Optometry

“Antioxidants, omega-3s fail to halt macular degeneration.” The headlines are everywhere. But is this accurate? First, let's get straight on exactly what the Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 was looking at. The trial was designed to "determine whether adding lutein and zeaxanthin (L/Z), DHA and EPA, or both to the AREDS formulation decreases the risk of developing advanced AMD and to evaluate the effect of eliminating beta carotene, lowering zinc doses, or both in the AREDS formulati...

The long-awaited results of the AREDS2 study were released recently. This multicenter trial was conducted in 82 clinical sites in the U.S., in both academic and community-based centers with retinal specialists from 2006 to 2012. The 4,203 participants were between 50 and 85 years of age. Three nutritional supplements were added to the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) formulation consisting of vitamins C, E, beta-carotene, zinc and copper: lutein, zeaxanthin and EPA/DHA from fish oil. The ...

The spring 2013 Educational Symposium of the Ocular Nutrition Society, partnering with the University of Missouri-St. Louis School of Optometry, was a great weekend of continuing education, combined with wine and chocolate.  The 2-day symposium started on March 13 with published authors Michael Fossel, MD, and David Woynarowski, MD, who shared in-depth details of basic clinical science of telomeres and age-related disease. Their information was based on Nobel Prize-winning resear...

About 1978, I started working at a “holistic” center near San Diego. Most of the practitioners I worked with had nutrition attached to their specialty, and many were vegetarians. Considering what I knew about nutrition at the time (very little), I decided to go the (mostly) vegetarian route. What I quickly found out is that you just can’t stop eating meat and continue eating the same way – following the standard American diet (SAD). You need to look into the food that yo...

A few days ago a colleague passed on this article to me and it reaffirmed my belief in the real cause of cardiovascular disease. Given the number of Americans who take statins and the fact that heart disease is still the No. 1 killer of Americans, something is “out of place.” I hope this article makes you think about the real cause of heart disease.

A 98-year-old researcher argues that, contrary to decades of clinical assumptions and advice to patients, dietary cholesterol is good for your heart – unless that cholesterol is unnaturally oxidized (by frying foods in reused oil, eating lots of polyunsaturated fats or smoking).

In my last blog, I discussed the two forms of omega-3 essential fatty acids in fish oil: triglyceride and ethyl ester. Now, let’s take a look at another form of fish oil becoming popular: krill oil. Krill are tiny, shrimp-like animals that live in the ocean, where they feed mainly on phytoplankton. They're near the bottom of the food chain and are eaten by whales, seals, penguins, squid and fish. Commercial fishing of krill occurs primarily in the Southern Ocean and the northern Pacific O...

I’ve had many questions on the Ocular Nutrition Society website forum about the difference between different types of fish oils. No, I don’t mean cod liver oil vs. salmon oil. We’re talking molecular structure of the omega-3 fatty acids. Ethyl ester (EE) and triglyceride (TG) forms are the most common types of fish oils. The TG form is naturally found in fish. However, in that form it can’t be concentrated. To produce concentrated pharmaceutical grade fish...

I realize that not every doc has the time or inclination to do in-depth study into nutritional support for eye disorders (guess I can dream, though). So, how does the “average” doc make informed decisions about which basic nutrients are important for the over-50-year-old patient? Here is a short list of the suggested nutrients that every over-50 patient should consider. While some may be incorporated into many multiple vitamin supplements, be sure to check the dosage so they are ge...

Two recently published studies showed positive responses from using nutrition molecules to affect improvements in the retina. I’d like to share these abstracts with you to show how advancing nutritional science can make a significant impact on retinal health. The first study evaluated whether co-enzyme Q10 (CoQ10) can protect retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) from apoptosis and, when instilled as eye drops on the cornea, if it can reach the retina and exert its activity in this area. Accordi...

A genetically modified organism is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. Organisms that have been genetically modified include micro-organisms such as bacteria and yeast, plants, fish and mammals. GMOs are the source of genetically modified foods and are also widely used in scientific research and to produce goods other than food. Genetic modification involves the insertion or deletion of genes. When gen...