Okay so this is a bit of an over the top title, but I was hoping to attract attention because this might just help you, as it has me over the last year.
First things first though. What is iritis? If you have it you probably know all too well, but in short form, it is:-
- Swelling of the iris in the eye
- Caused by your immune system attacking your own body (auto-immune issue)
- Can be caused by a million different thing
I first started getting iritis about 3 years ago, and was getting it increasingly frequently until recently. I have been tested for all the usual suspects, genetic markers and even some forms of deseases I would have hated to have told my girlfriend about. All were negative.
Each time I got iritis was pretty much the same. I had a cold or viral infection of some kind, fought it off, then my immune system seemed to look for other things to sort out, which was usually bits of me! I always got a big ulcer in the roof of my mouth, followed by iritis about a week or so after the ulcer. This could be a good few weeks after I’d originally been sick.
To sort out iritis when I got it, I did the usual. Drops to dilate the pupil, and steroid drops to sort out the problem. Uncomfortable, annoying, and potentially giving me cateracts way before I want them.
In the last year I have managed to avoid iritis completely, and with very little effort. I read an article on immune disorders saying how good Yakult like drinks were (you know the lactobacillus little drinks you get in the shops). Since then I have been taking those. This may be a complete fluke, but I am convinced it helps. When I start getting the ulcer, I up my dose to 2-3 bottles a day, and the ulcer goes, and no iritis.
By the way, I also tried the powder in the bottles, but this didn’t seem to work as well.
Anyway, if you are reading this. Please give it a go. It has helped me.
If it does the same to you, please put a comment in this post as I would like to pass it on to any researchers who are interested.
*** UPDATE Feb 2nd, 2020***
I have just read this article https://www.slashgear.com/study-finds-diet-tweak-may-calm-down-an-overactive-immune-system-04608470/ which sites a study at https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-02/vari-dim020420.php.
This study is in early stages but implies that reducing eating animal products, meat, eggs etc may help calm inflammation and improve autoimmune responses and should therefore help iritis.
I would encourage you to contact the authors of the study in case they are moving on to human testing, but to try the relatively simple diet change yourself.
It’s worth noting that this has been a recurring comment from way back on this post.
Hi Simon,
Just wanted to say a big Thank you!! I’ve been taking probiotics and dosing up on actimel when I feel Iritis coming on since I read this blog about six months ago and so far it’s worked brilliantly!!!! I usually get it three to four times a year in my right eye since I was about 21 I am now 38 and since I read this about 6months ago I’ve been clear of it!!! I’m gluten free anyway as gluten gives me migraines. I know I’m more likely to get iritis if I am stressed, tired or drink too much. But the probiotics really do seem to be helping!! Thank you so much for the hope in the first instance and for sharing what has worked for you. Sending you all best wishes and prayers for your health, Rachel
Hi Rachel,
Thanks for letting me know. It’s great to know that other people are having the same results I had. I don’t think this is a cure all, but it definitely works for some people, and trying it is a lot better than all the steroids!
Have a great Christmas/Holiday season too.
Cheers
Simon
Hi, I have just been out to buy a supply of Yakult, so grateful for your advice and the chance to help myself. I first had a very nasty bout of iritis 34 years ago, interestingly just before Christmas. I realise that I have overall been extremely lucky, as there was no reoccurance for thirty two years, then right before Christmas 2014 the familiar signs and back on steroids. I do not recall the itching and dry eyes in my early thirties but this has become a real problem since and flare ups in May 2015 on hol, Feb 2016 and Dec 2016. None of these as unpleasant as the origional, but as indicted on the steroid leaflet one of the side affects is depression, and I have found this to be true in my case. It does lift within a week or two of discontinuing treatment. I have been supporting myself for several days with homeopathy and Allicilin Max a garlic supplement, and the symptoms have varied between nil and mild, today I noticed an increase in photophobia, so headed for the shops and just taken my first bottle, I will try every four hours and report in.
Hi Jeanne,
Yes, please let us know how you go on. I don’t think this will help everyone, but it certainly does me. Just over Christmas I had a cold and was getting the telltale signs of ulcers on the rook of my mouth. I hit the Yakult hard (about 3 bottles the first day and 2 the second) and within a couple of days the ulcers were gone.
This is how I tend to use it to manage my immune system. If I start getting ulcers, that was always the start of ititis, so I get some Yakult down me straight away.
Cheers
Simon
Hi Jeanne
Sorry for the late reply and thanks for the post. How did you get on? Did you find it helped at all?
Cheers
Simon
Hi to you all.
Veronica if you reading this I recommend that you stop taking Vit c or any immune booster supplement as you have B27 related uveitis. B27 gene is related to many auto immune inflammatory disease as you know and uveitis could be an early symptoms of other disease which can take decade to develope and many patients start to notice symptoms of other conditions after 2 3 years of having uveitis. To cheer you up i think you should be happy that after 12 years you only have uveitis and have not developed any other horrible inflammatory disease and this could be that you are lucky or you dont have many Subtype of B27 gene that is attributed to those disease. I have similarities to you in terms of the time that flares happen like between Oct-Dec. i suggest you try researching about Klebsiella and its relation to B27 disease and its subtypes. What i have learnt and feel so far is natural remedies dont work well for B27 related uveitis although im new to this disease only my second flare last month, had my first flare exactly year ago same time after a trip to South east Asia. And to add i want to say there is high rate of cure with conventional therapy for those that only have b27 uveitis, which relies on Non-steroid regimn to achive remission with systematic medicine like MTX,Remicade,Humira…. My situation is you 10 years ago and it feels horrible that i know i have to wait and see if im ever going to develope any other disease or just this is it. Sorry about my English. Wish everyone iritis free life.
