anti inflammatory

[patrick]

hi all,

could someone here advise me?
briefly; i have mgd and it has been diagnosed by several opthalmologists by now. the thing is all of them are saying its not the worst case they've ever seen. one even said that the correct name for my case is ''non obvious mgd'' which means symptoms,but no clinical signs. i do not use any prescription drug just warm compresses,lid hygiene and flaxeedoil. which is quite useless to my opinion.
i read somewhere non obvious is the predecessor for full blown mgd. and i think i've reached the stage of full blown mgd.
when i express my glands the contents vary from yellowish till toothpaste. uppers are worse than lowers for some reason.
the eyelids are always bright red on the inside and they just look very inflamed to me.
what i really want to do right now is trying the anti inflammatory approach for my mgd.
better late than never i guess. i'd rather have started much earlier with this,but if no optalmologist agrees to try this approach you're sort of empty handed here. they just won't prescribe anything anti inflammatory. and thats it. end of discussion!
what could be the best medication to give a try? anything systematic (low dose doxy) or maybe topical (azytchromicine).
i'm very curious to see your opinions and arguments here. should i try the anti inflammatory route or maybe better not. thats the question.

any input appreciated of course...

patrick

[MaryVa61]

Patrick,

I'm not diagnosed with mgd, so can't help much. But I had a condition treated with an anti-inflammatory and it made the dryness worse. It contained BAK, which I'm sensitive to, but dry eye syndrome was also listed as a side effect. You may want to check side effects of various anti-inflammatories online to see if some don't do that. Or ask the eye doc if some contain less BAK than others. You can have a drug compounded with no BAK, but expensive.

If the inner lids are very red and tender, you may want to fully explore allergies as a possibility for adding to your problems, including skin allergies. Skin allergies can be tested by dermatologist's with T.R.U.E. tests or by a few allergiests who can do that type of testing. A very few allergists can even do custom testing of eye med ingredients if it becomes needed. I have major problems with allergy to formaldehyde and a couple ingredients of eye meds/dye, and it took many years for me to figure out to pursue skin allergy testing.

Hope you find some relief!

[Hopeful2]

Hi Patrick,

I just saw my ophthalmologist the other day about my MGD. I have post lasik dry eye, for five months now.

My doctor recommended 100 mf doxcycycline, along with antibiotic ointment 'fusithalmic', warm compresses, fish/flax oils. . . an lots of patience.

[jads]

A very good natural option other than omega 3s and other oils is Curcumin, the spice used in a lot of asian\indian dishes. It's particularly useful in down regulating the inflammatory process via a number of different mechanisms. It is also a potent antioxidant and important in phase 2 liver detoxification.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18001039

The key is that you need to use specific types of curcumin which are more easily absorbed, otherwise only a very small percentage of what you are taking will make it through the digestive system. Life Extension has a good one.

http://curcumin-turmeric.net/inflammation.html

[Hopeful2]

Thanks jads! Is curcumin the same as tumeric? I'll give curcumin a try.

Hope all is well . . .

[jads]

Yes it is :-) It can be a bit pricey for the bioavailable ones but its worth it. I have been using it in combo with resveratol for a few months and feeling super !

[Hopeful2]

Would you say that these bioavailable one have helped with your dry eye symptoms?

[patrick]

hi all,

thanks for your replies!
maryva61;is it so that all anti inflammatory treatments are always preserved with bak? isn't there any alternative for that? because i read some articles about bak and all of them stated that this particular preservative can cause dry eye symptoms and should be avoided as much as possible.
hopeful2; i once had this fusithalmic prescribed and if i remember well it was a two weeks course. initially it worked as a wonder drug,but unfortunately when i had to stop using it my dry eye symptoms returned almost immediately. so my guess is that it does work,but prolonged use is for all the obvious reasons not very advisable. something similar which can be used chronically would be the solution i think.
jads;this is such a coincidence! you mentioned this curcumin spice in your reply and just one day before that i read about it for the very first time. since the use of anti biotics seems to go along with a variety of undesired side effects i thought i go searching for the best natural alternative. i googled it and this curcumin popped up as the first 5 hits or so! it has a couple of very strong properties. it is indeed claimed to be a potent anti inflammatory and a potent anti oxidant as well. the second property i don't really understand very well,but i guess it isn't really unhealthy for you.
can this particular spice only be taken systemically? (absorbtion by the human body can be optimised considerably by taking it together with black pepper for some reason).
would it be possible to have this spice compounded and converted to an eye drop and use it topically?
btw what means bioavailable?
if the claimed properties have been proven by scientific research, in my opinion it could be worth a try...

patrick..

[poppy]

hi all,

is it so that all anti inflammatory treatments are always preserved with bak? isn't there any alternative for that?

No not all are preserved with BAK. You can get preservative free individual vials of steroid drops. From my experience these are only available from hospital pharmacies.

Of course steroid drops still can have bad side effects, preservatives or not.

[MaryVa61]

Patrick,

Sounds like Poppy has an idea you could follow up on in finding a BAK-free steroid. I know the out-patient hospital pharmacies in my town won't accept my insurance, but maybe you'll have better luck. There is a compounding pharmacy here that is good about doing special orders or tracking down unusual stuff for patients, though they can't compound eye drops that last more than a week at most. Of course, Leiter's could do that for you for a 30-day supply. But you can't stay on steroids long. That's what they think triggered my Glaucoma, which I've now had for 15 yrs.

Also could check into getting the NSAID eye drops in a preservative-free version or compounded. But the corneal specialist I saw doesn't like people to be on those long either. I'd been on Acular for 15+ years (with BAK) when I was referred to him. He immediately took me off them, even before knowing I'd developed a BAK allergy/sensitivity. After an initial flare up of irritation, which he warned me about, my eyes felt a little better off them.

I've heard of an antioxidant anti-inflammatory eye drop that sounds like it'd contain no BAK. I have no idea if those are helpful or even safe to try.

Mary

[Hopeful2]

Voltaren is a NSAID. It was prescribed to me by one doctor that I saw to control inflammation. I just wasn't that pleased with the whole visit so I was reluctant to start this medication. It is available as drops, in PF single use vials. I know that it is used along with some eye surgeries. I don't know if it would have a use in dry eye inflammation? Has anyone heard of this medication or used it before?

[dryeyes4ever]

Azasite

I have MGD & have been prescribed Azasite which works well at opening/healing the lid glands. I've had to use it for several months & then stop & I'm back on it again for 6 weeks. My dry eye dr. said a lot of opthomologists don't believe in Azasite & won't prescribe it. I highly recommend it.

[patrick]

hi and thanks,

i heard a lot about azasite and like many other medications it works well for some and doesn't do anything for others. however,the general opinion from users about azasite seems to be quite positive. so it could really be worth the try i guess.
azasite is not available here in europe,but a really good alternative is azyter. its from another pharmaceutical company and it seems to be a tiny bit stronger than azasite.
anyone here who has experience with the use of azyter?

patrick...

[shorttcake521]

I am starting the turmeric/curcumin remedy today!

[patrick]

Hi,

Keep us updated about your experiences!
Very curious to hear if this turmeric/curcumin is effective or not.

Patrick...