Food Allergy/Intolerance

[Francesco]

Hi,
seems that this is the last thing i have to try to know what causes my chronic allergic conjunctivitis. I've tested mold, dust etc (prick test and RAST blood test)..all negative! ......i talked with my eye doctor that suggested me to check the food too. this is new to me...i never thought that food could cause an eye conjunctivity! I've noticed that is mentioned in various websites ...like this:

"If you get conjunctivitis routinely, you probably have allergic conjunctivitis. In my experience, people with this condition are almost always allergic to certain foods."

by the way i don't remember having serious problems with food so maybe it's more an intolerance....it's time for an elimination diet for 2/3 weeks....we will see..hope that during this diet my eyes get better so i can focus on finding this food! Any other had this experience???
Francesco

[calli66]

I have food intolerances (digestive trouble) and dry eye, but these are apparently related to my auto-immune disease. My eye condition is not conjunctivitis, like yours, although I think there are some similarities.

In my case, the imperfect absorption in the intestine allows certain food substances to pass into my blood, and then my blood sets up "defenses" against them, which produces inflammation. The inflammation has damaged my tear ducts.

I have food intolerances, not allergies, that began over 25 years ago with problems eating onions, but have developed chronic bloating and constipation as I've gotten older (and my dry eyes have gotten worse). I never have tried an "elimination diet." I was told to stop eating dairy, which helped a bit, I think. Just this month, I am eliminating gluten from wheat and grains. It's hard, because I love ciabatta and good pasta....but I'm trying it anyway.

What foods are you eliminating? I'll be interested if you notice any change in your conjunctivitis.

Calli

[Francesco]

Hi,
thanks for the answer....first of all i'm gonna have a Prick Test this week to check food allergies..but as i wrote before I don't have symptoms of a food allergy as I eat....so it's more an intollerance to something i think (last year i had diahrrea for 3 months and didn't know what caused it). The only thing that i'm intersted in is finding the cause of this chronic allergic conjunctivitis. This is what my eye doctor said I might have...he saw bumps in the inner eyelid that are tipical of an allergy...(strangely they NEVER itch me...just burn sometimes, are red and feel dry) ....
For the diet this is what i'm gonna eat for 2 weeks:

Rice
Water
Glutine-free bread
Potatos
Broccoli
Chicken breast
Pears

Seems like beeing in a Hospital but this way i'll be sure that food is the cause of this allergy/inflammation in my eyes....if something improves in my eyes i'll try find out which is the food bad for me by adding 1 food at the time and seeing how my eyes react to it...it may seem weird to do all this because of red eyes but this is the only way i have to be sure that i don't have problems with some food and then procede with plugs.
I'll let you know how it goes!
Francesco

[Dotanne]

I had a hair test for allergies quite a while ago and I was told to cut out potatoes and things in that family like tomatoes as they are inflammatory foods. Sweet potato is OK. I was told to avoid potato family including tomato and egg plant, beans and similar(lentil family), soy, dairy foods, sugar. I have read elsewhere that these foods are inflammatory too as I was a bit sceptical about having to go without so much!
I still wonder whether what they actually do for this hair test - maybe just give a list of things that might help the complaint??? As an ex lab technician I would love to know what they actually do to the hair?
I still try to dodge these foods a bit but it didn't seem to make any difference!

[Francesco]

Thanks i'll cut out potatos !

[Rebecca Petris]

Rice
Water
Glutine-free bread
Potatos
Broccoli
Chicken breast
Pears

Funny... with the exception of potatoes, I wouldn't mind doing that for weeks on end. Maybe I'll try it too . All stuff I like and I can eat the same thing every day and not get bored. As long as I don't have to be off chocolate for too long of course.

On this topic btw...

I have experimented with diet a fair amount this year and found the results fascinating. As a jumping off point of sorts I used a book called "Eat right for your type" which assigns good/neutral/bad foods based on your blood type. (Just for the record I don't believe in any of these dogmatic diet plans but I think that sometimes there may be important elements or clues in them that can be very useful.) Interestingly, most of the "good" foods for my type (O+) are things I like and most of its "bad" foods for my type are things I don't like... except pasta and lentils....

Anyway, following some of its general principles for people like me, I dropped all white flour, potatoes, dairy except feta and fresh mozzarella, and a few other odds and ends. I was amazed at the difference... which I noticed only when I ate some ice cream or some regular pasta after a few weeks of following the restrictions. My guts went nuts and my whole body got unhappy with me. I never thought of myself as having poor digestion but this convinced me that I was just so used to it I didn't notice.

I haven't made any effort to track correlation with my eyes. In reflecting on this now though, that period when I had the long conjunctivitis ups & downs was not when I was being really careful about foods, so who knows. I will be working on it more in the next couple of months and try to get myself back on track.

[calli66]

Dotanne,
I have read that the hair strand test is not very reliable, but I understand the anything "alternative" is likely to be misunderstood by the strictly-science group. I'm sort of in the middle---leaning toward "not very useful."

The test that I have a really hard time with is kinesiology---the practitioner tells you to hold your arms out to the side--horizontal, then presses down while asking a question (like is this vitamin good for my patient). Supposedly, if your arm goes down (lack of resistance) it means.....well something....now I can't remember. Either "for" or "against," I forget which. I had this clinic nurse run through about 30 bottles of supplements: she'd pick up a bottle, hold it near me, and quickly push down on my arm. Fast, fast, fast. It seemed like hocus-pocus to me.