Hi Vahid,
Sorry for the late reply.
Can you tell us why you would stop taking the supplements you mentioned. Is it because the iritis might be a warning sign that something else is happening or is it because in these particular cases you don’t think that they will help?
Cheers
Simon
Just wanted to give everyone an update, and something I think everyone on this blog should try. My Iritis started about 10 years ago when a wood chip hit me in the eye, and I waited a day to go to the opthamologist. Since then I’ve been on steroid drops when the iritis kicks in, and on Aleve (2 a night) for the iritis and back pain, and have been using extra strength red eye drops between attacks to keep my eye’s irritation down. My brother just called me yesterday and told me about CBD oil. He got stung by a yellow jacket, and his hand was swollen quite a bit. He stopped by the CBD store, and decided to take a dose then and there. By the next morning, his hand was normal size. He thought nothing of it, till the same yellow jacked got him on the same finger the next day, but it didn’t swell up. He also said that the next night he could sleep all night without waking up because of pain. I wanted to try it, since I trace most of my problems to inflammation. Come to find out, there is a study that says that high blood sugar actually promotes inflammation. Since I’m a type 1 diabetic, that’s pretty significant. Here’s the study – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/17384130/
So, I ordered mine, and immediately I noticed my moods improved, and there was less body aches. Last night I didn’t take my Aleve, and this morning I feel fine. I’ll let you know the long term affects later, but CBD oil has my vote for now. The oil I’m taking contains no TCH, but if you can get it with the THC it’s supposed to work even better. Make sure you read when ordering, especially off of amazon, since some oils will say “made from industrial hemp” those aren’t any good, and most don’t have CBD oil. Buy from a trusted source. I bought mine from http://www.getrawsome.com. (not affiliated with this company, they just make good stuff). Let me know if this works for you too.
Hi simmon,
About my advice on not taking immune boosting supplememt because i had exprienced my worse flare after takin some immune boosting supplement like Neurobion (vit B complex) but i guess my case is different because 11 month ago i accidentally found that i have Brucellosis! Yes for 3 year i was getting wrong treatments which were actually worening my disease and as a result im left with chronic Brucellosis! After a course of heavy dose antibiotic for 3 month i went into remission till a week ago when i flared up again! I did blood test and redult were positive again! In fact my doc told me that brucella doesnt go away in chronic case and it somehow hide in the body cellular! Im just devastated because i could be ddiagnosed easily in the first place as its enedemic disease here in Iran! i dont know what to do but im leaning on using some herbs and natural things like garlic, honey ,…, along with antibiotics! One thing i can suggest here is that those who expriensed uveitis for the first time after traveling to certain places consider ordering a test for Brucellosis as its one of those disease that has like thousand medical manifestation and could be easily ignored by drs.
On September 2019, I suffered a blunt blow to my left eye while playing soccer which instantly caused blurriness lasting about three hours. I treated it the injury with cold water and continue to play with injured eye and blurriness. I was happy the first three days and then the blurriness returned. I immediately saw an optometrist who concluded left eye had slow reaction to light and referred me to an ophthalmologist who diagnosed me with “traumatic iritis”, Pred Forte 1% (steroids) was prescribed for three weeks. The blurriness persisted for the entire course of the treatment (three weeks) making zero improvements to my vision. Good news is, soon as I came off of Pred Forte on 10/10, I started to see improvements to the quality of my vision. While vision wasn’t fully restored right away, it took at least two-three weeks to slowly recover quality vision. It is November and vision has been fully restored with minimal symptoms. If this helps, here are my test results for my left eye, the pressure increased from 13 to 16. My pupil size increased from 4mm +2 to 5mm + 2. For muscle balance and ocular motility it is blank (right eye shows ortho/from ou). Anterior chamber changed from 1+ to rare. Some of the symptoms I experienced during the recovery process include: twitching of lower eyelid , increased dryness, eye pain/burning/pressure/stabbing, severe blurriness, light sensitivity (although I was able to see better during daylight), pain behind the eye/brain, feeling of foreign object, headaches (not always). Symptoms subsided after stopping Pred Forte.
Hard to find detailed information so if you came across this site and read my story, there’s hope for you. Just be patient and take action right away.
John 14:6
Hi, thanks for letting us know. A lot of the things you described are symptoms of the treatment unfortunately. My eye used to be so dry and itchy too when it was on the road to recovery, and after coming off the homatropine it used to take a good few months to not be seeing a slightly lighter version with the eye that had been treated. Thanks again for the comment though, a lot of the info is buried in here, so it’s good to get your experience at the top.