Save Your Sight!

by Marc R. Rose

  Other factors that can cause chronic bloodshot eyes are excessive estrogen, antihistamines, steroids, and chronic stress.

  But be sure to read Chapter 10 on circulation and do everything you can to strengthen your circulatory system. Damaged and weak capillaries in your eyes are an early warning system that all is not well with your circulation.

  Poor Night Vision

  Sometimes the inability to adjust to sudden darkness or bright light is an early warning sign that you have retinitis pigmentosa or macular degeneration; check with your eye doctor. If not such a condition, it could be a nutritional deficiency.

  Your mother was right when she told you that if you ate your carrots, you could see better at night. The same goes for all orange, yellow, and deep green vegetables, which contain carotenoids that supply the eyes with vitamin A and other eye-nourishing nutrients. Poor night vision may be a symptom of a deficiency in omega-3 fatty acids, which can be cured by eating plenty of fish or taking fish oil supplements (well preserved with antioxidants, please!). If it takes your eyes a long time to adjust when you walk into a movie theater or out into bright sunlight from a darkened room, you can try taking some cod liver oil, which contains both omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin A, for a few months.

  Eyelid Twitch

  An eyelid twitch is usually a muscle spasm and often can be treated effectively with magnesium. You can add 50 mg of vitamin B 6 daily until it goes away.

  Presbyopia: Do You Need Reading Glasses?

  Somewhere between the ages of forty and fifty most of us start holding reading material at arm’s length so it will come into focus, and we find we need more light to see small print; eventually we get reading glasses or bifocals. The condition responsible for these measures is known as presbyopia, and we think it happens because as we age the muscles around the lens of the eye, which is where we focus, become stretched out and less flexible, and the lens itself becomes less flexible and clear.

  A good multivitamin and plenty of antioxidant vitamins are your cornerstones for postponing presbyopia for as long as possible. I have noticed that older people who take human growth hormone often have a whole or partial reversal of presbyopia.

  Reducing stress will also help. The chemicals such as cortisols that are released by the body when we’re under stress weaken muscles and diminish the ability of the antioxidants you do have to nourish and protect the eye. See Chapter 6 on cataracts for more detailed advice on nutrients that will protect your vision as you age.

  Your Antioxidant Eye Protection Begins with Glutathione

  Before we talk about the nutrients you need in your supplementation program, we want to let you in on some remarkable new discoveries about why these nutrients work. Much is known about the antioxidants we get from food. Many people don’t know that our bodies make their own antioxidant substances as well. The names of these are probably unfamiliar to you: Superoxide dismutase, catalase, ubiquinone (more commonly known as coenzyme Q10), and alpha lipoic acid are some that we’re discovering have powerful healing abilities. The most plentiful and essential antioxidant our bodies make is called glutathione.

  Glutathione is said to be ubiquitous, found in every living cell of every plant, insect, animal, and human. A healthy person’s liver produces about 14,000 mg of glutathione a day (about 8½ tsp.), which is carried in the bloodstream to every body cell. To make glutathione, you need sulfur. Foods rich in sulfur include eggs, garlic, onions, and asparagus. You can also get organic sulfur from the supplement MSM, found in your health food store.

  Glutathione itself is unstable outside of the body, so the best way to raise its levels with supplements is by taking one of its building blocks, the amino acid cysteine, in the form of N-acetyl cysteine, or NAC.

  Your body produces small amounts of a sulfur-rich substance called alpha lipoic acid, which recently has been shown to raise glutathione levels dramatically. You can take alpha lipoic acid in supplement form.

  Vitamins C, E, selenium, and beta-carotene all work synergistically with glutathione, re-energizing it as it buffers free radicals throughout the body. The fluid that bathes the lenses of the eyes is especially rich in glutathione and vitamin C.

  Low levels of glutathione are found in virtually every disease. University of Michigan researchers recently found that adults who have high glutathione levels are generally healthy, while those with low levels have health problems. By the time surviving subjects were seventy-nine years old, the only ones still alive had high glutathione levels.