Calli

[Francesco]

Funny... with the exception of potatoes, I wouldn't mind doing that for weeks on end. Maybe I'll try it too . All stuff I like and I can eat the same thing every day and not get bored. As long as I don't have to be off chocolate for too long of course.

On this topic btw...

I have experimented with diet a fair amount this year and found the results fascinating. As a jumping off point of sorts I used a book called "Eat right for your type" which assigns good/neutral/bad foods based on your blood type. (Just for the record I don't believe in any of these dogmatic diet plans but I think that sometimes there may be important elements or clues in them that can be very useful.) Interestingly, most of the "good" foods for my type (O+) are things I like and most of its "bad" foods for my type are things I don't like... except pasta and lentils....

Anyway, following some of its general principles for people like me, I dropped all white flour, potatoes, dairy except feta and fresh mozzarella, and a few other odds and ends. I was amazed at the difference... which I noticed only when I ate some ice cream or some regular pasta after a few weeks of following the restrictions. My guts went nuts and my whole body got unhappy with me. I never thought of myself as having poor digestion but this convinced me that I was just so used to it I didn't notice.

I haven't made any effort to track correlation with my eyes. In reflecting on this now though, that period when I had the long conjunctivitis ups & downs was not when I was being really careful about foods, so who knows. I will be working on it more in the next couple of months and try to get myself back on track.

Wow! ..Thanks Rebecca for sharing your experience!!!!

[momaxwell]

Hmmmm

This is a very interesting thread. I have lactose intolerance and my stomach is very sensitive. I started drinking chrysanthemum tea everyday, which is supposed to help digestion and eyes, I think it has helped. I try to eat as little dairy as possible and do notice that my eyes flare up when I eat cheese. For the last two weeks I have made sure to each all of my servings of fruits and vegetables, including a salad everyday for lunch. I cannot imagine being more restrictive with my food than I already am (no caffeine, no alcohol, little dairy, salad daily) but the feedback on this thread has made me consider it. I wonder how many DES patients have digestive issues. Good luck with the food change, let us know how it goes, I would be very interested to know. If it makes a big improvement, I might try it.

[Francesco]

hi,
2 weeks today ..nothing changed in my eyes so i would say i dont have food intolerance....about allergies i tested yesterday 50 different foods..all negative..at this point my answer to: does a diet help our eyes? is: i don't think so

[Dave P]

my conjunctivitis was caused by food allergies

After living with 3 years of red, burning, itchy, tearing, light/wind sensitive eyes. And seeing ever kind of eye and other kind of doctor I finally got serious about looking at my diet before agreeing to the eye surgery the doctors said would help (it would not have helped).

I found that I was allergic to soy (even after the allergist said the skin test was negative). I starting eating soy for 3 years ago (thinking it was healthier). One week after eliminating soy from my diet my eyes were back to normal and work at a computer monitor for 8+ hours a day without eye drops (the max before was about 5 minutes before the tears would start streaming).

Anyway, I've been symptom free for over a month now.

Good luck - you might try eliminating the most common foods causing allergies (do a google search and I'm sure you'll see the list)

[Beige3]

Hi,

I read through the posts on this forum. I just wanted to say its great that everyone is sharing their experience. I want to share mine with ä "elimination diet". I have tried it 3 times now to keep figuring out my allergies. From what I found, soy makes me inflammed and my eyes burn and feel dry.

Important points I want to share:
1. Based on reading (books,blogs,websites): You need to do the diet for atleast 30 days. I have found this not only to be true for diet but also for any new approach or tool you use to heal your eyes. Usually you should wait it out 30 days before ruling it out. 2 weeks is too short.

2. I find you need to stick very STRICTLY to this: fruits, vegetables, meat and dates for snacks (try it for 30 days.. nuts can also be a allergy). You must remove rice...sometimes it carbs are causing inflammation. To have a better idea of what to eat, there was an excellent website I found called wellness mama. You can have a look at her list of food to eat (she is very on point with her research).

Food to eat freely:https://s3.amazonaws.com/BlogPDFs/We...ume+Freely.pdf

3. Don't give up. Try elimination diets several times. Till you have not cheated for 30 days.. you cannot figure out your allergies at all or draw any conclusions.

I wanted to write this post in case another human being like me whose miserable with eye pain comes across this post or if any of you guys who have written in the post check back.

Keep trying the organic way out if you can. Sometimes medicine works, sometimes it doesn't. If you're frustrated with your doctors, doing a 30 day elimination diet is no harm.

[Beige3]

Oh and check this link out: http://dryeyenutrition.org/tag/glute...ic-paleo-diet/

According to this blog, nutritional changes like 3-4 months to see changes. I feel you really have to push and make it out with these changes so you really know if it worked or didnt. But you really have to follow it for those months. I hope everyone gives it a shot! If you feel like snacking, try : organic dark chocolate or dark chocolate that has cocoa higher than 50%, no soy, wheat, oates, gluten ingredients.

[Angela810]

Hi Beige,

This is interesting

Actually I have just started on the Paleo Autoimmune protocol. T-cell mediated dry eye (i.e what restasis or optimmune is used to treat) may benefit. Just from experience I know my eyes flare up when I eat too much sugar or dairy. I highly recommend Sarah Ballantyne's Paleo Approach book for an extensive list of what to and what not to eat. It's about variety and even bone broth is on the menu. Gives lots recipes so you won't get bored.

Eyes feel better, mouth still dry, fatigue is greatly reduced. Maybe too soon to say but I'm going to give this thing my best shot!

x