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Hi everyone,
As I said in the intro section, I’ve had blepharitis for over 30 years so I thought I’d put a post up, as I’ve seen a real improvement in the last 12 months. I can see a lot of people use this site as a resource, and maybe someone else will find what I’ve learnt in all that time useful. But it’s been hard work!
First off, I had to get my head around the fact that blepharitis (and, for me, the associated seborrhea/seborrheic dermatitis and rosacea tendencies) are an inflammatory disease which needs to be treated holistically. This will not be news to many people, but it has taken me a long time to really get to grips with what that means.
First, it means that relying on medication has not been sufficient for me. You’ve got to look at your whole lifestyle and try to cover as many bases as possible. Medication is great when you’re having an acute, painful episode and need relief quickly. I can say this is after many experiences of using topical antibiotic/steroid preparations only to see it all come back when I stopped using them, and feeling like I hadn’t made any progress at all. I’m someone who prefers not to use prescription medication if I can avoid it, but I think people really differ on that. Anyway, it seems that there are a number of things, apart from medication, which can help any kind of inflammatory disease.
So, from a lot of reading, it seems that many medical researchers are starting to view a lot of health problems (allergies, asthma, diabetes, coronary/artery disease, Alzheimers) as inflammatory diseases. Why do some people get asthma, and others get blepharitis? Well, I’m sure there is a big genetic component here. For instance my Dad has blepharitis and my mum has seborrhea and rosacea; and I got the double whammy! But, luckily, no-one in my family has asthma
Diet
I think there are two things here. One is to make sure you are eating lots of the good stuff. Second is to avoid the bad stuff! It took me a while to realise that just eating the good stuff will not (unfortunately!!) mean that you can get away with the bad stuff on a regular basis.
The good stuff: I’ve really changed my diet- I eat a lot more green leafy veg (and veg generally) then I ever used to. I eat more lean protein (including lots of fish and seafood) and try to favour low glycemic index carbs (pulses, nuts, wholemeal everything- and can I say that finding an acceptable wholemeal pasta is not easy!). Basically, it’s kind of a Mediterranean diet. I do eat cheese and natural yogurt (ie unsweetened and made by the proper cultures, not with gelatin) but not in large amounts. The other thing I’ve found is that I can’t handle loads of uncooked grains or whole nuts, and pulses need to be well-soaked and cooked. I noticed that someone else posted about IBS- well, it’s certainly my experience that whatever makes my gut react goes straight to my eyes! I also have to be picky about what bread I eat- stuff made using the 'commercial' bread-making method really causes me problems, but 'real' sourdough bread is fine.
Avoiding the bad stuff: I read an intriguing post on the forum from someone else who said that giving up sugar has really improved her eye problems. Unfortunately, I have to say that the same has happened for me!! Caffeine and alcohol are also triggers. I wish it was possible for me to eat chocolate and french pastries, and drink coffee and champagne everyday. But it’s not, and I've varying success accepting that. I’ve found my limits, and we are pretty much talking about having these things, in small amounts, once a month, rather than once a week.So when I say sugar, I mean sugar and sugar substitutes/jam/dried fruit/too much fruit generally/biscuits etc etc. I think milk is also a bit of a trigger, but only if my system is already a bit ‘upset’. Interestingly, all of these things are liver stressors (either because they cause blood sugar to rise suddenly, or because the liver has to break them down to get rid of them). And the liver plays an important role in regulating the immune system.
Vitamin D
Another poster reported this, and I have also found that my skin and eye problems are helped by limited sun exposure. I’m a pale-skinned person, living in Australia, so you’d think that would be no problem. But as a pale skinned type, I’ve always been encouraged to avoid the sun and wear sunscreen.
Mind you, I’m still a bit confused by this one- on the one hand, I’ve had a really good response to cod liver oil (covers the omega 3-vitamin A-vitamin D bases) but I’ve never noticed particularly good results with plain vitamin D supplements. Maybe its because being in the sun can also be pleasurable? Which brings me to…
Rest
I’ve come to realise that, for me, blepharitis is the canary in the coalmine. If it flares up, it’s a sign that I’m eating too much of the wrong thing, I’m not getting enough sleep or I’m feeling stressed. I’ve had to learn that I can’t do loads of things that involve physical exertion. Some exercise helps, but too much causes problems. So, I’ve come to realise that I’ll never be a marathon runner or a triathelete!
Flare-ups
I now recognise a really distinct pattern with the disease, usually diet related. I’d love to hear other people’s experience on this. First, I notice that my forehead/eyebrows gets really greasy, and I’ll get greasy around the nose. Then, after about 24 hours, my eyes will be noticeably redder, ‘sticky’ and develop crusts. The next stage is v sore, stinging eyes in the morning, plus losing eyelashes and blocked glands. My lips feel dry, so that I have to use lip balm more, and my skin feels dry and uncomfortable even though it’s greasier. I get increased face flushing in response to temperature changes/alcohol, particularly on my nose.