  What does all this mean? It shows that we should be using glutathione as a marker of health. Glutathione itself is too large a molecule to assimilate well through the digestive tract, so there isn’t any good way to supplement it directly, but we can boost the body’s production of this powerful antioxidant by eating sulfur-rich foods and taking glutathione-boosting supplements like cysteine and alpha lipoic acid, and other antioxidants such as selenium and vitamins C and E to work with the glutathione.

  If you have liver disease, you can take milk thistle (silymarin), an herb that boosts glutathione levels in the liver.

  Intravenous Nutrients

  Intravenous vitamins and minerals (given via an injection into a vein) can be highly beneficial to your overall health, especially when your health is compromised in some way. We recommend them for a wide range of problems, especially in older people whose ability to absorb nutrients is compromised. In most states, M.D.s or licensed health care professionals working under the direction of an M.D. are the only ones who can legally give injections. If your doctor is interested in learning about giving intravenous vitamins, he or she can find further information in Appendix II at the back of this book.

  Choosing a Multivitamin

  A good multivitamin gives you a solid foundation of essential vitamins and minerals. In the upcoming chapters on specific eye diseases, we will name specific nutrients to add to the multivitamin, depending on what eye problems you have. If you are over sixty-five, or if you have difficulty swallowing pills or digesting your food, you may want to use powdered vitamins that are mixed with water or juice. You can get a concentrated dose of nutrients by drinking fresh, organic vegetable juices, too. We make at least one fresh fruit or vegetable juice a day, often combining carrots and celery, or apples and bananas.

  No matter who you are or what ailments you have, we recommend that you take a high-potency multivitamin. Here’s what you should look for when shopping for one. Most of them require you to take two or three tablets with each meal. Look for a multivitamin that contains the following:

  Beta-carotene/Carotenoids

  One-quarter to one-half of beta-carotene taken in is converted to vitamin A, from which your eyes make pigments used for night vision. It’s also needed for tissue growth and repair, especially in the mucous membranes of the nose, throat, and lungs. Beta-carotene always should be taken with vitamin E because these two nutrients work together and there is some evidence that beta-carotene can become toxic if taken in high doses alone.

  Beta-carotene is found in carrots, leafy greens, yams, and other colorful vegetables and fruits.

  Daily dosage: 10,000–15,000 IU

  Vitamin A

  The conversion of beta-carotene to vitamin A is not always perfect, so when you have eye disease it pays to take a small amount of vitamin A, too. If your multivitamin doesn’t contain vitamin A, you can take it separately. I like the liquid mycel vitamin A. This vitamin can be toxic in high doses over a long period of time, so don’t take more than 10,000 IU daily without the supervision of a health care professional.

  Daily dosage: 5,000–10,000 IU

  B Vitamins

  The B vitamins are essential for the processing of the foods you eat, acting as cogs in the wheel of energy production. They’re responsible for maintaining the health of the nervous system and muscle tone. The health of your skin, hair, liver, and eyes suffer if you are deficient in the B vitamins. Food sources are brewer’s yeast, meat, and whole-grain cer
eals. They are also made by the friendly bacteria in your gut.

  Here are the daily dosages we recommend for the B vitamins:

  Thiamine (B1): 25–50 mg

  Riboflavin (B2): 25–100 mg

  Niacin (B3): 50–100 mg

  Pantothenic acid (B5): 50–100 mg

  Pyridoxine (B6): 50–100 mg

  Vitamin B12: 1,000–2,000 micrograms (mcg)

  Biotin: 100–300 mcg

  Choline: 50–100 mg

  Folic acid (folate or folacin): 200–800 mcg

  Inositol: 150–300 mg

  Calcium

  More calcium is found in the body than any other mineral. It plays a role in a wide variety of bodily functions. Ninety-nine percent of body calcium is in the bones and teeth, with the remaining percent playing a role in blood clotting, nerve and muscle stimulation, and thyroid gland function. Calcium and magnesium work together to maintain good heart and artery function. The passage of nutrients into and out of cells is reliant on calcium. Natural sources are dairy products, almonds, soybean curd (tofu), broccoli, black-eyed peas, and leafy green vegetables.

