Over the last few years I have developed a nearly debilitating level of dry eyes. I use over the counter extra moisturizing gel but it doesn't cut it. I will actually be unable to see after a long day of work in front of a computer or lots of reading a book.
I brought this up to the last two eye drs. I have seen. One just said it was age the other said it was Lasik that I years ago. Endo said it was age. I don't know anyone else who has this much problems with it even when they are much older than me. Since I'm an accountant by day and student by night this is a huge problem.
As of 18 months ago I did not have any sign of deterioration in my eyes.
I'm just curious if it could be related to D. I never imagined my shoulder issues had anything to do with anything except old damage then found out about a year ago that frozen shoulder seems to be related D.
I definitely found that my eyes were dry with the Metformin. My endo denied that my mouth and eyes were dry from the Met, but I had that problem on even the lowest dose. Now that I stopped, it pretty much went away.
Argh, yet another reason not to be taking met. My tummy is queasy again this morning. Not sure if it really has anything to do with the higher met dose and if it will go away in a few days. I seem to be less tolerant of the met than in the past. I don't remember having any problem until I went to 1500 and that only lasted a few days. When I went to 2000 I got pretty sick but only for about a week. Then the yuck crept up on me a few months later and never went away until I was down at 500 and 1000.
Hey Whirlygig! I have that as well...it led to a Corneal Dystrophy. Have done ointment, gels and drops, but the tear on the corneas is not healing....so the ophthalmologist plugged the tear duct. First in one eye only....to detect if there is any improvement. The rationale of plugging the tear duct, is to keep the tears IN the eye. We shall see.
Incidentally...I suffered from dry eyes before metformin....but then again. I have environmental allergies.
I have read both....some research suggests that there IS a relationship between diabetes and corneal dystrophy...some say no! I suspect the same applies to dry eyes.
There are many things that can cause eye dryness including age, reading books for lengthy periods, watching screen devices to long, medications(like Imuran, Methotrexate, Prednisone), conditions including Diabetes and Sjogrens Disease.
From experience, I can say YES, dry eye absolutely has to do with D. I myself had the same problem, as I do a lot of graphic design and am in front of the computer quite often. I would certainly explore if it could be anything underlying that is causing it, but I know that to begin with, D makes you drier than normal, no matter what your sugar is. We lose moisture faster, and it has an affect on our production of tears, saliva, and other things. I can't wear contacts anymore because they completely dry my eyes out. If you have an underlying problem, the D could be making it worse! If the dry eye gets very severe, your eye doctor can put tiny plugs in your tear ducts that will stop your tears from draining too quickly.
I had severe dry eye before D. About 3 years before that was one of series of things that happened to my body which seemed to be related. It was diagnosed as ocular rosacea. Right before my dka, my dry eye doc thought I might have sjorgen's but D was what was going on. For the severe dry eye/rosacea I did many things, humidifier at night, motorcycle goggles, fish oil, tons of water, low acid diet, steroid eye drops for a while for inflammation, freshkote eye drops every day at night, regular moisture drops as needed, tranquil eyes with fresh kote eye drops at night, ocusoft eyelid cleanser every day. This all saved my life because it was so bad I couldn't walk around outside without the goggles and just wanted to stay indoors with a humidifier forever. Every time I ate tomatoes or anything with them, my eyes swelled and became more inflamed and my whole body was full of acid and inflamed. After a few months I got the eye part of it under much better control and overall it is much better now. Meds can affect it too so you may find switching meds may help. Overall being on insulin, which I was lacking, has helped but not cured many of my inflammatory reactions to a degree. Working at the computer and other things which strain your eyes can affect this too, you need to have the monitor so you are looking down at it not up so your eyes aren't exposed to more air and you need to take breaks and blink a lot, eye exercises can help too. The better moisturized your eyes are the less damage overall, so stay on top of it. Mine all started out with what seemed like conjunctivitis which never healed and which got much worse in a few weeks.My original eye doc was absolutely terrible in treating it, I eventually left the practice and found someone who specializes in dry eye.
I'm a Engineer and graphic designer, I spend thousands of hours in front of computer work stations, and many more thousands of hours surfing the intranet. I have never had dry eyes, burned and tired yes but can't say they have been dry enough to need drops on a daily basses or any related product, even contact lenses without problems. Yes sometimes we just need to get out from in front of that screen and get some rest, our body's are pre- 20th century and and we are using them to do post-21st century work, it's not a good match.
I guess you can blame just about anything on Diabetes, I would blame it on not enough sleep, multitasking, environmental, HVAC, pollution and smog. Where you live can have a impact, a big city, or in a place with a lot of Agra industry.
I have many things I could blame on Diabetes, many of my family members have the same issues, but what do they blame it on... "they are not Diabetics".
It's been a hectic week so I don't have time right now to check out all the links you all have posted but will do so next week when life (hopefully) settles down. I went to see the eye dr. and she put me on steroid eye drops for 10 days and then plans on putting me on Restasis (sp?) to see if that helps. If it doesn't she will try the plugs.
No D damage at this point.
She didn't really say what may have caused the dry eye issue. She said it could be the Lasik but admitted that was a long time ago and it seems strange that it would take so long to manifest itself. Age can always be blamed. I have always held paperwork/computer jobs and have also been a heavy reader anyway so it isn't like my behavior is all that new either.
I'll read up on your resources and see if there are any tweaks to meds or behavior that I can make.
Hi Lots, It was pretty awful, but I lived through it and I'm feeling very much better in terms of my dry eye.. thanks:) it was acute about 4-5 years ago and it took a good year to get it under better control. Since then it has never gotten really bad like that again fortunately. I know now the D was definitely involved in that too probably.You're right, dry eye and all its causes can be serious and do a lot of damage. My dry eye doc was great!
I still do a lot of those things to keep it at bay, my goggles, humidifier,tons of water, fish oil, fresh Kote, tranquil eyes, ocusoft lid cleanser etc. I recommend these things to anyone with dry eye to control it.
I'm that way too with water Dave...and flavouring works well, also flavouring with real fruit/herbs/vegetable (though my choice is fruit), by steeping in a carafe.
