NUTRITION & EYE HEALTH

Nutraceuticals: Vitamins and Supplements for Healthy Eyes

North Suburban Vision Consultants, in a continuing effort to provide optimal eye health for our patients, is proud to announce that we now provide scientifically validated nutritional supplements.

Cataracts and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are the leading causes of visual impairment and acquired blindness in the U.S.

Nutrition is one promising means of protecting the eyes from cataracts and AMD. Given the positive association between nutrition and these diseases, it seems prudent for people to increase the amount of crucial antioxidants in their diet.

Eating five servings of fruits and vegetables each day provides more than 100 mg of Vitamin C. Eating two servings of nuts and seeds can provide 8-14 mg of Vitamin E (11.9 – 20.8 IU).

However, the majority of people in the United States are not eating five servings of fruits and vegetable nor good sources of Vitamin E each day Not only that, but Zeaxanthin is very scarce in the diet. You’d need to consume 20 ears of corn, or 10 cups of broccoli, or 12 orange peppers a day to get 20 mg of Zeaxanthin and Lutein. Most people simply cannot consume these quantities, so it makes sense to supplement.

In order to determine which patients require supplementation we are now able to measure macula photopigment optical density (MPOD) levels utilizing highly accurate and validated testing methods.