When ophthalmologist Dr Radka Toms shunned conventional medicine to cure her own chronic eye condition, little did she realise she had sown the seeds for an online business which could help people across the world.
And now Radka, who is based in Marlborough, is also treating patients in-person thanks to an association with a local eye clinic.
It was in 2012, when living in Australia, that Czech-born Radka developed rosacea – a skin condition affecting the face and eyes.
“When I treated patients as a doctor, I’d look at their eye condition and not beyond that. This is because we’re trained to focus on eyes. For rosacea, I would have prescribed antibiotics for six months, as well as dry eye drops and this is still the guideline,” said Radka. “But I didn’t want this, because I was breastfeeding and we were also trying for another baby. I wanted to find another way.”
Radka’s pain become her purpose, and her personal healing journey became a turning point in her career.
It was while exploring the science around rosacea that Radka came across an article on the link between sugar and inflammation; she began examining deeper connections between nutrition, gut health, inflammation and eye health, which at the time wasn’t widely understood.
“Rosacea is a chronic condition caused by a long build-up. When I was a junior doctor I had a sweet tooth and sometimes skipped meals and had chocolate. I also looked at my current diet and realised I was eating a lot of sugary foods like pasta. So, I completely changed my diet, and it took me seven months, but then I was completely healed.”
Radka calls herself an “accidental entrepreneur” because after alleviating her own condition, she set out studying the science.
She immersed herself in further education, at Cornell University and the Institute for Functional Medicine. This changed her approach to eye care. Instead of just looking at eye problems, Radka now also considers their overall health, diet, and lifestyle.
“I developed a blueprint for healing, bringing together diet, microbiology, stress management, sleep, and also the willingness to surrender – to love your life and be at peace with your condition.”
Radka set up My Sugar Stop, an online service for people wanting support with eye conditions like rosacea, through her nutrition-based ophthalmology programme.
Now living in Marlborough with her family, she is running in-person clinics at Matrix Eye Clinic in Wroughton, and at Ü Vision in Kent, where she supports patients through a more integrative and root-cause approach to eye health.
She also manages a fast-growing Facebook support group called Rosacea Healing Community.
Radka has had some remarkable successes with her patients, including one whose eye condition improved dramatically in just six weeks, thanks largely to a change in diet, and another who also lost weight as well as reducing her symptoms of eye and facial rosacea.
She said: “There is now a proven connection between the brain, emotional triggers, the gut and the skin. I have come to realise it’s not just rosacea, but a whole range of eye conditions that can be treated or eased with a nutritional-based programme, including conditions like glaucoma and macular degeneration.”
For more information about Radka’s nutritional approach to ophthalmology, visit https://www.mysugarstop.com/. For in-person appointments, visit https://matrixeyeclinic.com/
Article by Jo Smyth
