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Loss of sight/ability to read after 45hrs fasting...?!

I'm not sure if this is related. About 6 years ago I lost about 80% of the center of my vision, but I was a heavy drinker (drunk at the time) and overweight. It was pretty scary but it went away after about 20 minutes. Now I'm super fit, healthy, exercise daily for months, resting HR of 43, running, calisthenics, been eating healthy for years and stopped drinking 3 years ago. I've done a 73, 40, and 40 hour fast. On the 72hr fast, between 40 and 48 hours I had brain fog and I was clumsy. Similar to a normal person, but way out of the norm for me. Today I'm on hour 45 of my fourth fast, attempting 5 days. But in the middle of working on my computer, I noticed I couldn't see the letters in the center of my vision. Not alarmed this time since it happened once before, I got up to move around a little and do some stretches. But 30 minutes later it barely changed. BUT THEN I lost the ability to name letters and recall the sounds they make. Trying to sound out words (trying to figure out what's happening to me on google), I was pronouncing F as T, C as D, etc. I don't have a problem reading. I'm actually a speed reader with zero learning disabilities. This was really freaky. It took a whole minute to read about 8 words. Reading was nearly impossible. I decided to relax and take care of my plants. I couldn't remember where my rooting hormone was but I found it (where it goes). It took a while to read the words "Root Stimulator", but after saying saying it out loud multiple times, I couldn't make sense of what those words even meant. I asked my wife if that's what I was looking for and she asked me how long I wanted to wait before going to the doctor. Which was why we decided I should just take a nap. I'm attributing this to the fast because it's only the second time I've lost vision, which is pretty unlikely to happen randomly on my 4th fast after 6 years, but also because I started feeling cold right after my eyesight went, which also happened around 45 hours of my first fast. This seems pretty far beyond brain fog and I've been unable to find anything about this online. Is this just a weird coincidence that happens for no reason, or does anyone know what could have caused it? I took a 1 hour nap and woke up with regained ability to read and see just fine. Edit: typo Edit 2: I stopped the fast in order to limit variables.

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Hey. I’m a nurse aid. Not exactly an expert, but if you were my friend or under my care. I would call an ambulance for you immediately. Loss of vision or even changes in vision can be sign of a stroke. Go to the hospital. Don’t drive yourself.

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Go to the emergency department right now.

This is not medical advice, ask a doctor, not randos like us on the internet. But the sudden vision changes and ESPECIALLY the sudden language difficulties sound like they could be a stroke. If it went away completely, it may be what’s called a “TIA”, which you can think of as a pre-stroke or a brief stroke that fortunately went away. However, someone who has a TIA has increased risk of having another or having an actual stroke soon after. Other commenters mentioned some other possible explanations like migraines. It may be something less scary like that, but there is no way to know that without seeing a doctor. There is no “better sub to ask this” because the only people you should be asking about symptoms that sound scary like a possible stroke are doctors. In other words, please please…

Go to the emergency department right now.

And I do mean RIGHT NOW. Again, not medical advice, ask your doctor. But as general information, they rightfully say that “time lost is brain lost” when it comes to strokes. In a stroke, brain cells are dying every minute until the stroke starts to be treated. And certain treatments can only be given within a certain time period of when symptoms started. Do not wait to hope it gets better or that it doesn’t happen again.

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If this happened to one of my patients while on a rotation (md student), I would call my attending immediately and run out of the room.

Not fasting related directly, but it’s possible dehydration triggered it. I feel like a lot of us underestimate how much water we need especially if we have a lot of liquidy foods during feeds.

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You 1,000% need to go to a doctor, like now. What you’re describing is not a symptom of a 45 hour fast. And if it is, there’s something drastically medically wrong with you regardless.

It sounds like you had some sort of stroke. You could have a clot that is releasing tiny chunks that’s getting caught in your brain, but they’re small enough that your body breaks it down before you get a mega stroke. If it releases a larger chunk or the whole clot moves, you could have a full fledged stroke that you don’t recover from, or a pulmonary embolism where you drop dead.

Seriously, get out of bed/off the couch and go to the emergency room right now.

Don’t make an apt with your physician. Go to the emergency room to make sure you don’t have a major clot that’s about to kill you. Then follow up with your pcp after you’ve gone to the er.

Right now! Go!

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You have no health insurance? Wow! Call Obamacare and see if there is an option. Or Medicaid - with Medicaid you can apply and be found presumptively eligible and you’re covered. Not encouraging you to lie, but just sayin you could see if there was an angle to qualify.

My dad had something that caused a blind spot in one eye - bette center vision. He was legally blind in the other eye. He would read and the next word would be gone due to the blind spot. They taught him to turn the book (or whatever) at an angle which was like eureka for him.

They said if he had had better vision in the other eye, it would have covered for that blind spot and he might never have noticed.

So these kinds of vision loss do happen, but your other eye should help compensate, at least over time.

Definitely sounds neurological. But who knows, could be something weird with your electrolytes or something.

I’d definitely be keeping well hydrated.

It doesn’t sound like it’s fasting related. 40 hours is not extreme.

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OP I hope you went to the ER, if it was a stroke every second matters. Please listen to your wife next time, these are serious symptoms and you shouldn’t be self diagnosing on the internet. Also please get some kind of health insurance, for your own sake

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I have something like this.. fasting too much seems to affect my vision. Sometimes I wake up with bloodshoot eyes.

I believe it is due to dry eye. Even if I take electrolytes it seems to try my eyes out.

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Maybe a blood sugar issue.. Fits the 2 days (glycogen stores depleted, not enough ketones yet) as well as the former incident (hypoglycemia can occur when drinking alcohol). Vision problems when low on blood sugar are a known thing. Get fat adapted first by doing keto, before trying fasting again.

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I’ve had something like this twice before, about 10-12 yr apart. For me, the center of my vision gets replaced by strobing multicolor-but-almost-white patterns of light in a sort of blotchy circle that is still there when I close my eyes. Both times it went away within half an hour but it was really freaky. No problems w/ language, though I didn’t test it out.. absolutely zero idea what it is.

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I’m type one diabetic and what your describing happens to me sometimes when my blood sugar drops below certain threshold (quite low). I often only realize after about 10 minutes of attempting to read a sentence ( and failing) so then I test my blood sugar and it’s it’s very low every time. It doesn’t happen every time I have low blood sugar but when it does I don’t tend to have any symptoms before the vision and comprehension deterioration. If I’m taking to someone, they can usually notice that I start talking very slowly or nonsense and I can’t complete sentences.

By a blood tester and keep it on hand. I’m quite sure it’s that.