  Daily dosage: 300–500 mg for men; 600–1,200 mg for women, as calcium citrate, calcium lactate, or calcium gluconate. These are the forms that are best absorbed in the digestive tract.

  Vitamin D

  You can get vitamin D in two ways: through food or exposure to sunlight. Cholesterol particles in your skin are converted to vitamin D when you go out into the sun. This vitamin aids in the absorption of calcium and the breakdown and assimilation of phosphorus. In other words, it’s a crucial bone-building vitamin. It helps make enzymes that carry calcium where it’s needed. You don’t want to overdo vitamin D in supplement form because, like its fat-soluble cousin vitamin A, it can build up in the tissues and become toxic. Don’t take over 400 IU daily without the supervision of a health care professional.

  Food sources include cod liver oil and salmon.

  Daily dosage: 100–400 IU

  Vitamin C

  This antioxidant joins forces with vitamins E and beta-carotene to squelch free radicals and prevent oxidation of cholesterol particles. Without a rich supply of vitamin C, blood vessels become weak. People with diets high in vitamin C live longer and suffer less from degenerative diseases like cataracts, macular degeneration, and cancer. Numerous studies have shown its stimulating effect on immune function, which helps your body combat disease with greater strength.

  Your need for vitamin C skyrockets when you’re sick or stressed. If you can take 2,000 mg of vitamin C daily when you’re healthy, you may be able to tolerate 10,000 mg daily when you’re sick. Linus Pauling recommended finding out how much vitamin C it takes to give you diarrhea, and then backing off that dose until it goes away.

  Foods rich in vitamin C include citrus fruit, mangoes, kiwis, red peppers, and tomatoes.

  Daily dosage: 2,000–10,000 mg (2–10 gms)

  Vitamin E

  Vitamin E is a powerful fat-soluble antioxidant that re-energizes the other antioxidants and prevents saturated fats and vitamins C and A from becoming oxidized. B vitamins are also protected by vitamin E. Its role in the energy-making machinery of cells in the muscles and heart is an important one and has been studied extensively as a remedy for heart disease. It improves blood flow, decreases the formation of blood clots that can clog blood vessels and cause strokes, strengthens capillary walls, and protects red blood cells and hormones from free radicals. It prevents oxidation of LDL cholesterol, the process believed to be the beginning of unhealthy changes in blood vessel disease.

  An important function of vitamin E in the context of eye diseases is that it relieves excessive accumulation of fluid (edema), which can be a cause of glaucoma.

  Food sources of vitamin E include wheat germ and nuts.

  Daily dosage: 400–800 IU, from d-alpha tocopherol

  Boron

  This mineral helps keep bones strong.

  Daily dosage: 1–5 mg

  Chromium

  This trace mineral is an active ingredient of glucose tolerance factor, which helps your body stay on an even keel with levels of blood sugar and insulin. Fatty acids and cholesterol, both of which your body needs, are synthesized with the help of this mineral. Food sources include brewer’s yeast, liver, beef, whole-wheat bread, beets, beet-sugar molasses, and mushrooms. Deficiency is common.

  Daily dosage: 200–400 mcg

  Copper

  Copper assists in formation of vital blood components that carry oxygen to your cells. It also is involved in protein metabolism, wound healing, bone and nerve health, and production of elastin (the component of skin that makes it flexible and stretchy). Food sources include liver, whole grains, almonds, green leafy vegetables, dried legumes, and seafood.

  Daily dosage: 1–5 mg

  Magnesium

  This mineral makes up a whopping 0.05 percent of your body weight. Seventy percent is located in the bones with calcium and phosphorus, the rest in soft tissues and body fluids. It has so many functions in the body that there are entire medical journals devoted to its study. Evidence is strong that the processed foods prevalent in our diets, as well as mineral depletion from the soil, have left the majority of Americans magnesium deficient. It’s needed for normal heart and lung function and energy production from food. Without magnesium, calcium can’t work effectively. High blood pressure and weak hearts are improved by intravenous magnesium.

