Something to Consider - Low Carb Diet?

[LasikLady]

I accidently posted this in the Plugs Forum. Rebecca, please delete it from there? Anyway, here it is:


For the past 3 1/2 weeks I have been on a low carb, high protein/fat diet. This is a diet my sister and her husband have been on for almost a year. They have both lost a ton of weight and their cholesterol actually dropped 50 points each. Anyway, aside from all that, I have been doing it for like I said 3 1/2 weeks and my eyes feel pretty darn good. My husband doesn't believe it can be the diet and thinks I am just in a "good spell". But seriously, my tears just seem "thicker" and run less (I'm plugged in all 4 ducts). This is a program by Suzanne Somers (Three's Company) and she's published many books. It's similar to the Atkins Diet but you don't get rid of carbs completetly, you just don't eat them with proteins and fats. I'm wondering if there is something to this. I know diets high in Omega 3's and 6 are supposed to help the eyes so maybe a diet that consists of a lot of whole fats really does help. On this program you still eat whole grains, veggies and fruit so I think it's healthy. It's mainly about eliminating sugar, white flour and starches and chemicals in foods. To tell the truth I haven't lost a lot of weight but after about a week my eyes started to feel different. I am going to stick with this for a while and will comment back to see if the improvement continues.

[odydnas]

Hi Lasiklady! Glad to hear the good news! From what you're describing, it sounds like an anti-inflammatory diet. While there is no solid evidence that eating such a diet actually lowers inflammation, there are doctors that do think watching the glycemic scale is important to health. Just be sure not to go overboard like the Atkins diet, which can pose some serious health risks. Good luck and enjoy that salmon!

[atta]

Candida (yeast infection)

Yes, that's possible. Have you ever heard of candida? Candida may cause autoimmune like symptom-dry eyes, sicca, red eyes.
I myself got some relief from dryness through taking anti candida pills. (If I stop the pills or the special food supplement-threelac, I get more dryness)

And you can see the difference after a weeks diet, thats surprised me. As far as I know, its hard to get rid of candida just by taking diet, even when you take medicine, plus diet, it wont be very easy. You're lucky!


Actually, I'm having some autoimmune disorder, so I'm on anticandida and LDN.

[NYer]

South Beach Diet is the way to go rather than Atkins. Much healthier and still low-carb.

[LasikLady]

The program I've been doing isn't Atkins. It's a program by Suzanne Somers. In some way similar, in others very different. Much better for you I think.

[clairvoyant]

This is like the holy grail for any inflammatory condition I would think. Hard part is having the discipline to follow it.

[atta]

Diet isnt enough

Well, I've been on anti candida medicine for about a month, and I got stable situation. Twice I cutted the pills off, and twice I my eyes got worse.
Diet isnt enough to get rid of candida (lowcarb diet is to try to starve the yeast to death, but that wont work, and it can be dangerous!), the yeast may get in to your blood to get nutrition and that may cause more problem. Medicine+diet work well if you follow the discipline long enough!(over years)

[bernmee]

I have being seeing an acupuncture two weeks now as I seemed to be in hell after my Lasik procedure.

I am now improving ALOT, I have being hitting it hard with everything so I am not going to attribute it to acupuncture alone, but you know how it is try everything...

Anyway what she said to me was that was body was too Yang and full of inflammation, she recommended cutting way back on my Yang foods, and having a diet of fish, whole grains, veg. and fruit.

A healthy diet and what do I have to lose...everything to gain if you ask me, I find it interesting that you have found relief through following your diet...

[Rebecca Petris]

It's mainly about eliminating sugar, white flour and starches and chemicals in foods.

Controversial 'brand-name' diets aside, you really can't go wrong with taking this step, that's for darned tootin'.

My version of it is eliminating most white things... white flour, white sugar, potatoes, etc. - plus some no-good additives like HFCS, artificial colors and artificial sweeteners. I ALWAYS feel better overall when I'm following this kind of eating plan. Healthier body, healthier eyes, healthier attitude. Plus eliminating this crap makes you think more creatively about food - even just simple things like using honey (a natural anti-inflammatory!) instead of sugar. Incidentally I kind of like the blood type diet (Eat Right for your Type, Peter D'Adamo). I don't believe in any of the strict do's and don'ts in any of these diets per se, but for me personally, the lists of good, neutral & bad foods for my type (O+) in that book helped me zero in more quickly on food categories my body is happiest without.

[LasikLady]

I've never considered myself an extremely disciplined person but the funny thing is this program isn't that hard for me to follow. I have been trying to cut back on the fat in my diet for years. It's a big change to allow myself to eat meats, cheeses, eggs and oils of any kind. I actually really like it! In this book she says it's the combination of these foods with carbs, starches, or sugars that increase the cholesterol. I have never had a problem with my cholesterol and just had a physical 2 months ago and all was well. So I figure I'm going to stick with this and then have lab work done just to be sure. The eyes are still feeling better so far. I think I definitely had/have something inferior with my oily layer in my tear film. I had all 4 punctum plugged so I had plenty of tears (too many most of the time) but my eyes were still burning like my tears were too watery. What I have noticed is my eyes do not burn as much and I am actually blotting my eyes less frequent like somehow the tears are thicker.
I will keep posting on this and inform you all if something changes.