KC and morning workouts.

[james mckinlay]

well i must say i was shocked to read the posts i work out all the time and quite vigorous my regime is also yeah i know you will all say mad man but i do kickboxing and have never had had any issues from it also at theme parks im right on the extreme rides and im fine i also tried one u get raised 200ft in the air and fly accross the air at 100mph some say im silly for it but hey our KC is with us for life so enjoy it as much as we can. but also yeah keep safe but not to the point where we wrap ourselves up like ancient mummies.

[Loopy-Lou]

Well I guess we all draw the line at different points and choose to take certain risks or not.

I won't do contact sports or swimming because that's my consultants request but I will dance/use the gym. I won't do white knuckle rides because I don't like the feeling of pressure but I have driven a tank which was in a controlled environment. I can't judge distance enough to do contact sports so I would be more likely to get an elbow or foot in my face but I've never experienced injury to my face in the gym or in dance, however some people have witnessed injuries in what would appear to be safer activities. Someone could do parachute jump and be fine, the next person die when their chute doesn't open, ditto motor/bike racing, one person could do it for 20 years without a scratch the next person get mangled in an accident. We will all perceive risk differently, I guess the one thing we can all do is listen to our bodies because if you have grafts with sutures and overdo it, you can sometimes feel it in your eye. For example when my sutures became loose soon after surgery and I had a bout of protracted vomiting, it did hurt my eye and that's not a sport. For the next person moving a piece of furniture or heavy shopping might be overdoing it but running a marathon might not.

[rsnr]

Hi everyone. Just read this topic and found it extremely interesting, as it affects many people. First of all, from what I read here, there is some debate between people arguing that weightlifting and exercising and the respective increase in IOP can further quicken the thinning of the cornea in KC patients, and people who argue the opposite. But then, if high IOP is detrimental to KC, long time working with computers and other normal activities would put patients at risk as well. If someone has particularly deep knowledge on the topic, please share it. Some of the studies I've read are also inconclusive, but the prevalent idea is that patients with keratoconus appear to have lower intraocular pressures (IOP) than average and few patients with keratoconus develop glaucoma (if you wanna read the entire study and dont have uni registration, PM me). I would say that at least this is good news.... like we haven't had enough... But can actually an increase in IOP due to weightlifting further worsen the condition?

[Andrew MacLean]

The problem with high IOP in the days and weeks after a cornea graft is that it will put extra strain on sutures. As the new tissue 'heals' into the eye that is increasingly less important, but six weeks off strenuous exercise may not be too great a price to pay for a lifetime of restored eyesight.

Andrew

[rsnr]

Oh sorry about the confusion. I was discussing weightlifting and IOP in patients with no graft procedure, just Keratoconus.

[rsnr]

Here's one article on the same topic: http://www.science.unsw.edu.au/news/eye-spikes/

Really shocked to find out as I do heavy weightlifting at home for months now, and am finally seeing the results and now have to reconsider it. Still wonder though, why most doctors (even mine) say that weightlifting is OK? And if it is a matter of debate, is it safer rather not to exercise than risk your health?

[rosemary johnson]

The thing abuot people with KC having lower IOP/less glaucoma:
what I've always been told is, because we have softer corneas, the gadgets that test the IOOP tend to read low, because they just squash the soft squashy cornea.
So me readings are 10 in my own eye and 15 in the grafted eye.
SO if you get the IOP tested regularly (ordinary people with KC, I mean, not graftees) the numbers won't be comparable with someone without KC -
- but if they've been steady for years, and then start getting much higher, it needs looking into.
High IOP will tend to stretch the cornea oue cornea outwards first, because we have softer corneas, before damaging the retinaa.
As regards exercise - got to think the best thing s to listen to your body.
If you do a sudden hard lift and your eyes feel the ffect with a short pain, orunpleasant bulging sensation, then don't do that again.
I go horse riding.
More to the point, looking after horses means things like carrying hay and water buckets, and bale of hay/sacks of wood shavings for bedding.
And shovelling out what the horses leave in the bedding...... or around the filed.
And lifting/lowering the ramps at the back of horse boxes.
After the graft, I soon found what I could do and what caused a sore stretching feeling.
TO be honest, though, I think damage to my eyes is far from the worst from the worst risk of riding/caring for horses,s.
And what's the point of keeping your eyes in cotton wool if you're stting indoors staring at the allpaper? - far healthier to be out in the fresh air getting exercise....
As regards gyms - maybe it is better for the eyes to do the exercises where you do steady movements rather than sudden jerks.
Rosemary

[Loopy-Lou]

I think what Rosemary says makes sense, listening to your body, but equally after a graft I reckon not exercising for 6 weeks [the typical sick leave period] then just phasing it in gradually makes sense to me, a few weeks is not a long time.

[Andrew MacLean]

Someone in Scotland did some research a while ago and found that wearing a tie too tight would increase the risk of glaucoma, so it's not just lying on your front while you sleep, or popping off to the gym.

Bottom line for me is that I have to live my life; that will mean that I am involved in some things that may cause my IOP to rise. Apart from sensible precautions around my graft times, I have really not made any permanent changes to my routine.

Andrew

[rsnr]

Andrew, you're absolutely right about living one's life. I guess the debate we're trying to resolve concerns people who do weightlifting everyday, and whether it actually does deteriorate their KC. It is absolutely normal for people to live their lives and ignore the small things that could possible increase IOP, but an exercise like daily weightlifting is certainly more stressful and could prove to be detrimental, if IOP does indeed affect KC corneas. Since my KC was found recently (an year ago) although not necessarily very early, I'm still freaking out about it quite a lot and I will stop the weightlifting until some more clear research is present. A few months in vein that was....