AGI I'm not shy - I have diverticular disorder (diverticulosis/diverticulitis). It's well managed with fiber, water, and a reasonable diet but discomfort remains... unless I take the PB-8. A few days on that and my gut is right as rain, and stays that way as long as I take a maintenance dose. Works for my mom also. And I know people without large intestines for whom it works wonders as well.
Blue light photophobia, eyestrain, muscle spasms, pain, twitching
Been looking around this site for the past month and have found very useful advice but felt I needed to register for an account to warn people about the dangers of taking Quinine. Its a dangerous and lethal drug and I don't recommend anyone ever tries this. I was prescribed quinine years ago for a health issue and had horrendous side effects - dizziness, nose bleeds, severe brain fog. But it was the effect on my brain that the worst. I literally thought I was losing my mind, had severe paranoia and ended up accidentally overdosing, resulting in a trip to A&E. I still have a 4 months memory blank from around that time. I have photos of my 21st birthday party but I don't remember being there. I also left a job around that time but I don't remember if I quit or they fired me.
No one should ever be trying this drug. I felt fine until somewhere in the 3rd month of taking it when the symptoms really started kicking in but my brain was just too fried to know it was the drug that was causing my problems and I kept taking it until my A&E trip. If you need more evidence of just how bad it is google 'US soldiers gulf war quinine' and see what comes up. Not trying to scare people, just inform them.
Larkenn AWW SHIT, so I should stop drinking gin and tonics? Might explain some things, like after I've had 4 or 5 G&T's my brain gets all foggy and if I have like 10 of them I can't remember anything from the night before.
(How was your quinine taken and in what doses? The world has been drinking tonic water for 100+ years now...)
I was prescribed Mepacrine. I can't remember the exact dosage, I just know I took 2 tablets a day. It must have been a pretty strong dose because I had to have regular blood tests to make sure it wasn't damaging my liver. I think you'd be fine drinking tonic water. Though maybe lay off the gin a bit 
Larkenn I use an all natural, alcohol free organic quinine tincture on an as-needed basis. It is the ONLY thing that alleviates the occasional twitching in my eyelid. I'm not sure the difference/what additives are used in pharmaceutical quinine. I would think if it was lethal, it wouldn't be available whether via prescription or herbal. The side effects you experienced sound horrible. I've had absolutely no issues with taking the quinine tincture, but this is valuable information for others nonetheless.
reaganry Thankfully, I never took the two together. I only take quinine when I'm having the twitching, which is an occasional issue and wasn't happening while I was in the hospital. I stopped the antibiotics after two days of IV and one pill the first morning I was home. I will never take Levaquin again and hopefully never need antibiotics for anything again either. Good looking out though! Thank you 
Blair Well I'm assuming the pharmaceutical quinine is pure quinine. It was mixed with other ingredients, but there was no additives and the other ingredients weren't the problem the quinine was.
Yes quinine is available on prescription in different forms but it's now listed as a 'drug of last choice' because of its horrific and sometimes permanent side effects.
I would advise anyone trying this to stop taking it immediately if you suffer any side effects. Because eventually you will get to the point where you won't be able to tell anymore that the quinine is the problem and you'll keep taking it.
Blair I only take quinine when I'm having the twitching
I am not a medical doctor but maybe ask one about the cyanocobalamin eye-drop option. I have been taking the droplets for 4 days and I noticed immediate relief of my twitching. There should not be side effects, as they are just vitamin B12.
11 days later
Gurm 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.
Hey, I am looking into some papers on astaxanthin. New for me, but not for some of you guys, I see...
https://www.vitexpharma.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/July-2016-Astaxanthin.pdf
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/70320160.pdf
https://www.flexnews.com/files/bioreal031209.pdf
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213434415000262
Could you briefly say which dose you have been taking and for how long? Any side effect you know of, especially if used for months?
What do you mean with "symptoms began shortly after cessation"? Thanks!
AGI What I meant was that Blair's symptoms began within weeks after stopping her dairy intake. Might be unrelated, but you never know.
As for Astaxantin, I take 8mg a day (4 in the morning, 4 at night). I feel like my night vision is better, and glare bothers me less, but my tolerance for bad display tech hasn't increased drastically. Lutein made a much bigger difference. There have been no untoward side effects that I know of.
AGI So...
Daily intake: Lutein 40 (2x20), zeaxanthin ... included in the lutein. Astaxanthin: 8 (2x4)
I cannot 100% rule out placebo, but when I've accidentally missed a couple doses of lutein I do see a difference without knowing which kind of makes me believe it's not placebo.
