robekb's blog

Hello Fiteyes members,

It has been a while since I wrote on the forum. I was quite busy with family life and not having so much time for glaucoma related diggin'
Anyway, time has come for my new find which intergrates, I think, very well this what makes my glaucoma.

My newest find.
We know from TCM about the liver - eye connection. Here is how one of these links works.
I have finally managed to check ammonia level (apart from other liver function tests).
A big hit. A big elevation (surprise, because I do not have any classic symptoms of ammonia overload).
High ammonia = subclinical hepatic encephalopathy = increased intercranial pressure and many other things commonly associated with glaucoma.
There is a plethora of research about the liver's impact in neurodegenerative diseases, surprisingly none about the liver's involvement in the pathogenesis of glaucoma.

I am slowly going through the hormones and glaucoma connection.
This is, I suspect, related to stress, malnutrition and intoxification.
But the main point is that finally the body is hit not only through raised cortisol (stress initially) but also malfunctioning liver and other tissues where cortisol is being metabolised, so that improper ratio of cortisol metabolites (even when on the surface cortisol level are fine) are further disrupting homeostasis.
This research paper had a "knockout" effect on me, especially given that I know that I fullfill probably the criteria for overexpression of 11betaHSD1.

Inhibition of 11b-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 lowers intraocular pressure in patients with ocular hypertension

These days I am going very slowly with my glaucoma quest. Lots of other work and stress. Nonetheless I seem to have found what I think is a promising approach. The only one so far where a direct cause and relationship (higher or lower IOP) appears to exist. Here it is in a nutshell:

Ionized calcium and pH is the key I think. First about ionized calcium:

- acidosis increases ionized calcium

- IOP is usually higher in acidosis

- ionized calcium is higher in hypothermia (low body temperature)

There was a big surprise for me as I have had today my eye HRT exam. I decided to do the HRT after two months after the recent test as I was curious whether there was any effect from the changes which I have seen in my IOPs (which originated about two months ago).

Quite unexpectedly for me the scan of my eye nerve is, I believe, showing improvement. I haven't discussed this with my doc yet as I have a scheduled visit for next month. BTW my state today when taking the eye exam was far from perfect: I had higher than usual IOP due to a nasty cold and stuffed sinuses.

Inspired by what I read in "Diabetes Solution" by Bernstein and other sources I decided to test this for myself. I was struck how similar the effects of diabetes to one's eyes were to those observed in glaucomatic eyes (diabetes causes glaucoma too BTW). Bernstein himself states that when his blood glocose was not under control he "suffered night blindness, balooning of the blood vessels in the eyes, macular edema and early cataracts".

I want to share recent developments on my side. It looks like finally I have made a change to my IOP. It is quite comforting because most of the things that I have been doing aimed at chelation and improving detoxification pathways (sulfuration and methylation) were initially at least contributing to a higher IOP.

I have written about the importance of thyroid to the eyes (thru high iodine content in the eye, the tissue similarity and thyroxine receptors present in the eye). I have also written about the importance of checking the toxic bromides (which inhibit proper thyroid function).

In my search for possible glaucoma remedies I have been digging further into hypothyroid related themes.

It turns out that this condition is a very close relative of adrenal fatigue (80% of affected by adrenal fatigue have low thyroid function).

Also melatonin could also be affected by low adrenal/thyroid function, this could be one of the reasons why supplementing melatonin appears to help in glaucoma.

This is the bit that is probably of most interest to us:

Based on this what I have found in myself, I can say that malfunctioning thyroid could be a significant glaucoma risk for some. Let's add that it would be an underrated risk because in almost none of the standard textbooks on glaucoma you would find any mention about it.

The research evidence behind the hypothyroid and glaucoma is mixed. Earlier research does not report any significant link, newer research, on larger samples though, indicates the existence of this connection. 

I have recently started the salt/iodine detox protocol. There are some interesting observations I think.

First of all, initial reaction (basal body temperature increase, noctural and diurnal IOP drop by ca 3pts) has been very positive.

I have been to four specialists in the US recently, among them: dr Ritch and dr Tillotson. I wanted first of all to have a second opinion on my condition (as my local doctor was recommending an eye surgery) and to potentially finetune/improve my treatment.

Hi everyone, this is a quick update of what I have been doing and exploring in the recent months:

1. I continue with the healthy diet (no fried foods, not too much meat, limit gluten and milk, no processed food, not too much of juicing - proved not so good for me)

2. I continue with the Chinese herbs or other herbal equivalents - they improve digestion and hopefully liver and spleen functionality, however the usual  TCM symptoms (i.e. heat and qi stagnation in liver and dampnesss in spleen) still persist.

I had a small positive change in my IOPs recently (by ca. -1 to -2 points). Also I had some slight pain under the eyebrows which is now gone. Also the tongue picture (TCM view) had improved. I attribute these positive changes to the following triggers:

- another change in dietary habits: removing heating spices (ginger, garlic, clover and cinnamon)

- practicing Serene Impulse for 3 months now, and adding the modification of the technique to specifically target the IOP

From: Open-Angle Glaucoma and the Risk of Stroke Development. A 5-year Population-Based Follow-up Study. by Ho JD, Hu CC, Lin HC, 21 May 2009.

Data were collected from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database which is comprised of 1 million random subjects from among Taiwan's 23 million residents. The study cohort comprised all patients with a diagnosis of OAG. The comparison cohort was comprised of randomly selected patients matched with the study group in terms of age, gender, geographic location, and comorbid medical disorders.

Hello everybody, my first post here, hope you will find it interesting.

BTW many thanks to David for maintaining and keeping up this website !

About myself: male, 36 years old, myopic and with pigmentary glaucoma.