3 strategies to protect your eyes....
Today's Post: Thursday, 3-22-2012
1. Recently one of my health emails said that eating bilberries, a kind of blue berry common in England and Scandinavia, or taking bilberry supplements protects the retinas in your eyes.
Doing this has also been found to improve night vision.
Alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin, and lycopene are carotenes or carotenoids which also help prevent damage to your retina. And the most effective of these for protecting your retina I’ve read are lutein & zeaxanthin. They are high in egg yolks, broccoli, and leafy dark green vegetables.
Because these foods have multiple other health benefits, all the carotenoids are valuable for your health and the several dozen other carotenes may also help your eyes and health. These nutrients ARE better to eat instead take in a supplement.
(Taking lycopene for prostate cancer prevention seems to be one exception to that. But eating a lot of vegetables with the many kinds of natural carotenes may help prevent all cancers. So men interested in that protection should still eat those vegetables each day also!)
Ways of eating thought to be health supporting all vary a bit. But ALL of them suggest eating 5 to nine vegetables a day. Eating two or three servings a day of vegetables that are orange or dark green is one good way to help do that.
2. This way of eating also helps prevent cataracts where your lens to your eye gets cloudy and hard to see through.
Another way to protect your eyes from cataracts and from damage to your retina is to avoid excessive exposure to very bright lights and direct sunlight.
Eating enough carotenes does help prevent that damage by making your eyes harder to damage and easier to repair.
But things like never staring directly at the sun, wearing a brimmed hat outdoors during the day, and wearing dark glasses on sunny days or in conditions with a lot of glare also do that.
3. Getting good circulation to your eyes, optic nerve, and the part of your brain that your optic never connects to also help you keep good vision.
But there is another critical reason to keep up good circulation to your eyes.
Good circulation to your eyeball helps it to empty out fluid when needed which prevents fluid from building up.
If excess fluid does build up too far, that can cause glaucoma, an eye disease that destroys your optic nerve and tends to create permanent vision loss.
Dr Dharma Khalsa’s email also noted that taking ginkgo biloba has been found to increase circulation to your eyes.
It’s better known for increasing circulation to your brain.
But it also helps prevent eye damage too it turns out by improving circulation to your eyes.
Note that 60 mg a day of ginkgo may well be enough if you are keeping your HDL cholesterol up and your triglycerides and LDL low to protect the circulation to your heart and brain.
Also note that it takes a few weeks to take ginkgo until it builds up to full strength.
But even more importance taking it means that before surgery you should stop for a couple of weeks in advance.
Warning: Taking ginkgo and blood thinners at the same time can kill you.
It seems that taking ginkgo causes prescription blood thinners to work a few times better than usual.
So you can’t add taking ginkgo if you are on blood thinners. And you can’t safely take blood thinners if you take ginkgo.
Second, in addition to eating right and exercise to protect your heart and circulation you also need to do so to prevent high blood sugar.
High blood sugar causes excess sugar to stick to your blood cells and LDL particles. That tends to destroy capillaries.
If that happens in your eyes you can suddenly lose vision temporarily while you are driving. I spoke to a woman who found out she had high blood sugar when that happened to her!
But if this goes on too long, it can blind you.
So in addition to the protection it gives your heart, eliminate all soft drinks. Virtually eliminate eating foods that contain refined grains or high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners. Stop eating packaged snacks and desserts. And cut back a lot on eating foods that contain sugar.
In addition to that do vigorous exercise most days of every week.
Of course each of these actions has other health benefits. Many people who make these health upgrades lose most of their excess fat without dieting.
And doing these things tends to slow aging which also protects your eyes.
Today's Post: Thursday, 3-22-2012
1. Recently one of my health emails said that eating bilberries, a kind of blue berry common in England and Scandinavia, or taking bilberry supplements protects the retinas in your eyes.
Doing this has also been found to improve night vision.
Alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin, and lycopene are carotenes or carotenoids which also help prevent damage to your retina. And the most effective of these for protecting your retina I’ve read are lutein & zeaxanthin. They are high in egg yolks, broccoli, and leafy dark green vegetables.
Because these foods have multiple other health benefits, all the carotenoids are valuable for your health and the several dozen other carotenes may also help your eyes and health. These nutrients ARE better to eat instead take in a supplement.
(Taking lycopene for prostate cancer prevention seems to be one exception to that. But eating a lot of vegetables with the many kinds of natural carotenes may help prevent all cancers. So men interested in that protection should still eat those vegetables each day also!)
Ways of eating thought to be health supporting all vary a bit. But ALL of them suggest eating 5 to nine vegetables a day. Eating two or three servings a day of vegetables that are orange or dark green is one good way to help do that.
2. This way of eating also helps prevent cataracts where your lens to your eye gets cloudy and hard to see through.
Another way to protect your eyes from cataracts and from damage to your retina is to avoid excessive exposure to very bright lights and direct sunlight.
Eating enough carotenes does help prevent that damage by making your eyes harder to damage and easier to repair.
But things like never staring directly at the sun, wearing a brimmed hat outdoors during the day, and wearing dark glasses on sunny days or in conditions with a lot of glare also do that.
3. Getting good circulation to your eyes, optic nerve, and the part of your brain that your optic never connects to also help you keep good vision.
But there is another critical reason to keep up good circulation to your eyes.
Good circulation to your eyeball helps it to empty out fluid when needed which prevents fluid from building up.
If excess fluid does build up too far, that can cause glaucoma, an eye disease that destroys your optic nerve and tends to create permanent vision loss.
Dr Dharma Khalsa’s email also noted that taking ginkgo biloba has been found to increase circulation to your eyes.
It’s better known for increasing circulation to your brain.
But it also helps prevent eye damage too it turns out by improving circulation to your eyes.
Note that 60 mg a day of ginkgo may well be enough if you are keeping your HDL cholesterol up and your triglycerides and LDL low to protect the circulation to your heart and brain.
Also note that it takes a few weeks to take ginkgo until it builds up to full strength.
But even more importance taking it means that before surgery you should stop for a couple of weeks in advance.
Warning: Taking ginkgo and blood thinners at the same time can kill you.
It seems that taking ginkgo causes prescription blood thinners to work a few times better than usual.
So you can’t add taking ginkgo if you are on blood thinners. And you can’t safely take blood thinners if you take ginkgo.
Second, in addition to eating right and exercise to protect your heart and circulation you also need to do so to prevent high blood sugar.
High blood sugar causes excess sugar to stick to your blood cells and LDL particles. That tends to destroy capillaries.
If that happens in your eyes you can suddenly lose vision temporarily while you are driving. I spoke to a woman who found out she had high blood sugar when that happened to her!
But if this goes on too long, it can blind you.
So in addition to the protection it gives your heart, eliminate all soft drinks. Virtually eliminate eating foods that contain refined grains or high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners. Stop eating packaged snacks and desserts. And cut back a lot on eating foods that contain sugar.
In addition to that do vigorous exercise most days of every week.
Of course each of these actions has other health benefits. Many people who make these health upgrades lose most of their excess fat without dieting.
And doing these things tends to slow aging which also protects your eyes.
Labels: avoid eye disease, prevent blindness, protect your eyes, save your eyesight, save your site
posted by David at 2:43 PM
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