Iritis Remedies

Happy New Year folks!

The last time I submitted a posting, I claimed I was suffering from Conjunctivitis /Pink Eye, which I had had on maybe two occasions before in life. However, the plot thickens!! My new locum doctor (bless her/I owe her) was not convinced of my "Bathroom, Self Diagnosis" / "Google Opinion" and actually became quite concerned, as she was convinced I had my first case of "Iritis". For five days I had been using some drops for Pink Eye and an eye bath of "Optrex" occasionally, without realizing that it was not that at all. If you think Pink Eye is a challenge, HA, wait 'till you have this one!

She arranged for me to see a specialist at short notice and I had family members drive me to the only clinic in our province which was two hours' drive away. Result - he ran some tests to check that my eyesight had not worsened and prescribed some ophthalmic drops and some gooey stuff that you need to put on the eyelid just prior to retiring. Trouble is that one needs to keep up the strict treatment for weeks and weeks for this to work. The goal is nothing less than to save the eye actually! Serious stuff!! I have been following the protocol, as you may imagine.

Now here's the thing, my sister in law suffered from Iritis for fifty years and suffered hugely before she managed to get on top of the situation, mainly by giving up the consumption of starch! I got some kudos from her by recommending drinking ACV and she was very grateful but still needed to resort to steroid drops whenever (and immediately) she felt an attack lurking in the wings. "Catch it early" became her mantra. But here's the thing (number two) she suspects that two things MAY have exacerbated or prompted these episodes, namely: Tea Bags and Almonds! Co-incidentally (and I am not very good at pinning causes down) I suspected the Almonds also. How weird is that? (I don't use tea bags so can rule that one out).

Now I know some sites will recommend almonds as part of a healthy eyesight regime along with Carrots, Eggs etc. etc. but I had usually steered clear of consuming TOO many almonds at once, as I had been led to believe that although a few were good, too many could be toxic!

Also, my daughter's family had left a jar of almond paste behind when they left us and I had never seen this stuff before so helped myself, rather like Pea Nut Butter on my slice of bread.

Being not part of my normal diet and coming from a novel source it made me a tad suspicious. Do almonds contain strychnine? Could that be the problem I wonder? Had too many almonds been crammed into that jar?

Anyway, I will be steering clear of that one for a while.

BTW my SIL and myself came to remark on the Almond suspicion independently of each other.

Also, the "experts" don't really know what causes Iritis but they suspect a few possible culprits, including a close association/link with a type of spondylitis (a.spondylitis) and maybe psoriasis too? These three work together in association to cause inflammation. A faulty gene is the suspected culprit and the result is a type of auto-immune disease.

My SIL recommends the elimination of starch as the long-term, natural way to counteract this debilitating condition by depriving the particular bacteria involved of their food source.

This is all I have learned so far about this subject but I am guessing that at least one of you might benefit from our family's long experience here ?

Cheers from Down Under where we are sweltering in the heat.

I have been dealing with iritis for approx 10 years in both eyes with no idea what was causing it... Have had to have cataract surgery because of the treatment drops... I found relief by accident because just before one outbreak I got sniffles after working in a damp dusty shed... By that night my eye hurt slightly but I thought maybe I had gotten something in it.. Decided I needed to go out next day and get some allergy pills... By morning I was full blown iritis... Got my allergy pills anyway and guess what... Within hours of taking the pill pain was gone... Made me wonder... So next time I had a flair up I took an allergy pill... This time it took 2 days and symptoms stopped... Everytime I have a flair up now I just pop one and stay on them for a few days and haven't had to head to the specialist yet (knock on wood).