Non sugar diet - helped my bleph 85%

[rewstar]

I was diagnosed with MGD & Rosacea about 2 years ago now..

I tried all the stuff we read on these pages - caster oil, no dairy diets, opthamologists, many different drops, hot compresses and massages..

When I say I did the no dairy diet, i should add that over a period of a year I systematically went about eliminating a few different food types from my diet.. ie.. I cut out meat for at least a month, and then sugar for at least a month and so on.. I didn't notice much of a difference apart from with the abscence of refined sugar (chocolate, fizzy juice etc)

Infact without sugar the itching disappeared completely.. I now only get the odd meibomium bump on my lid - which are easily dispelled with hot water and a cotton bud..

On top of this I take high strength omega oil and an amino acid called NAC..

I know everyone is different but I just wanted to write and say that a year and a half ago this was literally ruining my life and now I am almost symptom free.. I really hope this info can help at least one more person live their lifes to the full again.

I haven't found any links online between refined sugar and itchy eyes - but I swear that every time I cheat and have a half bar of chocolate I get that nagging itch reappearing in my eyes..

Whatever.. I'm content that I'm not thinking about my itchy eyes every 2 minutes anymore!!

Merry Xmas

x x

[Rebecca Petris]

Thank you so much for sharing this.

Every now and then we read about diet-related successes here and I have no doubt that if more people investigated this option, we'd be reading more successes.

There are some few things that I think are clearly indicated as major factors in our burgeoning dry eye epidemic:

1) Diet (and I'm not talking about Omega 3s or anything else to be added - but rather the predominance of non nutritive trash in the modern western diet)
2) Environment (esp. "office air" syndrome which has been studied extensively and which in combination with computer use is disabling people with dry eye)
3) Medical treatments (drugs & surgeries)

Of these, diet is in most cases the one over which we have the most direct control. I think that this is something we all ought to be starting to think about more, while we're lubing up and covering up and exploring every known and unknown possible dry eye treatment.

[Britta]

I also noticed that connection

I think there is something to that theory. I also notice a correlation between cutting down on sugar and the wellbeing of my eyes. When I have indulged on sweets (unfortunately I do have a sweet tooth) my tears feel more acid, so I have learnt to avoid them in my everyday life. Incidentally, I also think I suffer from light rosacea.
All in all my eye problems make me lead my life in such a more healthy way what with all this omega 3, pure water, vegetable, wholemeal bread, green and herb tea, avoidance of smokey environments, cutting down on alcohol, early bedtimes and exercise outdoors (simply the best for my eyes) I guess, I`ll make it into my nineties that way, it is just a bit boring sometimes.

[ema]

So, do you all think cutting out sugar is the key to improvement rather than dairy?

[rhad]

yea, Good post... A low sugar diet is what eliminated my Blepharitis...it doesn't affect MGD much, but the Crusting and swollen sensitive lids improves alot.. My blepharitis has been gone for a long time..It's as if their are certain stages of this disease..When you first get symptoms and go to your eye doc, you usually have Blepharitis and MGD.

rhad

[Britta]

Dairy vs. sugar

So, do you all think cutting out sugar is the key to improvement rather than dairy?

I tried to cut out dairy as well as I drink a lot of latte machiato, bottermilk, kefir plus eating all sorts of yoghurt, quark, cheese you name it (the northern European staple diet). I didn`t notice any improvement, but I only did that for two weeks. Anyway, I still consume less dairy than I used to trying to have a more varied and balanced diet, but when it comes to my eyes only sugar seems to make a difference.