When my diet is good, I don’t get the greasy skin or flushes, my right eye looks ‘normal’, and my left eye just slightly pink to normal. And my eyelashes grow back!!
What I’ve learnt to do…
When a flare-up happens (as it did recently, after too much socialising) I favour brown rice or potatoes, fish/seafood, lots of veges, green/herbal tea and yogurt for about a 7 days. After about 3 days, I’ll notice that the oiliness on my face has resolved. My eyes usually take about 5 days to improve. As soon as I notice they’re aggravated, I start using warm chamomile tea bags 3 times a day to gently clean away the crusts. I have to say that it stings, but it really helps clear up any infection. After 5-7 days of eating like that, I’ll go back to eating my usual diet and be good about avoiding the triggers. After about 2 months of this, I usually forget that I have a problem, have too much of the trigger stuff and start back at the beginning!
As maintenance, I bathe both my eyes daily for a minute in warm water with 2 drops on golden seal/eyebright herbal extract in it. I’ve tried just warm water, and it did not work, the herbal extract seems to be doing something. This is even stranger, given that the herbal extract is in alcohol, which could be aggravating, but I suppose it’s a very small amount. But the eye bathes are not enough without the diet changes. I also take daily supplements of cod liver oil (2000 mg or 2000IU of vitamin A, 400IU of vitamin D), vitamin E (500mg), vitamin C (500mg) and calcium (1000mg). Every so often, I'll take probiotics for a week or two, especially if my gut has reacted to something.
Other triggers
The skin on my face seems to be very very touchy about what I put on it. In general, it reacts, gets oilier and flushes if I use sunblock (I have NEVER found one that didn't make me react, infuriating!), use soap or detergent-based cleansers, creams with certain kinds of preservatives etc etc. Salt water is also not always helpful- which I think, when I was younger, led to spectacular eye flare-ups when I was told to try baby shampoo scrubs and saline eye washes! That said, if my diet is good, my skin/eyes are much better behaved and can handle more.
Oh, and one other thing. It took about 4-6 months of being really scrupulous about my diet for my skin and eye issues to improve, initially. There were many times it those months when I doubted what I was doing (but luckily I had a good naturopath- and I also thought, well, I'll only know if it works if I give it my best shot, you know?) Only now have I got to the stage where I might see things getting a bit worse, react by straightening out my diet, and then see it improve again after about a week.
As I said in the intro section, I’ve had blepharitis for over 30 years so I thought I’d put a post up, as I’ve seen a real improvement in the last 12 months. I can see a lot of people use this site as a resource, and maybe someone else will find what I’ve learnt in all that time useful. But it’s been hard work!
First off, I had to get my head around the fact that blepharitis (and, for me, the associated seborrhea/seborrheic dermatitis and rosacea tendencies) are an inflammatory disease which needs to be treated holistically. This will not be news to many people, but it has taken me a long time to really get to grips with what that means.
First, it means that relying on medication has not been sufficient for me. You’ve got to look at your whole lifestyle and try to cover as many bases as possible. Medication is great when you’re having an acute, painful episode and need relief quickly. I can say this is after many experiences of using topical antibiotic/steroid preparations only to see it all come back when I stopped using them, and feeling like I hadn’t made any progress at all. I’m someone who prefers not to use prescription medication if I can avoid it, but I think people really differ on that. Anyway, it seems that there are a number of things, apart from medication, which can help any kind of inflammatory disease.
So, from a lot of reading, it seems that many medical researchers are starting to view a lot of health problems (allergies, asthma, diabetes, coronary/artery disease, Alzheimers) as inflammatory diseases. Why do some people get asthma, and others get blepharitis? Well, I’m sure there is a big genetic component here. For instance my Dad has blepharitis and my mum has seborrhea and rosacea; and I got the double whammy! But, luckily, no-one in my family has asthma
Diet
I think there are two things here. One is to make sure you are eating lots of the good stuff. Second is to avoid the bad stuff! It took me a while to realise that just eating the good stuff will not (unfortunately!!) mean that you can get away with the bad stuff on a regular basis.
The good stuff: I’ve really changed my diet- I eat a lot more green leafy veg (and veg generally) then I ever used to. I eat more lean protein (including lots of fish and seafood) and try to favour low glycemic index carbs (pulses, nuts, wholemeal everything- and can I say that finding an acceptable wholemeal pasta is not easy!). Basically, it’s kind of a Mediterranean diet. I do eat cheese and natural yogurt (ie unsweetened and made by the proper cultures, not with gelatin) but not in large amounts. The other thing I’ve found is that I can’t handle loads of uncooked grains or whole nuts, and pulses need to be well-soaked and cooked. I noticed that someone else posted about IBS- well, it’s certainly my experience that whatever makes my gut react goes straight to my eyes! I also have to be picky about what bread I eat- stuff made using the 'commercial' bread-making method really causes me problems, but 'real' sourdough bread is fine.
