• Introduction
  • Blue light photophobia, eyestrain, muscle spasms, pain, twitching

Blair I'm also wondering if anyone else here has had muscle spasms in the eyelid due to eyestrain.

I do have that with certain light sources, but the twitching is below the eye.

A lot of us were/are sensitive to fluorescents, especially the newer "high intensity" "full spectrum" variety. But the bigger problem is the screens. With a good screen and a visor on my head to block direct view of the offensive lights, I can exist quite comfortably for an entire workday under those lights. When I first had the symptoms I thought the lights were the trigger and literally worked out of a closet in my office for a couple months. In the end, they were only exacerbating the existing issue.

    Gurm

    What do you Mean with „visor“ ?

    We have Dell p2213 Monitors at work — that are okay with Blue blocking Glasses , but the bright white lights fluorecents Kills me 😩

    Gurm

    There are actually a few scenarios where infection does persist chronically. The most widespread is Toxoplasmosis, its an intracellular parasite that favours brain tissue. In humans, once contracted it persists for life. Around 50% of the world's population is infected with this parasite, those it varies a lot by region.

    ryans

    Yeah. The problemt could be an auto-immune, but it is not sure. Like the Chronic fatigue syndrome where doctors suppose that also a currently not known auto immune disease is the root cause of the problem.

    However it is clear that the problem is not a hashimoto or other kind of more known auto immune disease.

    Blair Off topic: Yes you're right, I'm listening to metal mostly, and playing on V shaped pointy guitars 😃 I'm not in a band though.

      Hello @Blair ,
      some of your symptoms are very similar to my ones.
      I have had eyes strain problem since 2013, near 2015 I began to notices discomfort with non-natural light and nervous tick/spasm (especially on right eye). I also had problems with trigeminal nerve that was injured 17 year ago. On summer of 2016 I became extremely sensitive even for natural light (strong dry eye syndrome) and on Autumn I got of bunch neurological problems, tinnitus and sleep problems.

      I visited several ophthalmologist and neurologist. And in shortly I found one, that said very simple words:
      "You have sitting job, don't do any additional physical exercices, don't walk enough. That causes my blood vessel to degraded. And have a lot of stresses that causes same for vessels."

      After that I started to change my lifestyle.
      I started with swimming (it was start of winter 2016/2017), its helps me a bit for a day or two.
      With warm weather (end of winter 2017) i started to running, and it's add some freshness to my mind (with reliefe for several days).
      In May I started riding on bicycle and suddenly in a month my eye dry problem significally decreased (but I have it in decreased state for a year from this moment).

      At the end of 2017 summer I noticed that there is no further improvements in my state regardless of physical activity. And I began to experiment with relaxation practices (massage, yoga-nydra, R.E.S.E.T jaw therapy), yoga and breathe meditation. Maybe after a month of meditation I got some small improvements in my state. Further on one of R.E.S.E.T session I noticed some relief in head muscles (on right side) and start pay more attention for this area (head and neck). From that time I have noticed a lot of spontaneously activity in muscles (or maybe vessels) on my right head side.
      But after that my practice become irregular for some time.

      There should I also say that I tried to make some relaxation practices on winter 2016/2017, especially breathe meditation and yoga-nydra practice, but this practices were biased: sometimes I got better, but sometimes totally awful and I stopped do it for that time. I don't know how it could be explained, but maybe relaxation with bad blood vessels is not good idea. On Summer/Autumn 2017 my vessels became stonger.

      At winter 2017/2018 I also noticed that long walks are also very helpful for my state (I walked about 10-15 km. and it was huge for me). Seems on summer 2018 my eyes spasm were ended.
      On summer 2018 I passed formal meditation course and from that time I have practiced more regularly. And with practice I began to notice a lot of tension in my neck, especially on right side.
      Seems from Summer/Autumn 2018 I became more robust for some led device/light (but not all).

      Now I'm running, walking, meditating and riding on bicycle in warm weather. My state is much better that two years ago.

      And as conclusion, try to pay attention for this areas and define how it suitable for you:
      1. A lot of stress
      2. Sitting job and restricted physical activity
      3. Overtensioned head/neck/shoulders muscles

      I'm not sure that this path is suited for you or anyone else. But if you want try you should find several physical activities that decreases your problem and start to do them more and more regularly from simplest phase to more complex. With time when you notice stopping in progress in your state it worth to switch to or add other ones.

      @Blair Have you asked for an EEG while using a phone or computer? Could show abnormal activity that neurologists typically treat with drugs. I don't know if anticonvulsants would be at all helpful. I know you aren't keen on taking them (no one is) because of possible side effects, but some people tolerate the drugs well. Could be more beneficial than harm.

        Gurm I also wear a nightguard because I clench at night (what can I say, I'm a pretty intense person, ha). My migraines are ALWAYS located in the exact same spot, my left temple area. I've also experienced tinnitus issues in my left ear. For years I had a "rushing" sound similar to when you have water in your ear. It was sensitive to vibrations to the point I always slept on my left side. I used to be able to tell people a train was coming before the horn sounded because my ear would pick up on the vibration. I finally saw an ear specialist who diagnosed me with Stapedial Myoclonus and did a 'middle ear exploration with section of stapedial tensor tympany tendon', basically he used a laser to cut a piece inside my ear. It helped the sound thankfully. i do notice when I shower that the water running over that ear is about 3000x louder than the other after the surgery. A minor annoyance, comparatively.

