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We bring you some nutrition tips for healthy eyes based on an article by Evelyn Theiss, The Plain Dealer.

Good nutrition for eye health goes beyond carrots and their beta carotene, doctors now say, and the addition of some key nutrients can help avoid two leading causes of vision loss and blindness — age-related macular degeneration and cataracts — and aid conditions such as dry eyes.

The key nutrients include lutein (it helps with night vision), zeaxanthin (it protects the eyes from ultraviolet damage and prevents free-radical damage to the retina and lens), omega-3 oils (the DHA in them prevents retinal damage), zinc (good for preventing macular degeneration) and vitamin A (helps our night vision, but excessive doses can be toxic.)

Lutein, especially, is crucial when it comes to eye health as we age — it is present in the macula of the retina and helps us discern fine details. We are born with a certain amount, but since the body doesn’t produce it, the amount of lutein in your eyes depletes with age — so the only way to get it is by ingesting it.

Ideally, at least nine servings total of fruits and vegetables a day are recommended for your eyes and your general health, particularly green leafy vegetables.Yet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said less than 15 percent of the population consumes even five servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

People who eat fish more than four times a week have a lower risk of macular degeneration than those who consume it less than three times a month. Omega-3 fatty acids are known to improve blood circulation to the eye.

Improving your nutrition is not necessarily easy. Take baby steps if you need to and consider taking supplements in case you decide to boost your totals using supplements.

The main nutrients shown to help you keep your eyes healthy as you age are those with the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin; essential fatty acids (omega-3s in particular); vitamins A, B, C and E; and zinc.

In the Age-Related Eye Disease Study, the National Eye Institute (of the National Institutes of Health) found that the combination of daily supplements to bring down the risk or progression of age-related macular degeneration is: 500 mg of vitamin C, 400 IU of vitamin E, 15 mg of beta carotene, 80 mg of zinc oxide and 2 mg of copper, also known as cupric acid. For the second ARED study now under way, the level of zinc has been cut back to 25 mg.

As always, it’s best to talk to your doctor for advice before starting a new regimen.

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International Omega-3 Awareness Day

Scientific evidence of the health benefits of omega-3’s are now so firmly established that a team of world-renowned doctors have formed the first ever International Omega-3 Awareness Day on March 3rd, 2010.

As Carol A. Locke, MD who is leading this effort puts it, “What’s so amazing is that people can obtain huge benefits right now from increasing their intake of Omega-3. The only possible side effect is greater health and a longer life. Nothing else in medicine comes close to this.”

William E. Butler, MD, of Harvard Medical School, one of the world’s top pediatric neurosurgeons and another founding member of the Omega-3 Awareness Day team, adds, “There is substantial evidence to suggest that our levels of omega-3 essential fatty acids may be the most potent cardioprotective factors in the human diet. Optimal omega-3 intakes will have a profound effect in safely reducing the risk of cardiac disease and promoting cardiac health.”

William S. Harris, PhD, Professor of Basic Bio-Medical Science and co-founder of the omega-3 index, joined the Omega-3 Awareness Day team, stating, “Americans eat too much bad fat (saturated and trans fat) and too little good fat (omega-3’s from fish oil). Correcting our omega-3 deficiency could be the single most important dietary change we can make.”

John Ratey, MD, neuroscience expert at Harvard and another founding member of this respected team, quotes, “I tell every patient when I first meet them that they should be doing two things to help them whatever their problems are and that is: exercise daily and take omega-3’s. The scientific evidence for both is without question.”

The Omega-3 Day team invites people all over the world both within the healthcare profession and in the public to join in this international effort to save and change lives.

Source: www.Omega3Day.com

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Rising Healthcare Costs

Rising healthcare costs remains the talk of the nation. It is interesting to note that research commissioned by the Dietary Supplement Education Alliance (DSEA) couple of years ago shows that  appropriate use of select dietary supplements would improve the health of key populations and save the nation more than $24 billion in healthcare costs over 5 years. The study updated research conducted by The Lewin Group in 2004 and 2005 that included a systematic literature review of the most rigorous scientific research available.
 
