy, not recently anymore. Thank you for replying!

Dairy is in many processed foods....

[MikeyG]

Dairy is in many processed foods....

I haven't eaten processed foods since last year.

[cassP]

i dont know... but i'll just share that eye problems seem to be common in Autoimmune Disease.. of course we know that MS, and Diabetes can affect the eyes. i dont know about Celiac, but i also have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, and Grave's Hyperthyroid- BOTH can put pressure on the eyes- which i suffered a lot from before meds. GLUTEN also aggravates Hashi & Graves.

AND, one of my close friends just visited and he has Anklosing Spondylitis (sp?), an Autoimmune Arthritic Disease- anyways, his doc advised him to avoid gluten & dairy. and my friend said when he "eats bad" his eyes swell up, and there's pressure

so maybe there's a connection between Gluten, MANY Autoimmune Disease and the eyes- but please check with your doc- to cover everything

[MikeyG]

Thank you for providing this information. I have been checking several of the older posts on this forums and there have been other members that have made reference to visual problems due to gluten. It's funny I did not have it before stopping gluten and now that I add it in again, I have the problem. I am just going to stop the gluten again and see what happens, can't hurt.

[cassP]

Thank you for providing this information. I have been checking several of the older posts on this forums and there have been other members that have made reference to visual problems due to gluten. It's funny I did not have it before stopping gluten and now that I add it in again, I have the problem. I am just going to stop the gluten again and see what happens, can't hurt.

ya- many of us can relate to the stronger reactions you're talking about. i think the immune system becomes more vigilant when you take it out... someone smarter than me on here wrote about a certain type of cell that the immune system starts making when we go gluten free- so the reactions will be more amped up.

i honestly think without having the medical knowledge to explain it, that our immune systems have been beated down for so long that they dont work right. you know- like when you're an infant- and brand new to this world- when you have your first foods that you're not designed to eat- like wheat or dairy- you may projectile vomit, or get crazy sick (i had a tonsilectomy & innumerous ear infections).... then your immune system just kinda gets "dumbed down"... so when we go gluten free- our body gets more fine tuned again- and realizes much quicker when it sees an enemy.

that's how i see it

[GFinDC]

I got glutened not long aog and my vision got worse. It is getting back to normal now but it has been 6 weeks since the glutening. I was having a hard time focusing and reading the computer screen.

I noticed that in the past also, that gluten affected my vision. I got tri-focals a couple years ago and the doc told me I would need new ones in 6 months. But I am still wearing that first pair. Seems like my eyes are stable as long as I stay gluten-free.

[NoodleUnit]

Mikey

I had problems focussing when I was really bad before I figured it all out. One of the things I had was a rapid vibration in my right eye. Are you getting any neuro issues? I.e. burning sensations behind the eye etc.