        I also notice at times that there seems to generally be a lot of pressure in my skull. If I'm bending or moving a certain way, I hear and feel this enormous pressure in my head.

        I agree it's probably unrelated to the light sensitivity, as the ear thing started when I was 17, the surgery I was in my early 20's, TMJ stuff maybe mid 20's. Pressure in head maybe past 5 years. MRI is normal, though.

        I used to have anxiety attacks on the regular as well. They started when I was 19 and continued into my 30's. It's only been the last 3 years that they've gone for the most part. I attribute most of it to removing casein from my diet. It was actually only a matter of months after going off dairy that the light sensitivity started. Even though I rarely get panic attacks anymore, the generalized constant stress and anxiety of having an unknown brain issue that affects my life and causes me pain on a daily basis is quite... enough.

        I'm so glad that you have improved.... I know it's not as much as you would like and I feel the same way. I try to be thankful that I can drive at night now and use my screen provided I wear the right glasses, adjust settings to make it more tolerable, take breaks etc. The taking breaks thing SUCKS. I like to zone in front of my laptop for hours. I'm sure we all do. Sometimes I can get away with using it longer than others. The dark google background helps a lot. But I almost always pay the price with strain and that damn muscle pain.

        I have to shop at a variety of stores because of my diet. Trader Joe's, Whole Foods and Sprouts all have atrocious flourescents. I recently discovered the Ralph's down the street has some kind of can lighting above the produce area only. They may be LED's but they don't bother me too much, so I've been shopping for organic produce there.

        Your last statement really resonates. Right there with you.

        • Gurm replied to this.

          Blair so I wonder if it is dietary with you - I have to read back through this but have we already covered lutein/zeaxanthin/astaxanthin supplementation? That really helps for me. But the fact that the symptoms began shortly after cessation of dairy indicates... something. I wish there were a smoking gun for you... or for me - either a causative trigger or an actual cause - but there simply isn't. "A year after <blah> happened, <ugh> also happened" isn't really any kind of causation. It's barely correlation, much as we want to try to find a link. But in your case "shortly after" is a pretty big indicator. I wonder if there's something else at play there.

          I need to go back to my eye doctor, and see if i can somehow have him check me strained and un-strained. Like, maybe bring a Macbook with me, have him check my eyes and then spend 30 minutes forcing myself to read small text on the Mac screen, and then check my eyes again...

            tfouto THANK YOU!!! So much!!! This is really helpful/valuable information. All I had found about lowering homocysteine was the folic acid/b6/b12 thing. Research is difficult for me, though.

            I apologize for the delay in responding. My previous reply to Gurm was 90% complete days ago, so I just had to finish it up. The past few days have been HELL. My job started back up but unfortunately I was only able to work one day. To make a long story short, (which isn't usually my specialty), I started feeling extremely dizzy, weak and just generally horrible. Ended up at urgent care, had a temp of 104.7 which wasn't going down with meds, got sent to ER, had to have a spinal tap as Dr. suspected meningitis (it was negative). Had abnormal EKG's. They wanted to admit me there but because I have medi-cal I had to get transferred via ambulance to a sub-par hospital in the ghetto, and that's where I've been for days. I have the flu and mycoplasma pneumonia. Taking some antibiotic called Levaquin, as well as tamiflu. My body is really fighting right now. I only weigh around 100 lbs but the meds are making me sick so I think I've lost weight. Not sure when I'll be well enough to go back to work. I think I'm going to stop the levaquin. It's making me extremely dizzy, not to mention killing all the good bacteria in my gut.

            Anyway- it's really interesting about the choline thing because when I was using cron-o-meter to track my meals/supplements every day, the one thing I would consistently find I seem to be deficient in is choline! I have been a supplement person for a while now, and had considered getting it, but I stopped using the app as it was just too much to deal with (especially with this stupid condition) and it kind of fell to the wayside. But now that I know choline can convert homocycsteine into methoinine I'm really going to focus on this. I do have some betaine HCL/gentian bitters I randomly take before protein heavy meals. I normally take high quality fish or krill oil for my omega's. I'm wary of taking anything that can raise my B12 or B6 at this point because they're both so high. I don't understand it. When I tried taking normal amounts of B12, B6 and folate they all skyrocketed on labs. I haven't taken any of them for months now, and my folate has normalized, but as of my last lab (12-14-18) my B12 was 1140 (ref range 243-894 )and my B6 was 92.4! (ref 2.1-21.7). I just don't understand. The Dr's never seem concerned and say it's water soluble so you just excrete it in urine. Okay. Well, if I was fasting when I did the test, where is the excess coming from?

            Again I do thank you so much for finding the info about choline and homecysteine for me. I'll try to read the articles or have them printed as soon as I can.

