Our eyes are the key to our most important sense – our vision. They’ve been called windows to the soul, but more importantly, they’re our windows to what’s happening around us. As we age, our eyes age with us. While most of the degenerative processes are not reversible, nutrition is one of the key ways to prevent future problems.

You’ll want to eat foods that contain vitamin A, C, and E, as well as zinc and omega-3 fatty acids. Here’s a list of some foods that contain these crucial nutrients for good eye health.

Fish Like Tuna and Salmon

Research has shown that omega-3 fatty acids are crucial for the development of your eyes. They help prevent dry eyes, macular degeneration, and cataracts.

There are different ways you can get more omega-3 fatty acids in your diet. One way is by taking fish oil, why not try the old fashioned way – by eating more cold water fish.

Foods That Contain Astaxanthin

Astaxanthin is an anti-oxidant that has been shown to be extremely beneficial for eyes. It fights age related eye degeneration, cataracts, and glaucoma. Astaxanthin is produced by a microalgae called Haematococcus pluvialis.

But this begs a key question – what foods contain astaxanthin?

There are really two categories of foods that can give you this powerful antioxidant: the algae that produce it and the animals that eat that microalgae like fish, shellfish, and krill. So in addition to the first point above, this is a whole other reason to eat more seafood.

Apricots and Blueberries

The eyes require vitamin A to repair damaged tissues and cells. However, the body cannot create vitamin A naturally; instead it must obtain it from other sources. Apricots and blueberries are rich in lycopene and beta-carotene that the body uses to create vitamin A.

Kale and Spinach

Leafy greens – it seems like they’re the miracle food for everything, doesn’t it? These great foods are full of zeaxanthin and lutein, two key antioxidants for improving vision that help prevent macular degeneration.

When you eat them, try and eat them raw, in their natural form. The more you cook them, the more nutrients are depleted. That’s why salad is usually best.

Citrus Fruits with Vitamin C

Fresh fruits such as oranges, lemons, grapefruits, and berries are some of the best when it comes to vitamin C.  Regular consumption of citrus fruits and berries will help reduce the risk of cataracts and other eye diseases. These fruits also provide a number of other health benefits.

Apricots and Blueberries

Our eyes require certain vitamins and nutrients to fix damaged tissues. Vitamin A is one of those important vitamins that our bodies need but can’t produce. Therefore, it must obtain it from other sources. That’s where apricots and blueberries come in (as well as any other foods that contain vitamin A components).

Apricots and blueberries are rich in lycopene and beta-carotene, which the body uses to create vitamin A. Consuming them will directly help your body fix damaged tissues and cells in the eyes.

Conclusion

Proper nutrition is just one component to eye health. Keeping up your overall health is also crucial. Avoid conditions like high blood pressure and high blood sugar to help keep your eyes strong and healthy.

Working the above-described foods into your diet on a regular basis will definitely help to improve the health of your eyes. More importantly, it will make them more resistant to some of the common degenerative problems with the eyes and keep you seeing 20/20.

Recommended Supplements:

• Shillington’s Eyebright Formula

Clear Eyes Without Cuts

How does a non-surgical treatment for cataracts grab you? As we age, cataract-related eye problems will only become more numerous. Estimates published in 2003 said that 42-percent of all blindness cases worldwide are due to cataracts and that 28,000 new cases were reported daily. These estimates also said that 43-percent of ophthalmologist referrals for Medicare patients were for cataracts. In civilized countries, mainstream treatment says surgery, even though there is up to a 50-percent chance of a relapse within two years and up to a 2-percent chance of surgical complications. In the rest of the world without enough trained eye surgeons, treatment may only be a shrug. Apparently, we need a non-surgical treatment that may help prevent and reverse the formation of cataracts.

A cataract is an eye problem consisting of proteins that fail to respond to the body’s natural antioxidants to remove Free Radicals to deal with oxidative stress. The proteins turn brown and yellow in the lens and cloud up vision. This process occurs during glycation or glycosylation, which is the process of how excess sugar binds with protein. Sugar is supposed to bind with proteins using enzymes, but if the body gets too much sugar this process happens differently and many bad results follow from these Advanced Glycated End Products (AGE). Glycation and oxidative stress are paired stressors on the body and cataracts are one possible outcome.

So, if there are just enough reasons to avoid surgery how do we prevent cataracts? Of course, Dr. Appleton will find at least one study that directly says sugar helps cause cataracts. In a recent study conducted in Pakistan, the researchers found that higher fructose levels in the blood led to reduced antioxidants and created conditions that could predict cataract formation.ⁱ

However, even if a cataract patient stops with the sugar the condition can continue to get worse. What to do? Much research has centered on variations of the antioxidant L-carnosine in an eye drop solution. Eventually, trial and error settled on N-acetylcarnosine as being the best way to get the L-carnosine into the eye without it breaking down into histamines too soon, so that it can work to clear up the oxidative stress that clouds vision.ⁱⁱ

A 1-percent solution of NALC dropped into the eye at least twice a day fights with the Free Radicals in the lens by binding with the glycation products that would otherwise bind with various proteins in the lens. The makers of Con-C, one such NALC formula, report consistent results above 80-percent improvement for all classes of cataract patients, even those who had vision problems for more than 20 years all without side effects.ⁱⁱⁱ

For most patients, it takes at least three months for the changes in the eyes to become noticeable as improved vision.
Obviously, the reminder to consult a medical professional before starting any treatment applies here as well, but you now have some alternatives to discuss before you go under the knife. To be fair, Con-C shares the market with another similar formula called Brite Eyes. We presume an equal effectiveness.

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ⁱ Gul, A. et al. “Role of fructose concentration on cataractogenesis in senile diabetic and non-diabetic patients.” Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2009 Jun;247(6):809-14. Epub 2009 Feb 6.

ⁱⁱ Babizhayev MA, et al. “N-Acetylcarnosine and histidyl-hydrazide are potent agents for multitargeted ophthalmic therapy of senile cataracts and diabetic ocular complications.” J Drug Target. 2009 Jan;17(1):36-63.

ⁱⁱⁱ Babizhayev MA, et al. “N-Acetylcarnosine sustained drug delivery eye drops to control the signs of ageless vision: Glare sensitivity, cataract amelioration and quality of vision currently available treatment for the challenging 50,000-patient population.” Clin Interv Aging.2009;4(1):31-50. Epub 2009 May 14.

Doc’s Eye Bright formula is a must for every “medicine” chest. Eye infections are dangerous. Though pinkeye is usually a viral infection, secondary bacterial infections are common and they can eat right through eye tissue in a matter of hours.

We learned about the efficacy of eyebright for eye infections years ago. We used eyebright tea to flush the eyes when pinkeye reared its ugly head, and discovered that all symptoms disappeared in hours rather than days (as with conventional medicine), but in recent years we have only been able to find loose tea and it was very difficult to strain all the tiny pieces of leaves and stems. This is not a problem with Doc’s formula.

Doc’s formula is excellent. It does burn for a minute when you first use it, and though we have not had the “opportunity” to use it with an infection, it immediately clears the vision, sharpening focus. We will continue to use it to see if it eliminates floaters and improves vision. We’ll report back in few months.

Click here for Shillington’s Eyebright Formula.