Prevent cataracts using new information....

Today's Post: Friday, 5-20-2011

A compound, isocyanic acid, in smoke causes cataracts. (It also helps cause heart disease and rheumatoid arthritis.)

This was in the health news earlier this week.

1. Colorado researchers have discovered that an acidic gas found in cigarette smoke also is a component of smoke from wildfires.

They also found some in the air in Los Angeles.

But, when they tested tobacco smoke, it was off the scale on the high side!

(Burning coal also produces isocyanic acid the article noted but did not give any data for people downwind of coal fired power plants or similar information.)

“Once isocyanic acid enters the body, it dissolves to a more health disruptive form, charged cyanate molecules. It is these molecules that, extremely soluble at human blood pH level, can cause heart, joint, and eye diseases. ….These can contribute to human health problems, including cardiovascular disease, cataracts and arthritis.”

These molecules produce cross linking in the proteins they encounter and sharply increase inflammation. That damage in the lens of your eyes causes cataracts. And, it also helps damage and irritate the lining of your blood vessels. That damage makes the lining less flexible which helps cause high blood pressure. It also causes your body to try to patch over the damage which causes the build up of plaque which directly causes heart disease.

So, to prevent cataracts, do what you can to avoid being downwind from wildfires and from coal burning that is inadequately filtered.

That will help some.

But the big thing to do is:

Stay as close to completely away from tobacco smoke as you possibly can!

(We posted this last time:

Cancer is the LITTLE problem from tobacco smoke! -- because all exposure whether from smoking or second hand smoke adds to your level of cardiovascular disease. Plus tobacco smoke also triggers heart attacks that people might have otherwise escaped. And, every exposure damages you at least some every time! Ouch !! (Even first time smokers and very light smokers are harmed. No exceptions, unfortunately.)

That said, tobacco smoke exposure causes about 30% of ALL cancers.”)

So this information begins to add to what we know about how tobacco smoke causes blood vessel and heart disease.

But it also can help you to avoid getting cataracts. If you’d prefer to avoid them, stay as close to completely away from tobacco smoke as you possibly can!

(Both my Mom and Dad smoked for over 20 years; and they both had cataracts. They also lived in a location where they were exposed to a lot of second hand smoke during those years.)

Other news this week is that tobacco smoke also helps cause AMD which gradually causes blindness by the damage it causes to the retina in your eyes.

2. As I’ve posted before, except for a small percentage of people with a certain genetic pattern, statin drugs only prevent heart attacks for 1 to 3 % of the people who take them. (People who do test to be in that small genetic subgroup and who are at very high risk from other factors or who have already had a heart attack, are the people who statins best help.)

The people who do the lifestyle upgrades to protect their hearts and take niacin and sterol supplements get dramatically better protection. In fact, they get so much better protection, even younger people in the subgroup who statins can protect might be well served to avoid taking them if they get that protection.

Why does this information help you prevent cataracts?

It seems that research has found that about 3 % of the people who take statins get cataracts they would otherwise have avoided.

Since with the exception of a small minority of people, there are better ways to prevent heart attacks, this means that a second way to prevent cataracts is to not take statin drugs.

Few people and far too few doctors know this information.