Glucose connection ? any ideas

[MaureenC]

Has anybody else noticed that when they eat food their eyes feel better? I ask this question because that seems to be what happens to me and I am wondering whether to have my doctor do tests for hypoglycemia/diabetes. Can somebody please comment on this. Would appreciate any feedback I can get. When I get up in the morning I feel "shaky" and my eyes don't feel good and don't know whether this is just nerves or something else going on. These days I usually make oatmeal for breakfast and my eyes start to feel better even before I finish the bowl. Does this happen to anyone else?

[kitty]

Could it be the heat of the food? I notice my eyes feel best when I eat soup. Go figure.

[MaureenC]

Something to watch for...

Hi Kitty,

I will have to pay attention because I have never noticed whether it only happens when I eat hot food. I don't think that's true but I will have to experiment to find out. Might try the hot soup though, thanks for the great tip! I was visiting friends a couple of weeks ago and they happen to be Chinese. My friend said that she has a slight dry eye problem (she had lasik surgery) and she gave me some tea to try and the "fixins" for me to make it at home. There are just two ingredients. One of the ingredients is dried chrysanthemum and they could not tell me (in English) the name of the other ingredient but wrote it down in Chinese so I can take the note to a store to buy more. They said I could find out the English translation when I do that. She said that it works well for her and she also uses drops two or three times a day too. I must say that I have been negligent and have not tried the tea more than once so I will have to get on that and see how it works for me.

[jack_bristow]

My eye dryness is heavily tied to food. My eyes feel undeniably, significantly better after eating food - temperature doesn't matter. It could be a cold milkshake. However, different types of food have different strengths.

Something meaty and/or full of calories (hotdogs, burgers, thick chocolate shake) has the longest, most stable effect. Something light, like Ramen Noodles, apples, carrots has the shortest, least stable effect.

When I was a kid, I had severe stomach pains because of a problem they called in Russia "zastoi zhelchi" which apparently means stale stomach acid ? Many doctors gave up on fixing it while I kept rolling around on the floor in pain, until one of them told me to take a big spoon of olive oil with lemon juice drops. It fixed it _instantly_ .

My current vague hypothesis is that the remnants of that childhood problem are now manifesting in form of dry eye ?

[Pinky]

food and DES

All of your observations tie into a theory I have regarding DES and blood vessel dilation. I have noticed that when my vessels are dilated eg. from the heat of a bath or from eating, then my DES symptoms improve. Dilation from eating ocurs as a result of activity from the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. These systems are particularily effected by warm/hot, spicey foods, and/or large meals.

[Julie1]

Sometimes I wonder if discomfort actually makes dry eye symptoms worse. I have noticed that when I am tired, hungry, cold, or hot, my tolerance for my eye pain goes way down. i just can't cope with the pain if my body is uncomfortable. I try to make myself as comfortable as I can so that I can better tolerate my eye pain.

[MaureenC]

Thanks for the feedback guys....

Jack, you and I might have something in common. My mother told me that as a young kid I used to throw up a lot. It must have been serious because I got taken to the doctor and that was a rare occurance. My condition was termed as a "nervous stomach" and the doctor told my mother that anytime I was upset it was likely to upset my digestive tract and that I would probably outgrow it. I did outgrow the throwing up part but the nervous stomach is a part of me to this day. Anytime I am really stressed about something (like this severe dry eye problem) the problem returns. I have never had a full-blown eating disorder like anorexia but I have had problems getting my stomach to settle down and accept food. It's something I have to work very hard to overcome. Pinky's explanation about the dilation makes sense too - the body is such a complex thing that I do believe that one thing affects another......also I agree with Julie that I also deal with my dry eyes much better when I am more comfortable physically. I still may go to my doctor and get the tests for something more serious like diabetes because though I don't seem to have other symptoms of diabetes I don't really know what the first sign of it would be and it might be silly to ignore my symptoms and find out later that it is part of the puzzle.

[sazy123]

All of your observations tie into a theory I have regarding DES and blood vessel dilation. I have noticed that when my vessels are dilated eg. from the heat of a bath or from eating, then my DES symptoms improve. Dilation from eating ocurs as a result of activity from the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. These systems are particularily effected by warm/hot, spicey foods, and/or large meals.

Sorry i know this thread is old, but i just wanted to add that this theory sounds very much like what happens when i have face pain. Face pain effects the nervous system which in turns makes my glands work. to the point that my eyes feel almost normal. Also spicy food really helped my eyes the other day, also being ill makes my eyes feel good. So there could be alot of truth in this.

[Eli]

I have noticed this phenomenon too, although the effects aren't very long lasting. My theory is that eating food effects the parasympathetic nervous system, which stiumlates the production of saliva among other things. The PS system also co-controls the lacrimal gland, so it would not seem unreasonable that it could somehow be affected as well. There certainly doesn't seem to be any reason why it would need to be..but who knows. Salivary stimulants like Salagen and Evoxac also cause (in many people) increased tear production too, so there is another coonection. This opens the door to whole slew of possibilities. If eating causes increased tear production, then what else would? It would be very exciting to come up with something practical and long-lasting, because you certainly can't be eating all the time!

[sazy123]

Yes eli it would be good if they could come up with something that produced the same response which lasts longer! Unfortunately my good eye times are mainly connected to when there is something going on with my body which shouldnt be going on )- face pain/ having the flu/ and the reaction to eating spicy foods abit like when your nose runs. one thoery is eating spicy food effects the autonomic nervous system and from there nerves connect to the eye glands. My eyes felt good most of the evening-so i will try this one again.

[robinzb]

sazy, u said ur eyes felt better when there was sth like face pain/ having the flu/ and the reaction to eating spicy foods. could it because those pain or flu distract ur attention from ur eyes so ur eyes dont feel that dry n irritating?

[sazy123]

Rob i answered this question before, bottom of this link:

http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showt...8174#post18174

But briefly the response was: no its not psychological because its not just how they feel its how they 'look' as well, theres no the puffyness in the morning, lids are less red, i dont even need drops when i wake up (i just splash somewater on my face and im good to go), opposed to now- my eyes are so dry i cant even open them without pouring tons of A tears into them then i will be in a blur for about 15 mins. If you can imagine how your eyes were b4 you got this dry eye, that is how they are.

actualy today i have had abit of face pain and my eyes felt good, but alas its gone now.