For many of us, vision is one of our most valuable senses. It helps us to get to where we’re going and it helps us to see the world around us. That being said, it’s important that we understand issues that can cause our eye sight to become worsened or that can cause even more severe issues. Fibromyalgia is one of the many diseases that can cause us to have issues with our eye sight.
Why Does Fibromyalgia Affect Eye Sight?
It’s actually a very easy explanation. As you likely know, fibromyalgia affects the nervous system in a variety of ways. Of course, there’s still debate on exactly how it affects the nervous system and why it does such a thing, but at least we know that it does, in fact, affect it. Like the rest of your body, your eyes are attached to your nervous system. As time goes on, the fibromyalgia will start eating away at your nervous system. And, because of how your eyes are related to the nervous system, they will start to deteriorate over time as well.
There are a number of issues that you can have when it comes to your eye sight in relation to fibromyalgia. Your vision may start to become blurry or you will start to struggle with double vision and you can’t see straight. On top of that, you may also start to notice that, after extended periods of time, you start to get headaches because you’re straining your eyes so much.
You may need glasses, when you never actually needed them before. You may even feel pain in your eyes when you’re trying to look at the computer or trying to read words on a page. In the worst cases of fibromyalgia, you could end up going blind – if you’re getting care from your doctor, this should be able to be avoided.
On top of that, you may notice that your eyes become drier, which also adds to the pain that you’re feeling. It may be hard for you to touch around your eyes because the nerves just make everything hurt. All in all, your eyes can be greatly affected by the nerve issues related to fibromyalgia, which is why it’s important that you take care of them and try to prevent potential issues as much as you possibly can.
What Can We Do About It?
Of course, that brings up another question. What can we do in order to take care of our eyes properly? Can we actually prevent issues from happening, or are we stuck waiting until we lose our vision completely? Do we have to wait to get treatment from our doctor in order to stop the degeneration of our vision? Absolutely not! There are lots of things that we can do in order to take care of our vision and keep everything in order.
First, please make sure that you’re going to see an eye doctor (an ophthalmologist, which is a specialist) on a regular basis. For some fibromyalgia patients, that may be every 6 months, especially if you’ve already started to see problems with your vision. They can test and make sure that there aren’t any changes, and help you to be on medication if necessary. Also keep your other specialists in the loop and make sure that they are communicating with your eye doctor in order to ensure that you have as few problems as you possibly can.
If you are in bright light at all, consider wearing sunglasses on a regular basis. If you already do that, there are a few other things you can do as well. There are special glasses that you can wear when you’re at the computer and if you’re driving at night that can help reduce the strain on your eyes as well. They help reduce the amount of blue light that gets through to your eyes, thus helping you to reduce the strain on them; this also helps you to sleep better, so you get two benefits out of the same product.
Speaking of sleep, you also want to make sure that you’re getting enough sleep each night; it allows your eyes to rest and recuperate, and it helps to lessen the stress and damage that you may be experiencing because of your fibromyalgia. Just closing your eyes for a bit in the middle of the day can help rest and relax them as well.
In some cases, you may have to use drops in order to keep your eyes moist and healthy. This can be a huge help, especially if you are starting to notice pain and dry eyes as part of your symptom set. It can also help you if your doctor ends up prescribing glasses or contacts in order to help you see better.
Sometimes, people with fibromyalgia may not be able to wear glasses or contacts, mainly because everything hurts so much and it becomes too painful when they put the glasses on or the contacts into their eyes. Some people have gotten around it by using a magnifying glass to read (which helps reduce the strain and makes it easier to deal with). Others end up learning Braille so that they can more easily read and don’t even have to worry about straining their eyes anymore. Either way, that choice is up to you.
Eye sight issues are just one of the many problems that can come if we don’t work with a doctor in order to care for our fibromyalgia issues. Your eye sight does not have to get affected by fibromyalgia; appropriate treatment can help prevent a variety of potential issues. It’s important that we keep track of what is going on with our bodies in order to see whether or not there are further complications from the disorder. Whether your eye sight is starting to struggle or you need help with other fibromyalgia symptoms, consulting with your doctor or specialist will always be the best way to deal with the problems at hand.
Further reading
Fibromyalgia Eye Problems: http://www.chronicbodypain.net/fibromyalgia-eye-problems/
Fibromyalgia Issues for your eyes and vision: http://fibromyalgia-facts-fictions.com/FM-and-eyes.html
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