  If you are constipated, you can take magnesium that is not chelated—meaning it is not in a citrate, gluconate, or glycinate form—and it will loosen your bowels. Take it in a diluted form in your multivitamin.

  Natural food sources of magnesium are almonds and other nuts, raw wheat germ, soy, milk, whole grains, seafood, figs, corn, apples, and seeds.

  Daily dosage: 300–500 mg, in the form of magnesium citrate, glycinate, or gluconate. If you have muscle cramps, angina, or osteoporosis, I recommend you take up to 800 mg per day, 400 in the morning and 400 before bed.

  Manganese

  Manganese is a trace mineral that helps activate many enzymes needed for use of some of the B vitamins and vitamin C. The synthesis of thyroxine (one of the thyroid hormones), fatty acids, cholesterol, protein, and carbohydrate in the body requires this mineral. It’s also part of skeletal growth, sex hormone formation, and the health of the nervous system. Free radicals cause less damage if they stay inside the mitochondrion of the cell where they were formed; manganese keeps them there to be neutralized. Lack of manganese can lead to diabetes and atherosclerosis.

  Food sources of manganese include whole-grain cereals, egg yolks, nuts, seeds, and green vegetables.

  Daily dosage: 10 mg

  Selenium

  Selenium is a trace element that has powerful antioxidant properties. It works with vitamin E to prevent the oxidation of polyunsaturated fats in the blood. It is involved in the production of prostaglandins, important regulatory substances that keep blood pressure and inflammation under control. There is evidence that selenium plays a role in cellular energy production and that it can help prevent many types of cancer.

  Food sources of selenium include brewer’s yeast, organ and muscle meats, fish and shellfish, whole grains and cereals, and dairy products.

  Daily dosage: 25–50 mcg

  Vanadium

  This is a trace mineral that helps stabilize blood sugar.

  Daily dosage: 10–25 mcg, as vanadyl sulfate

  Zinc

  Zinc’s role in alleviating macular degeneration has been thoroughly studied. Zinc deficiency causes deterioration of the macula. This important mineral aids in healing and is a constituent of at least twenty-five enzymes involved in digestion and metabolism. It helps vitamin A to be released from the liver so it can be used in eye tissues.

  Food sources of zinc include whole grains, brewer’s yeast, wheat bran, wheat germ, and pumpkin seeds.

  Daily dosage: 10–30 mg

  We can’t emphasize enough that the health of your whole
body, particularly of your blood vessels, will be the key to improving your vision. The doses of nutrients already in your multivitamin, combined with the recommended dosages in the chapters that follow on specific eye diseases, might require you to take extra pills.

  Bring this book to your health food store and have the vitamin clerk help you choose the best combination of supplements at the best price. There are supplements on the market now that are designed for eye problems and that can make it easier and more economical to follow these recommendations. You’ll find information in Appendix II about mailorder supplements if you can’t find them locally.

  One way to avoid taking too many pills is to take a multivitamin low in the bulky nutrients. You can take vitamin C separately, as well as a separate calcium/magnesium supplement, all of which add a lot of bulk to multivitamins.

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  IN SHORT…

  1. Avoid simple carbohydrates like sugar and white-flour products. Eat complex carbohydrates in moderation and with a balanced amount of protein and fat. When you do have a sweet treat, make it a healthy one. If you are diabetic, be especially wary of refined carbohydrates.

  2. Cook with olive or canola oil. Avoid hydrogenated oils and chips, cookies, and other baked goods that contain them. A pat of butter on your toast is okay, as long as you practice moderation when it comes to fat intake. Limit fat calories to 25–30 percent of your calories.

  3. For most people, high levels of cholesterol in the blood are a symptom, not a cause, of disease. Worry less about altering your total cholesterol and more about living healthfully. Try to wean yourself off cholesterol-lowering drugs with the guidance of your physician. (Never stop a drug abruptly.) Pay more attention to reducing stress, keeping antioxidant levels high, avoiding harmful fats, and limiting exposure to toxins.