Cataracts: Take These Simple Steps To Protect Your Vision

A friend of mine calls it 'playing the trombone.' That's when you pick up something to read, and then move it away from your face, then further, then back a little, until you get a good focus on it. (Raise your hand if this sounds all too familiar.) And besides the fact that it's somewhat annoying, it's also a good reminder that our vision probably won't stay healthy through the coming years without a little help.

Today I have some good news about an easy step you can take to keep your eyesight healthy. A new study shows that supplementing with one specific vitamin may reduce the risk of cataracts by well over 50 percent.

Blue light special
The lens of the eye has two natural enemies: blue ultraviolet light, and oxygen free radicals. Fortunately there are defences against both enemies: blue UV light can be filtered out with sunglasses, and free radicals can be neutralised with proper nutrition.

Researchers at a Tufts University nutrition and vision research laboratory recently released a study on the effects of specific nutrients in preventing cataracts from forming on the eye lens. In the current issue of US Agriculture Research Magazine, the leader of the Tufts research team - bio-organic chemist Allen Taylor - explained how the lens can become damaged.

As we age, free radicals damage crystallins, a set of proteins in lens cells. Taylor compares crystallins to fibre optics, 'allowing light to pass through the lens and onto the retina.' The oxidation damage creates a clouding of the lens that gradually becomes more opaque and reduces vision. This is how a cataract develops.

Nurses with vision
That antioxidants help maintain healthy vision is not news. In many e-Alerts and HSI Members Alerts we've highlighted the role that antioxidants play in the prevention of vision problems such as age-related macular degeneration. But the conclusions of the Tufts research included one very specific and helpful detail.

Taylor designed the study based on food frequency statistics gathered over the course of 13 years on almost 500 women (aged 53 to 73) enrolled in the Nutrition and Vision Project - a sub-study of the Nurses' Health Study. Taylor's team also conducted eye exams on all of the subjects.

After analysing the data, researchers found that women with the lowest amount of lens-clouding opacification, also had the highest intake of the antioxidant phytonutrients lutein, zeaxanthin, folate, beta carotene, and riboflavin, as well as the highest intake of the antioxidant vitamins C and E. The researchers theorise that antioxidants help promote the function of protein-digesting enzymes that are believed to remove damaged proteins, and halt the gradual formation of cataracts.

But one more critical detail stood out among the study's conclusions: Women who had taken daily vitamin C supplements for more than a decade were 64 percent less likely to show signs of the opacification that leads to cataracts than the women who took no vitamin C supplements at all.

There are plenty of great reasons to take a vitamin C supplement, but if this were the only one, it would be plenty enough.

Extra helpers
Two of the phytonutrients listed above are worth special mention. Lutein and zeaxanthin are carotenoids that are key components of a phytochemical called xanthophylls. This powerful antioxidant has the unique characteristic of being able to cross the blood brain barrier more easily than most other antioxidants.

The blood brain barrier is a protective mechanism designed to prevent
infectious organisms and chemicals from entering the nervous system. This prevents illness from spreading to neurologically sensitive areas, but it also stops many beneficial substances from getting through and protecting those areas.

Good food sources of xanthophylls include corn, kiwi, red seedless grapes, orange-coloured peppers, spinach, celery, Brussels sprouts, broccoli and squash. So even though you may be getting effective cataract-fighting benefits from vitamin C supplements, the nutrients in these foods will very likely give a considerable boost to your overall vision health.

Maybe you'll be the first of your friends that doesn't have to play the trombone just to see what's on TV.