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Cataracts
A cataract occurs when the lens or capsule of the eye become opaque, causing partial or total blindness. Causes of cataracts include plant-poor diets, diabetes, aging, metal poisoning, injury to the eye and use of steroids. The most common symptom of a cataract is gradual loss of vision. Free oxygen radicals, and a dietary insufficiency of antioxidant vitamins, probably play a major role in the onset of this disorder.
Conventional treatment for cataracts involves surgery, where the damaged lens is removed and replaced with a prosthetic lens.Cause/Risks
 | Aging, diabetes, radiation exposure and eye injuries are the most common causes of cataracts |
| Use of drugs like steroids and heavy metal poisoning may contribute to cataract development. |
| Free radicals most often cause cataracts. Free radicals form when ultraviolet or low-level radiation creates reactive chemical fragments in the eye that then attack enzymes, cell membranes and structural proteins found in our food, water and environment. |
Symptoms
| Night blindness; painless but gradual loss of vision. |
How Alternative Medicine may potentially help?
Some herbs, vitamins and minerals have the power to destroy the free radicals that cause cataracts.
Herbs
| Bilberry extract is a potent flavonol antioxidant that enhances visual acuity. Taken together with vitamin E, it halted cataract formation in one clinical trial. |
| Other Eye support products. |
Vitamins
| Vitamin C is known to reduce cataract formation and even improve vision in patients, at levels of at least 1,000 mg per day. |
| The above study is backed up by the results of a four-year study published in the June 1998 issue of Opthalmology. It found that individuals taking vitamin E supplements are less than half as likely to develop cataracts as those who do not take E. In addition, taking multivitamins reduces cataract risk by one-third. It's thought that the antioxidant effect of the vitamins neutralize cell damage in the eye by fighting free radicals, potentially harmful byproducts produced during fat breakdown. |
| Vitamin A plays a vital role in promoting normal vision. |
| Beta carotene filters UV rays, which promote cataracts. |
| Vitamin B2 is essential to regeneration of depleted glutathione antioxidant in the eye. Supplementation should not exceed 10 mg per day, as higher levels of riboflavin increase light sensitivity. |
Minerals
| Zinc may help protect against light induced damage. |
| Selenium levels are much lower, and hydrogen peroxide levels (an indicator of increased free radical damage to the lens) are 25 times higher than normal, in the aqueous humor (eyeball fluid) of cataract patients. Selenium is an essential component of glutathione peroxidase, the chief antioxidant defense against hydrogen peroxide. |
Resources
| For more information, contact the National Eye Health Education Program, National Institutes of Health,P.O. Box 20/20 Vision Place, Bethesda, MD 20892; 301/496-5248, M-F. 8:30-4:30 EST. Or check out the American Academy of Ophthalmology website at www.eyenet.org. |