I didn't switch, I added.
Lutein really has NO side effects. You can take pretty much a ton of it with no negative effects at all.
- Edited
I have started B12 eyedrops. "Bausch + Lomb Vitamine B12 Chauvin" , they are cyanocobalamin eyedrops in a preservative-free formulation (I can't tolerate BAK).
degen "Bausch + Lomb Vitamine B12 Chauvin"
I struggle understanding the instructions of the product I was prescribed because of language reasons. I googled about yours, and read "Warning: This is a medicine. The eye drop solution is treatment for eye infections." So apparently they are not just a supplement of vitamin B12? Did you get them over the counter or did you go to a doctor?
martin I had an appointment with a functional optometrist and had to cancel because of work. I'm done with my show so I'll be making an appointment soon. I'll definitely let you know what the results are. I also have some notes about the production monitors for you guys, which I'll be posting soon.
15 days later
martin So I finally had my functional vision exam! She did find a couple issues- and although they are both mild, and not the culprit behind my light sensitivity, the right glasses may help reduce the strain I experience. I have a very slight astigmitism, mild binocular vision dysfuction, and mild poor eye teaming. So, I'm going to have my 20th pair of glasses made, which will contain the following: a very slight prescription, FL-41, blue blocking, anti-reflective and prism lenses. I've basically tried all the above in lenses with little result, with the exception of the prisms. They really seemed to help. I performed better on the testing with them on... my vision seemed calmer, more balanced/stable. So I'm hopeful the new glasses might finally be the pair that will make using my dimmed-down, flux & ditherig hacked, lighting gel taped over the screen, screen.... even easier to tolerate. 
Thank you again Martin for urging me to get these tests done.
She also had me try some different colored lenses on, none of which helped much (and I've already done the Irlen testing which proved useless), however one pair I really liked. It could just be that they happen to be my favorite color. They are a very vivid purple, and they are called syntonic goggles. As of now the company only makes them in a paper frame, so they look like the 3D glasses you'd wear at the movies. She wants me to wear them for 20 minutes per day while using my phone, it's a form of vision therapy. So we'll see if I notice any improvement from wearing them over time. Might be worth looking into for some of you. They were only $25.
Next, I have the information for you guys about the production monitors. So the ones they typically use at video village (where the director, DP etc sit and watch the scenes being shot) are Sony Trimaster EL. Model PVM A250 Professional Video Monitor. 100-240 V 50/60 hZ. I asked the video guy if these screens dither, and he said they do not. Apparently they are very expensive, about 2k, but I have looked a little and seen them online for cheaper, although I cannot attest to the quality of the cheaper ones. I'm wondering if my ability to tolerate those screens (I can typically watch them for several minutes at a time with no problem, as opposed to a regular tv, my threshold of tolerance is less than 10 seconds) has something to do with the fact that it's live as opposed to recorded. I may have touched upon this issue above, but I can't scroll through everything, I've been having twitching again lately and trying to type this quickly. I'm wondering if when the videos are edited, if something about the compression or something else is making it less bearable. Maybe because it's less natural? I'm definitely thinking of purchasing one of these monitors, just a less expensive one that I can return if it's unusable. If anyone decides to try one, please let me know the model and about your experience with it.
Lastly, I saw yet another ophthalmologist in search of these b12 drops. She'd never heard of them but I'm going to try and find those Bausch + Lomb drops mentioned above online. She seems to think my issues stem from dry eye, and wants to aggressively treat it with 2 weeks of steriod stops (FML) in conjunction with Restasis. I have mixed feelings about taking steroid drops and starting Restasis. When the light sensitivity issue started, I DID have very dry eyes, and the neuro optho I saw wrote my diagnosis as "photophobia, orbicularis spasm/pain & twitching secondary to dryness". The dryness has improved from needing Refresh preservative free drops every half hour to never needing them during the day. The only time I really notice extreme dryness is in the middle of the night when I get up to pee. So... I think it is possible that it's a contributing factor, however I still believe that something in my brain is the main issue. Has anyone taken FML for dry eyes? I'm hesitant to take them for a full two weeks, and she wants me to start the Restasis one week after I start the steroid, so there would be a week period that the drugs overlap. Seems like a lot. Also, I've read that you have to take Restasis forever. Luckily, my insurance covers it, but I may switch insurance soon, and also not sure I want to be dependent on an immunosuppresive drug for life. I brought this concern up to her, she said some patients take it for a while then find they don't need it. Any information/experience with this would be most helpful.