Kickas.org Forums Treatments, Drugs and Alternatives NSD and diet-related; Does starch make your iritis worse?

I know pretty sure starchy food,especially gluten,
cause me flares. I am wondering do you notice that
starch also make your iritis worse?

Charlie

It will cause a bout for me, so it is good incentive not to cheat.

I have discovered starch *causes* my iritis -- I have no eye inflammation at all if I stick to my diet! Sometimes when I relax to low-starch for a holiday I get a bit of eye irritation the next day, but never full-blown iritis anymore.

Like Kurumi, preventing iritis a big motivator for me to stick with diet. Have heard some people get iritis even while on TNF blockers, if they pay no attention to starch at all...

Are the inflammation or pain of the eye proportional to
the pain of joints?

I think it does for me - the worst bout, the one that got me diagnosed came on the heels of eating something that had a little bit of wheat flour in it. Chocolate seems to bother my eyes too, which could be because of the starch in it, maybe gluten. My neck can really bother me with the iritis- the pain goes from right eye into brow and temple down into right side of neck. My back and pelvis don't seem worse with eye flairs tho.
I'm ending another round of steroid drops this week and have been having skin problems since about week and a half ago. Tiny, Bumpy flesh colored bumps on fingers and palms, bad scalp lesions along hairline. Don't know if associated with eye flair or arthritis or separate. I think I'm getting the full package with this spondy stuff. I know i have not been strict enough with my diet.

Iritis has been my most disturbing symptom, so honestly I don't remember how bad my joints were when I last got eye inflammation from too much starch. The eye inflammation is what stands out in my memory, never ever want to get full-blown iritis again...

I'm currently back to square one too. I had a very bad Iritis flare just before X-mas, the worst ever so far. With a lot of discipline regarding the diet, supplements and steroids I managed to get out of the flare. And then I started relaxing again and eating fringe foods (all sorts of fruit and veg, chocolate, ice cream etc.) I stayed away from obvious starch.

On Friday night I had cookies made with caramel, nuts and chocoloate, Saturday morning I woke up with my right eye hurting (at least I believe the cookies where the culprit). Off to the clinic and yes, another flare has started. Not too bad, still at the beginning, however, it's back to the drops. Which is very bad as I have quite a bad cateract on my right eye already which is bound to get worse now with the drops.

I do fell inflammed all over my body. Not bad, but I can feel something is happening. So it is back to strict NSD in order to get rid off the inflammation.

I don't know what I'll do next. Strict NSD (no dairy, no fruit, no sugar) is not something I see myself doing for the rest of my life. Because I always react with Iritis I can't even really work out what triggers flares. I cannot have any more Iritis flares, my right eye has already suffered and my Iritis has a tenedency to jump, so I'm really scared my left eye will suffering too at some point.

I have hardly any other symptoms, just the eyes (I used to have very bad flares all over, but that stopped when I started the diet about 10 yrs agao).

I'm off to see my opthamologist today to discuss further treatment and hopefully will see a naturopath within the next couple of weeks to see what else can be done make sure the Iritis doesn't come back.

I've done so well on the diet for the rest of my AS, it just doens't work that well with Iritis, it really frustrates me. I'll probably start looking at antibiotics and LDN again. And I'm considering biologics. I'm a graphic designer, my lifelyhood depends on my eyesight, I guess this makes me even ore prone to Iritis...

I wish you guys all the best and at least I don't feel alone in my quest to kick Iritis!

I am sorry to hear about this and hope you can
get better soon.

I have one question, how do you know you have cateracts.
My left eye become cloudy and foggy after hit by iritis.

My doctor said it is because the water in my left is muddy
now and I should be able to see better when the water become
clean again.
Is this problem cateracts?
I expected my vision would come back again but if it is
cateracts, i heard it is not recoverable. Any opinion?

Charlie

Hi Charlie,

only your doctor can see if you have cateracts when he examines your eyes. What you describe happened to me also, on top of the cateracts. This is the case if the Iritis spreads to the middle of the eye (most of the time it sits in the front of the eye). I can't explain it in scientific terms, at least not in English I'm afraid.

Basically, this is why I had to take steroid tablets, in oder for this to clear up. Which luckily it did. But it doesn't have to. I do hope you will be ok again.

My eyesight on the right is now a little impaired due to the cateract which is really annoying as part of the cateract symptoms are similar to what used to be typical inflammation signs (milky, blurry vision being of them). All I can say is Iritis sucks big time and right now I'm a bit upset to have had another epsiode so soon after I've finished the drops.

I'll be seing a Naturopath next week to see what I can do in addition to the diet to keep these inflammations at bay. I'll check back in to let you guys know what her input is.

All the best and may your sight come back ASAP (for mine it took about 2 months to clear up)!

Do you mean the steroid tablets clearing up muddy water?
I need to clear up my muddy water before it stays there forever
and would be appreciated if you have any suggestions.