Keratoconus

[NoodleUnit]

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I was found to have this condition nearly 20 years ago. It's essentially a warping of the cornea which can cause light to smear and requires the use of hard contact lenses to correct.

I was lucky enough to find an expert in the field working as an optician near me. The hospital uses him as the keratoconus specialist round here. One interesting thing that he has found is that every single person he's treated for this condition has also had asthma. He talks of people having a particularly sensitive body type,so they're prone to getting these kind of conditions.

As such he was entirely unsurprised to hear of my gluten issues over the last year.

Now, as most of us know, there's a high incidence of asthma amongst the celiac disease community. What I'm wondering now is, given that my and many other's asthma got better after going gluten-free, is my keratoconus linked to my gluten problems too? Does anyone else here have this condition?

[cyberprof]

Open Original Shared Link

I was found to have this condition nearly 20 years ago. It's essentially a warping of the cornea which can cause light to smear and requires the use of hard contact lenses to correct.

I was lucky enough to find an expert in the field working as an optician near me. The hospital uses him as the keratoconus specialist round here. One interesting thing that he has found is that every single person he's treated for this condition has also had asthma. He talks of people having a particularly sensitive body type,so they're prone to getting these kind of conditions.

As such he was entirely unsurprised to hear of my gluten issues over the last year.

Now, as most of us know, there's a high incidence of asthma amongst the celiac disease community. What I'm wondering now is, given that my and many other's asthma got better after going gluten-free, is my keratoconus linked to my gluten problems too? Does anyone else here have this condition?

Keratoconus is an autoimmune disease, so yes it is likely to be related-- the way we celiacs say "If you've got one autoimmune disease, you often get more." This article talks about a link. Open Original Shared Link The article even says that "IBS" is autoimmune. Silly doctors. IBS is a catch-all condition that is really just a cop-out by docs. And yes, "sensitive body type" that rings a bell too, with leaky gut being a primary suspect in the cause of immune system problems.

I have Fuchs Distrophy, which is also a cornea disease but from what I've found, it is not autoimmune nor is it related to celiac. The only connection that I've found is that a lack of antioxidents may cause Fuchs and 30+ years of undiagnosed celiac in my case may have lowered my antioxident absorption a bit. I will need two cornea replacement surgeries in the next 2-3 years.

Will you need a cornea transplant or cornea surgery?

[NoodleUnit]

Thanks for the reply. I've had the IBS catch-all thrown my way several times. Always gets me angry. Thankfully I won't need either transplant or surgery. We caught it early and controlled it with hard contacts. It hasn't changed at all in the last ten years.

[celiac-mommy]

My husband had keratoconus, had bilateral cornea transplants. Sees well now. He hasn't been diagnosed with celiac though.

[NoodleUnit]

My husband had keratoconus, had bilateral cornea transplants. Sees well now. He hasn't been diagnosed with celiac though.

Interesting. I notice from your sig, your children have the condition. I take it you yourself don't? Could this be the hereditary link for your kids? Ever since I found about the hereditary link I've seen undiagnosed or misdiagnosed evidence of it in my family for at least 3 generations.

I think I got away very lightly ( so far ) with the Keratoconus. It's a pain to wear hard contacts, but I'm so glad no-one will be operating on my eyes.