Ocular Health
News
March 27, 2007
IN THIS ISSUE:
- FLOATERS REQUIRE AN EXAMINATION BY AN EYE PROFESSIONAL
- SIMPLE BLOOD TEST HELPS PREDICT MACULAR DEGENERATION
- NATURAL VERSUS SYNTHETIC VITAMIN E: WHY THE DIFFERENCE IS IMPORTANT
- PROPER DOSAGE VITAL TO OBTAINING BENEFIT OF EYE VITAMINS
- MORE ON AREDS 2
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FLOATERS REQUIRE AN EXAMINATION BY AN EYE PROFESSIONAL
Floaters are not usually dangerous. But they can indicate a more serious
condition, which is why periodic examinations by an eye care
professional are essential.
What are floaters? Essentially, they are small particles of collages
protein suspended in the thick vitreous gel of your eyeball. You can't
see your floaters in the dark, because symptoms of eye floaters occur
when diffuse light shines
into the eye, casting a shadow against the inner lining of your eye,
known as the retina. When this occurs, you notice "bugs" or "specs"
flying across your vision. The reason that artifical tear eyedrops and
Dry Eye Relief Tear Stabilization Formula reduce the symptoms of
floaters in most people is because the shadows become less pronounced
when the tear film resting on the eye's surface gets improved. It is
important to note, however, that short of surgical removal, there is no
effective treatment to actually reduce the size or number of these
protein particles in the vitreous.
There are many conditions that cause symptoms of eye floaters, but which
are NOT benign. These include:
-
Hemorrhage in the vitreous, with
or without retinal detachment
-
Intraocular tumors, including
lymphomas
-
Retained lens material following
cataract surgery
-
Intraocular foreign body
following injury
-
Stroke or intraocular blood
vessel blockage
For these reasons and more, it is
essential that you receive periodic examinations by an eye care
professional (ophthalmologist or optometrist). If you are experiencing
new symptoms of floaters, then you should have your pupils dilated so
that the doctor can examine all the areas of the retina in the back of
the eye.
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SIMPLE BLOOD TEST HELPS PREDICT MACULAR DEGENERATION
Retinal and cardiac physicians at Harvard Medical School combined to
publish an important new finding regarding macular degeneration in the
most recent issue of the respected scientific eye journal, Archives of
Ophthalmology.
The scientists measured a simple blood test, known as C - reactive
protein (CRP). CRP measures inflammation in the body, and is increased
in people with cardiac disease, as well as other diseases, such as Giant
Cell Arteritis and Polymyalgia Rheumatica. The test is readily available
and performed at most blood drawing laboratories.
Although the study only evaluated women, a negative, it was a study of
excellent design, known as a prospective study. In this prospective
study, the women were followed over a period of time before they even
had the disease. This type of study, although much more difficult and
expensive to perform, is of much higher quality than the quick analyses
after the fact than the studies that garner the news headlines.
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NATURAL VERSUS SYNTHETIC VITAMIN E: WHY THE DIFFERENCE IS IMPORTANT
All forms of Vitamin E possess antioxidant activity. However, in nature,
and in the human body, not all forms of Vitamin E are created equally.
Vitamin E is actually available in many different forms. However, it is
the molecules that are called "right-handed" by the biochemists that are
the ones found in human blood and tissue.
Fortunately, it is these same "right-handed" molecules that are also
found in plant oils. So Vitamin E derived from plant oils matches the
Vitamin E that occurs naturally in the human body.
In contrast, Synthetic Vitamin E is formed by combining two artificial
molecules together, isophytol with trimethylhydroquinone. This creates a
50-50 mixture of the Natural "Right-Handed" Vitamin E along with
"Left-Handed" Artificial Vitamin E.
Although all VisiVite formulas are made with Natural Vitamin E, most
other major manufacturers of eye supplements use Synthetic Vitamin E.
So how do you tell the difference? It's simple. D is "Right-Handed" and
L is "Left-Handed."
In the Supplement Facts (ingredients) section of the vitamin supplement,
Natural Vitamin E has a single letter, "D" listed before "Alpha
tocopheryl." But Synthetic Vitamin E has TWO letters, "DL" listed before
alpha tocopheryl. That's because synthetic Vitamin E has BOTH
Right-Handed and Left-Handed Molecules. And remember, that the
Left-Handed Molecules are not found normally in the human body.
So why do others use Synthetic Vitamin E? That's simple too. It costs
them less money.
At Vitamin Science Inc., we don't compromise when it comes to the
quality of our products. Our manufacturing facility is GMP Certified,
testifying that we often use products that exceed the standard of
pharmaceutical grade and in addition, use the most advanced and accurate
manufacturing techniques.
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PROPER DOSAGE VITAL TO OBTAINING BENEFIT OF EYE VITAMINS
Failure to take your medications, what doctors refer to as "compliance
problems," remain a problem in the treatment of many medical conditions.
Studies that evaluate how frequently patients miss their medications are
unsettling. For certain life-threatening conditions, such as
insulin-dependent diabetes or seizure disorders, compliance is very
high. But for conditions in which it is unlikely that the patient will
feel different on any given day, such as having high cholesterol or
glaucoma, compliance is much worse.
So it should come as no surprise that compliance with macular
degeneration supplements might also be a problem.
We discovered that over 25% of our customers were under-treating their
macular degeneration with VisiVite!
MANY VISIVITE USERS ARE INCORRECTLY TAKING ONE CAPSULE PER DAY RATHER
THAN ONE CAPSULE TWICE DAILY.
In other words, they are getting only half of the daily dose!
Although you might think that there would be SOME benefit to taking one
capsule per day rather than one capsule twice daily, the scientific
research says otherwise.
Many studies prior the National Eye Institute's Age Related Eye Disease
Study (AREDS) which was published in 2001, looked at nutritional
supplementation in preventing the progression of macular degeneration.
Prior to AREDS, no study was able to show benefit. What made AREDS
unique was that the DOSAGES of antioxidants and zinc were significantly
higher than had been previously used. AREDS therefore showed that there
is a CRITICAL MINIMUM AMOUNT of nutrients required to positively impact
eye disease. There is NO DATA to support the fact that taking half the
recommended regimen of VisiVite is effective.
So, to obtain benefit from VisiVite, you must take one capsule TWICE
DAILY!
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MORE ON AREDS 2
The National Eye Institute (NIH) is now recruiting patients for a five
year study, known as the Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 (AREDS2). It
will look specifically at lutein and zeaxanthin, plant-derived yellow
pigments that aggregate in the macular portion of the retina. Also to be
reviewed with be the omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA, which are derived
from both fish and certain vegetable oils.
While the original AREDS formulation was shown to reduce the rate of
progression of macular degeneration, the National Eye Institute is
introducing this new study to determine if these new molecules will have
an even stronger effect.
Research strongly suggests this will be true, since studies suggest that
people who eat higher amounts of green leafy vegetables that contain
lutein and zeaxanthin and those who eat two or more servings a week of
fish have a lower risk of having macular degeneration than those that
don't eat those things at all.
The researchers will also be looking to reduce the amount of zinc
because the nutritional experts at the NIH have stated that the body
can't absorb the full 80 mg per day, and 40 mg per day will also have
fewer side effects.
The current study will also evaluate the elimination of beta-carotene
for smokers, since this compound carries additional health risks for
smokers.
Researchers will enroll 4,000 people with macular degeneration between
ages 50 and 85. The study is expected to take more than 5 years to
complete.
For more information, visit WWW.AREDS-2.COM.
