There is an epidemic of cataracts afflicting a growing population of people. A cataract is a thickening of the lens in your eye causing cloudy vision. In many cases surgery is recommended.
Potential symptoms of cataracts include:
- Colorvision becomes distorted. You may feel like you're looking through a cloudy piece of glass.
- Increased sensitivity to glare, especially from oncoming headlights.
- Blurred vision and the need for brighter light in order to see clearly.
- Double vision when looking out of just one eye
- More difficulty seeing in the dark.
- Vision is brighter in one eye than the other.
What your ophthalmologist has not told you about reversing cataracts.
The following is what science has to say about the power of nutrition and reversing cataracts.
There are lots of nutrients that can slow down the development of cataracts so that you could put off the day when surgery is mandated to replace your eye lens.
Carnosine (not to be confused with carnitine) is one of these powerful nutrients that often brings cells back to more youthful levels.
In recent years carnosine has been found to be an anti-aging nutrient, and an antioxidant that scavenges free radicals. It's one of the few nutrients that can keep high levels of sugars in the body from damaging and aging proteins (it inhibits glycation which leads to accelerated aging, cataracts and arteriosclerosis in diabetics). It also inhibits amyloid from building up in the brain and creating Alzheimer's.
But even more interesting is that carnosine has been shown to be able to prevent and sometimes even reverse cataracts. When carnosine is acetylated, as in N-acetyl-L-carnosine, it becomes a time-release di-peptide that can move easily both into water-soluble as well as lipid-containing parts of the eye. Once it gets into the hard-to-get-to eye compartments, it can prevent the breaking of genetic material, DNA, which is triggered so easily with ultraviolet sunlight. It also improves DNA repair, thus bringing vision back to better levels.
In one study, folks in their 60s who had had cataracts for 2-21 years, used drops of carnosine solution three or four times a day for a few months. Carnosine improved their sight and the lenses became more transparent or clear. It reversed the effects of cataracts!
In another group of people who were assumed to need cataract surgery within two years, one group received the eye drops while another group used placebo drops. After six months, 90% of the eyes treated with N-acetyl carnosine showed improvements in visual acuity anywhere from 7-100%. Glare sensitivity improved 27-100% in 88% of people. And there was no worsening of vision, as there should have been with time.
You may want to use Bright Eyes II (Life Extensions, 1-800-544-4440) which contains not only N-acetyl-L-carnosine, but vitamins A and E. Use 1-2 drops in each eye 1-3 times a day depending on the severity of your problem.
Before prescribing treatment, FMU recommends that you follow the standard of care of your profession, as well as confirm the information contained herein with other sources.
• Babizhayev M, at al, Efficacy of N-acetyl-carnosine in the treatment of cataracts, Drugs Res Devel, 3;2:87-103, 2002
• Quinn PJ, at al, Carnosine: its properties, functions and potential therapeutic applications, Molec Aspects Med, 13; 5:379-444, 1992