Today, we see a flurry of TV commercials and magazine ads touting the importance of optic vitamins in better eye health. Without doubt, eye vitamins help strengthen our eyes and keep them healthy while preventing eye diseases. Our daily diet is supposed to provide all the essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients that our body systems require. The fast paced culture has its toll on modern food habits. Taking fast food often add bulk to our food while leaving out the important ingredient of body nutrients.
Taking optic vitamin supplements is the inexpensive method of making up of lost vitamin content from our daily bread. Vitamins for eyes are available without prescription and don't cost much. The dosage varies between one to four pills daily, based on the vitamin and mineral content of each pill. Authentic information about recommended daily dose of vitamins and minerals can be had from National Eye Institute's website at nei.nih.gov.
Vitamin And Mineral
Different vitamins qualify as eye health vitamins - A, C, E, B2 etc are prime examples. Minerals like Zinc, Selenium etc are also regarded as vitamins for eye. Lutein is a powerful antioxidant, the value of which on eye health is still under research. Lutein, found mainly in retina, lens, and macula makes an interesting contrast study with smokers. Smokers tend to lose healthy levels of lutein from eye parts, leaving them with insufficient amounts of lutein. Another thing smokers should watch for is the sufficient amounts of beta carotene and eye vitamins. There is a strong connection between smoking-linked beta carotene deprivation symptoms.
Macular Degeneration, characterized by degeneration and malfunctioning of light sensing cells of macula is somewhat reversible with treatments with antioxidants and minerals like zinc. Intermediate-stage macular degeneration and advanced macular degeneration condition patients show 25% drop in progression of the condition. Macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness among people of fifty years or more of age.
It is however to be noted that the condition is not reversible with taking nutrient/vitamin supplements. People without symptoms of the disease or persons in early stages of development too didn't show any considerable gains for use of eye vitamins and nutrients. The capability of eye supplements to slow down the progress of the condition is hopeful. Understanding of the progress of the disease is also helpful in developing future treatments and cures.
Researches on macular degeneration are still in infancy stage. A lot of researches need to be conducted before researchers can fully identify the factors that lead to this progressive disorder and find a comprehensive clinical treatment for different forms of macular degeneration. Taking vitamins/mineral supplements to halt the progress of condition may lead to complex conditions. The eye vitamin supplement can react with other prescription medicines and the risk of developing new diseases is not ruled out. Beta-carotene, while effective in preventing oxidation of free radicals in the body, can also cause lung cancer in smokers.
It thus becomes imperative for patients to take expert medical guidance before administering any kind of vitamin supplements.
Only detailed clinical tests can prove the nature of macular degeneration. There are specific therapies like the one that prevents abnormal blood vessel growth in the eyes with 'wet macular degeneration' patients. A clinical solution to different types of macular degeneration is imminent, till then eye vitamin supplements play an important role in prevention of this dreaded condition.