Cataract Articles

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This page contains medical journal articles and/or doctors' commentaries on the role of mineral deficiencies and other factors in illness, and the value of minerals, vitamins, and a proper diet for healthy living.

Cataract Articles...

In the US over 400,000 cases are diagnosed annually and it is estimated that 40 million world wide suffer with this condition. The cause? Oxidative damage to the eye tissue.

Allan Taylor Ph.D. of the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston believes that cataracts are caused by the slow deterioration of lens proteins by oxidation and that antioxidants help to prevent and retard this process.

The eyes of a person are the only part of the outer body that is actually "living" tissue and it is the exposure of this living tissue directly to the environment that creates problems. UV rays from the sun along with environmental toxins (tobacco smoke, solvents, insecticides, drugs, etc.) create free radical damage in the body in excess and it is these excesses that create problems within the body and especially the eyes. One 5 year study revealed that men who smoked a pack a day of cigarettes doubled their risk of developing cataracts compared to men who never smoked. An 8 years study showed that women who smoked 30 cigarettes a day had a 60% greater risk of cataracts than their non-smoking counterparts.

Antioxidants are the key! These super duper nutrients neutralize the damaging effects of free radicals. Vitamin C is one of the most well known of the antioxidants and is phenomenal for protecting the eyes. Take a banana and cut in half. Mash the one half up with some vitamin C and leave the other exposed to the air. The half with the vitamin C will remain white and fresh while the other half will turn brown and darken quickly.

The amount of Vitamin C in the eye is 20-70 times higher than that of the blood and other tissues. In eyes with cataracts, very little ascorbic acid (c) is found. Vitamin C protects the lens proteins and other components of the eye against damage by ultraviolet light. In one sight restoring study 450 patients who were diagnosed with cataracts experienced a reduction in cataract formation only weeks after taking just 1 gram of C daily!

Vitamin C, E and beta carotene (A) are the most well known of the antioxidants and when used separately are very effective, but when used together compound their benefits to users tremendously. A large scale study of more than 120,000 RN's conducted at Brigham Young's Hospital and Harvard Medical school found a 40% lower rate of cataracts among nurses who consumed the most foods high in Vitamin A (squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, etc.) compared to those who ate the least. A report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that people who did not eat their 3.5 servings of fruits and vegetables were 6 times more likely to develop cataracts than those who did.

Lycopene, a bioflavonoid of the carotene family (found in the red pigment of tomatoes) exhibits the highest oxygen-quenching rate of the antioxidants as revealed in a German study.

Selenium together with Vitamin E has used successfully by veterinarians for years to remove cataracts from dogs. Dogs given these cataract killers not only lost their cataracts but had improved vision as well.

Numerous studies have implicated a deficiency of riboflavin (B2) in cataract formation. In one study of 173 cataract patients, 20% of those under the age of 50 were deficient in riboflavin and 34% over 50 were deficient. None of the 16 controls over the age of 50 who did not have cataracts were deficient.

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