“Rapidly escalating healthcare costs in the U.S. have severe implications for our society as a whole,” said Jon Benninger, president of DSEA. “This study provides valuable data that may lead to preventative healthcare solutions and address the budgetary problems facing federal and state health insurance programs, corporate healthcost managers and individual families.”

Key study findings include:
 
•    Calcium with Vitamin D: Appropriate use of calcium with Vitamin D for the Medicare population shows potential avoidance of approximately 776,000 hospitalizations for hip fractures over five years, as well as avoidance of stays in skilled nursing facilities for some proportion of patients. The five-year (2008-2012) estimated net cost associated with avoidable hospitalization for hip fracture is approximately $16.1 billion.

•    Folic Acid: If just 11.3 million of the 44 million American women who are of childbearing age and not taking folic acid began taking 400 mcg. of folic acid on a daily basis neural tube defects could be prevented in 600 babies, saving as much as $344,700,000 in the first year. Over five years, taking into account the cost of the supplement, $1.4 billion could potentially be saved.

•    Omega 3 Fatty Acids: The estimate of the potential five-year savings in health care expenditures resulting from a reduction in the occurrence of coronary heart disease (CHD) among the population over age 65 through daily intake of approximately 1800 mg of omega 3 is $3.2 billion. Approximately 374,301 hospitalizations and associated physician fees due to CHD could be avoided.

•    Lutein with Zeaxanthin: Through daily intake of 6-10 mg of lutein with zeaxanthin, it is estimated that $3.6 billion could be saved over 5 years by helping people with age-related macular degeneration avoid dependency. Across the five-year period, approximately 190,927 individuals could avoid the transition to dependence either in the community or a nursing facility that would accompany a loss of central vision resulting from advanced AMD.

“The impressive results of the study provide clear evidence of the benefit of dietary supplements,” said Mr. Benninger. “As an industry, it is important that we fund studies like this and publicize results, so that consumers and legislators realize the value of supplements.”

Source: http://www.nutraceuticalsworld.com/contents/view/214

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Macular Degeneration

DENVER, Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ — Researchers are seeing more benefits of omega-3 fatty acids (omega-3s), such as their ability to help prevent and slow age-related macular degeneration (AMD), an eye disease that is the leading cause of severe vision loss in older people. Fish consumption also seems to benefit seniors by thwarting dementia and the omega-3s in fish may improve cognition in adolescents and children. New research in these areas is described in the September 2009 PUFA Newsletter and Fats of Life e-newsletters.

In 10 years of follow-up, the Blue Mountains Eye Study in Australia reported that older adults who ate fish weekly and those with the highest intakes of omega-3s from all sources were significantly less likely to develop early AMD. In U.S. research, late stage AMD was delayed in people who had the highest intakes of seafood omega-3s plus a diet with a low glycemic index (minimal impact on blood sugar levels after consumption).

Eating fish regularly also seems to help prevent dementia. A large study in several low- and middle-income countries found that fish consumption was associated with a lower prevalence of dementia in adults aged 65 or older.

“Fish consumption appears to be protective in most, if not all, populations,” said Joyce Nettleton, D.Sc., editor of the PUFA Newsletter and Fats of Life. “This has clear implications for reducing the burden of mental illness in aging populations worldwide.”

Seafood omega-3s may benefit mental health and brain function in younger people, too, according to other research. In toddlers, those whose mothers had higher intakes of the omega-3 DHA had greater attention and were less easily distracted compared with toddlers of low DHA mothers. Older children who consumed a spread enriched with seafood omega-3s for six months had significantly improved verbal learning ability and memory. In Sweden, adolescent males who ate fish more than once a week scored significantly higher on intelligence assessments than males who ate fish less than once a week.

“These studies are among the first to document cognitive improvements with greater fish or omega-3 consumption in childhood and adolescence,” Nettleton noted. “It appears that omega-3s may benefit people of all ages.”

The quarterly PUFA Newsletter and Fats of Life, sponsored by DSM Nutritional Products, are accessible at www.fatsoflife.com.

Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click appropriate link.

Joyce A. Nettleton, D.Sc.

https://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=76830

SOURCE Fats of Life