            Gurm Yes, I take 40 mg. lutein with 4 mg. zeaxanthin (minimum 1 mg mesozeaxanthin) every morning. I have astaxanthin as well and have taken it off and on. Not sure any of it does much for me, but it's supposed to block blue light, so I think it's an important supplement.

            It could just be coincidental that this all happened a few months after stopping dairy. As you said, it's hard to speculate. I do think the respiratory virus I had in October '14 (symptoms started late December 2014 and the spasm on Jan 1 2015) could have been the trigger, as my Neurologist theorizes. It's doubtful any of us will ever know for sure the why, which is difficult to accept but I'm trying. I guess I just need to focus on ways to live with it. I know we all are...

            Good idea about getting examined strained/unstrained. I'd like to find better doctors who are willing to work with me. That's definitely not happening with Medi-Cal.

            ryans This is a great idea, I just need better insurance I guess. Yeah, I hate pharmaceuticals but I'd try almost anything at this point.

              Blair Really, try to find proper optometrist. Two other people here already confirmed that they have heterophoria. Hope its as simple as that (but still can be extremely painful and debilitating), if not, I hope you find your culprit.

                martin I had a functional vision exam (two hours long, $275) with a place I found locally and had to cancel it because of work last week. I'll definitely schedule again asap. I know this was your recommendation, and I made sure they test for all the things you listed on the previous post. I hope it's something as simple as that as well. Thank you so much 🙂

                Blair, please be careful when deciding to continue/discontinue antibiotics.

                Levaquin is the brand name for "Levofloxacin", which is a pretty powerful (beefier than Cipro/Ciprofloxacin) systemic antibiotic. I'd have a discussion with your doctor about this - if you have pneumonia, it would never be my first choice unless you've proven unresponsive to other meds. It'll make you good and sick on top of whatever you already have. I don't know if your doctor decided to go straight to the big guns, or if something in your chart would have prompted him/her to jump straight to that, or if you had something less aggressive first... for most pneumonias a "z-pack" of "zithromax" (azithromycin) would be the initial suggestion. (NOTE: I AM NOT A DOCTOR, just an eidetic autodidact!)

                  Gurm Exactly!! I am not a fan of anibiotics unless absolutely necessary. I haven't taken them for years. The first day I was in the hospital they wanted to start antibiotics and I refused. That night the nurse came in and said I was positive for mycoplasma pneumonia, only then did I agree to take them. I had the Levaquin and some other antibiotic in an IV for two days, and was sent home with the script for Levaquin and Tamiflu. I was released from the hospital on Sunday, took one Levaquin tablet Monday morning and that was the last one I took. I actually read that antibiotics aren't necessary for mycoplasma and that it clears itself up. I wasn't thinking clearly at all in the hospital, they were giving me dilaudid for a massive headache, and back pain following the spinal tap. And I've always felt that antibiotics mess with my head as well.

                  I have no idea why he prescribed something so strong. The hospital was really gross with old equipment and when he came in the second day, didn't even know I had tested positive for the mycoplasma or that they'd started antibiotics. He hadn't even read the chart! I really have no primary care dr. I go to this awful clinic to get referrals. I'm supposed to be following up with a cardiologist because the whole reason they wanted to admit me was because of the abnormal EKG's. They aren't sure what it means- one dr said it looks like an EKG of someone who has had congestive heart failure. Great. Never had any issues with my heart before other than tachycardia, which is genetic. So now getting into the clinic to get a referral to a cardiologist, waiting for the referral and waiting for an opening- well the process could take weeks if not months.

                  I'm continuing to take the Tamiflu but yes... so done with Levaquin and the horrible side effects. I've taken probiotics for years, (I cycle refrigerated Ultimate Flora, Garden of Life & Natren) so I'm trying to repopulate all the good bacteria that was killed off now by megadosing probiotics.

                  I feel better than I did, but not like myself. And it's been raining here which I usually love, but it's just adding to the depression. I'm so upset about missing so much work (there's only a few weeks until the show wraps and I was only able to work one day then this happened), and just going for a walk would be nice, but cold and rainy weather isn't conducive to getting well. These are times I wish I could snuggle up in front of the tv and watch a good movie.

                  Thanks so much for your concern. 🙂 I think I'm probably annoying you guys complaining about these other, new health problems when I know the board is supposed to be about eye strain. I've just really grown to look forward to reading responses on here, and this just happened and has really been physically and mentally challenging for me, on top of already being stressed over the 3 year mark of this brain/eye problem. So Gurm, I really appreciate you taking the time to respond about the antibiotics. <3 Everyone here has been so helpful, you're all extremely smart and I wish we could all get together and talk about stuff. The past 3 years have been so frustrating, and it means more than I can put into words that I found you guys.

                    Blair For probiotics... I swear by (literally they have changed my life) PB-8 - look it up on Amazon. It's cheaper than the others if you buy a couple bottles at once and it WORKS.

                      Gurm probiotics... I swear by (literally they have changed my life) PB-8

                      Do you mean you take them all the time or only to recover from an antibiotic cure? If you can disclose, did you target some specific health issue? I guess you are talking of wellness in general and it is not eyestrain related?

                      • Gurm replied to this.
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