UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Hi, my son Alex, now 21, has suffered with KC since the age of 14. He realised he was unable to see the board at school and on examination KC was diagnosed. Following several repeat appointments to take measurements and record deterioration, Alex underwent CXL in his left eye, the worst effected eye. Sorry but I would be lying if I said the procedure was straight forward as we are still unsure if it has been successful as initial measurements taken immediately after the recovery period were inconclusive and due to covid he is now way behind on appointments. Alex suffered a lot of pain after the procedure but it is uncertain if this is due to the protective bandage lens possibly having fallen out or even not applied at all as it was not present on the first post procedure examination two weeks after it. Due to the long period of time and inconclusive results we are now paying for Alex to see a private consultant. We have also, out of desperation started looking into homeopathic and natural treatments as my local homeopathic and nutritionist lady has helped friends and family so many times over the years with a variety of ailments. One of the things she has mentioned is that Alex has a severe difficiency of vitamins and minerals, vital for eye health and in particular magnesium and oxygen. On further research I found a few documents of research investigating the link between a magnesium difficiency and KC, it would seem there is reasonable evidence that there could be a connection, in one experiment all the KC sufferers showed a magnesium difficiency. It also seems that magnesium plays a part in producing collagen which is of course necessary for a healthy cornea. Secondly, Alex suffers with regular, severe sore throats which are likely to be a strep infection that keeps recurring and the bad bacteria in the throat can effect the eyes and limit absorption of good vitamins and increase levels of toxins and free radicals. I just wondered if any KC sufferers out there knowingly had a magnesium difficiency or maybe wanted to check if they did for the sake of this argument? Also if anyone suffered with throat problems. I would love to hear from anyone with anything to
add to my theory!!

I'd trust the eye professionals. Is he left handed and does he rub his eye?

Hi, no he is right handed, he used to rub his eyes when he was first diagnosed but he doesn't now. He has just had some more measurements done, it seems the CXL has stabilised his left eye but the right eye is still deteriorating slowly.

Very interesting AS the same deficiencys were Found in my teenage son who was also diagnosed with keratoconus

It won't hurt to take magnesium at the RDA and eat a good diet, a GP can do a blood test to check for deficiencies, but I'm not aware of any evidence base for homeopathy or nutrition outside of an average healthy diet helping KC

Yes definately no harm in trying it but i have noticed a reduction in his dry eyes after adding magnesium supplements snd Eating more magnesium rich foods and also improvement after cleaning up his diet
Cutting out sugar and processed foods and by adding good Fats and oils and more fruit Making sure he is getting a good amount of vitamins and minerals AS he was Severly deficient before