Avoiding the bad stuff: I read an intriguing post on the forum from someone else who said that giving up sugar has really improved her eye problems. Unfortunately, I have to say that the same has happened for me!! Caffeine and alcohol are also triggers. I wish it was possible for me to eat chocolate and french pastries, and drink coffee and champagne everyday. But it’s not, and I've varying success accepting that. I’ve found my limits, and we are pretty much talking about having these things, in small amounts, once a month, rather than once a week.So when I say sugar, I mean sugar and sugar substitutes/jam/dried fruit/too much fruit generally/biscuits etc etc. I think milk is also a bit of a trigger, but only if my system is already a bit ‘upset’. Interestingly, all of these things are liver stressors (either because they cause blood sugar to rise suddenly, or because the liver has to break them down to get rid of them). And the liver plays an important role in regulating the immune system.
Vitamin D
Another poster reported this, and I have also found that my skin and eye problems are helped by limited sun exposure. I’m a pale-skinned person, living in Australia, so you’d think that would be no problem. But as a pale skinned type, I’ve always been encouraged to avoid the sun and wear sunscreen.
Mind you, I’m still a bit confused by this one- on the one hand, I’ve had a really good response to cod liver oil (covers the omega 3-vitamin A-vitamin D bases) but I’ve never noticed particularly good results with plain vitamin D supplements. Maybe its because being in the sun can also be pleasurable? Which brings me to…
Rest
I’ve come to realise that, for me, blepharitis is the canary in the coalmine. If it flares up, it’s a sign that I’m eating too much of the wrong thing, I’m not getting enough sleep or I’m feeling stressed. I’ve had to learn that I can’t do loads of things that involve physical exertion. Some exercise helps, but too much causes problems. So, I’ve come to realise that I’ll never be a marathon runner or a triathelete!
Flare-ups
I now recognise a really distinct pattern with the disease, usually diet related. I’d love to hear other people’s experience on this. First, I notice that my forehead/eyebrows gets really greasy, and I’ll get greasy around the nose. Then, after about 24 hours, my eyes will be noticeably redder, ‘sticky’ and develop crusts. The next stage is v sore, stinging eyes in the morning, plus losing eyelashes and blocked glands. My lips feel dry, so that I have to use lip balm more, and my skin feels dry and uncomfortable even though it’s greasier. I get increased face flushing in response to temperature changes/alcohol, particularly on my nose.
When my diet is good, I don’t get the greasy skin or flushes, my right eye looks ‘normal’, and my left eye just slightly pink to normal. And my eyelashes grow back!!
What I’ve learnt to do…
When a flare-up happens (as it did recently, after too much socialising) I favour brown rice or potatoes, fish/seafood, lots of veges, green/herbal tea and yogurt for about a 7 days. After about 3 days, I’ll notice that the oiliness on my face has resolved. My eyes usually take about 5 days to improve. As soon as I notice they’re aggravated, I start using warm chamomile tea bags 3 times a day to gently clean away the crusts. I have to say that it stings, but it really helps clear up any infection. After 5-7 days of eating like that, I’ll go back to eating my usual diet and be good about avoiding the triggers. After about 2 months of this, I usually forget that I have a problem, have too much of the trigger stuff and start back at the beginning!
As maintenance, I bathe both my eyes daily for a minute in warm water with 2 drops on golden seal/eyebright herbal extract in it. I’ve tried just warm water, and it did not work, the herbal extract seems to be doing something. This is even stranger, given that the herbal extract is in alcohol, which could be aggravating, but I suppose it’s a very small amount. But the eye bathes are not enough without the diet changes. I also take daily supplements of cod liver oil (2000 mg or 2000IU of vitamin A, 400IU of vitamin D), vitamin E (500mg), vitamin C (500mg) and calcium (1000mg). Every so often, I'll take probiotics for a week or two, especially if my gut has reacted to something.
Other triggers
The skin on my face seems to be very very touchy about what I put on it. In general, it reacts, gets oilier and flushes if I use sunblock (I have NEVER found one that didn't make me react, infuriating!), use soap or detergent-based cleansers, creams with certain kinds of preservatives etc etc. Salt water is also not always helpful- which I think, when I was younger, led to spectacular eye flare-ups when I was told to try baby shampoo scrubs and saline eye washes! That said, if my diet is good, my skin/eyes are much better behaved and can handle more.
Oh, and one other thing. It took about 4-6 months of being really scrupulous about my diet for my skin and eye issues to improve, initially. There were many times it those months when I doubted what I was doing (but luckily I had a good naturopath- and I also thought, well, I'll only know if it works if I give it my best shot, you know?) Only now have I got to the stage where I might see things getting a bit worse, react by straightening out my diet, and then see it improve again after about a week.
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