Preventing Cataracts
Cataracts. Just the word signifies as much horror as wrinkles--although some wisdom holds that wrinkles are a sign of dignity. Not so with cataracts.
Just as you can take vitamins to keep your skin healthy and young looking, you can ingest minerals and vitamins to protect against cataracts. You can also quit smoking, wear UVA and UVB-blocking sunglasses, and get rid of diabetes, or never get it in the first place.
While you're doing the patch, buying the shades and losing weight, take 15 milligrams of zinc a day to prevent deterioriation of the retina and increase antioxidants.
PREVENTION magazine lays out this ideal anti-cataract formula:
* Beta-carotene: 25,000 IU (international units)
* Copper: 1 milligram for every 10 milligrams of zinc, but no more than 2 milligrams
* Zinc: 15 milligrams, can go to 50, but adjust your copper intake
* Selenium: A wonder antioxidant, 50-200 micrograms
* Vitamin C (rhymes with "see"): 500-3,000 milligrams
* Vitamin E: Standard 400 international units
Of course, all these antioxidants help your skin too. So now you need not fear covering up your eyes with thick glasses and your skin with that makeup that never looked good on you anyway. But you look great, and more importantly, you see clearly. Too clearly. That's a wrinkle, isn't it? Ah well, as long as you don't have cataracts...
Girls Who Wear Glasses
Some guys love sexy specs, according to Dorothy Parker. But you don't like them, can't do Lasik and are allergic to contacts. What do you do?
Lutein vitamin formulas and eye exercises can help you improve your eyesight if you have minor vision problems. For myopia and presbyopia, you'll need your eye doctor's help. But even your eye doctor will tell you to take lutein for eye health, because after all, you're too young to have cataracts, right? If you take vitamin C and E as well as bilberry, selenium and beta carotene, you may not get cataracts. Your sexy specs are fun, but thick bifocals aren't.
Did you just say your glasses were fun? Occasionally they are. But your hubby may just have to find something else to focus on. Lutein can gradually reduce your need for eyeglasses or at least limit them to reading and driving. You're beautiful anyway, glasses or no glasses.
Vitamin Help for Dry Eyes
Your daughter played the lead in "Romeo and Juliet" and you didn't cry. Your best friend has breast cancer. No tears. Are you a robot? No, you just have chronically dry eyes.
Lasik surgery can dry out your eyes. While you use ThereaTears regularly, you may also need an eye health supplement to stimulate tear production. Your eye needs lubrication--and your family and friends need to see that you're not indifferent.
Your typical tear supplement contains:
* Vitamin C
* Vitamin A
* Vitamin D3
* Vitamin E
* Vitamin B6
* Magnesium
* Black Currant Seed Oil and Cod Liver Oil
* Turmeric
Tears are necessarily to wash out your eyes. If all else fails, try chopping an onion. But take a teary-eyed formula for eye health first.
Bilberry for Vision
Bilberry sounds like the Hobbit. Actually, bilberry does come from merry old England--it's called the European blueberry, and like the blueberry, bilberry has flavonoids, a.k.a. antioxidants! You think that like blueberries, which are considered an antioxidant superfood, bilberry may give you the vision you need to find the One Ring to rule them all. Yes, there are women fantasy geeks and they all need good vision and eye health. Not as much as the guys that spend hours staring at computerized RPGs, but still...
Unlike beta carotene/vitamin A, which carries warnings about overly high dosages, bilberry doesn't have any warnings, except that it may not be effective for long-term eye health. Diabetic retinopathy does show some improvement, according to studies done on bilberry where the standard dosage is 120 to 240 mg of bilberry extract twice daily.
Huh? You mean the benefits of bilberry are as fake as orc feet? Bilberry may indeed be effective when combined with selenium, lutein, and beta carotene in an eye health formula. Other scientific research indicates that bilberry does preserve retinal health and that it should be taken three times daily as a liquid.
Like the question of which fantasy epic is better, the visual effects of bilberry is a source of debate. Frodo made a choice to cast the Ring into Mordor. You make your own decision about your eye health.
Blue Light Special
If you see blurry lights, it could be because of blue light. Blur light in indoor lighting and sunlight can age your eyes with oxidation and free radicals.
Fortunately, lutein is the blue-light special of eye health. Lutein filters out blue light wavelengths (remember your science classes and the lessons on optics). We have other true-blue ways you can help lutein do its job:
* Take bilberry, selenium and beta carotene to support eye health and boost the effects of lutein.
* Purchase sunglasses that block blue light waves in sunlight, otherwise known as UVA and UVB.
* Purchase halogen bulbs with no blue light glare.
* Use a Fellowes CRT-reducing screen shield for your computer--you can attach it to the desktop screen (it may not work well with flat panels) and eliminate damage from computer glare!
* Eat spinach and green veggies high in lutein. These are your eyes we're talking about.
Avoiding blue light with lutein will keep you from seeing red when you realize you should have done something about your eye health.
Beta Carotene or Bust
You've chomped on carrots like Bugs Bunny, your kids say, and yet your eyes still blur. Not because of any serious concussion or sunburn but because your eyes are aging.
Beta carotene, which does indeed give carrots that fabulous orange color, protects your eyes from free radical damage. But should you decide to take it as a supplement, it is like vitamin A, and you can get too much vitamin A. Some beta advice, Doc:
* For maximum antioxidant value, take beta carotene as part of a supplement with vitamins C and E.
* Anti-aging and Eye Nutrients and supplements often combine beta carotene with lycopene and lutein as well as alpha carotene.
* The average daily dose of beta carotene is 50 mg--if you think you need more than that, consult a nutritionist.
Alternately, you can take low-potency beta carotene for eye health and just keep munching those carrots!