TAKE YOUR VITAMINS(and minerals) This is 2nd in a series of blogs on how to be proactive with your eye health and eyesight. There are three camps on the use of vitamins 1) Vitamins are a waste of money. There are plenty of nutrients in the food we eat and we dont need to enhance it. 2) There no nutrients in the soil all food is over processed and there is no nutritional value to our food. Take lots and lots of vitamins. 3) Not all of us eat as well as we should, and there are those of us for varies reasons that arent getting the vitamins we should. I fall in camp three. If you consider the minimum daily requirment established by the FDA and our own poor eating habits it is very difficult to get all the nutrients you need through diet alone. Taking a supplement is not a bad idea, but caution! Vitamins are not regulated and so quality differs from manufacturer to manufacturer. Check the lables for filler and processed sugar. The more of either product the less benefit from the vitamin. Fads are dangerous as well. For instance we are told the need for zinc and is typical we tend to add a lot of zinc to our diet. Too much zinc will lead to less magnesium then you have a new shortage. Basically stay balanced and dont overdo it. A few years ago the Age Related Eye Disease Study 2 or AREDS 2 proved that individuals with macular degeneration or family history of the disease would benefit with specialised vitamin formula that included Lutein and zeaxanthin. Lafayette Eye Associates has a testing method to determine macular health. If necessary we place you on an AREDS 2 approved vitamin. We will re-test in the future to see if the macula is healthier. So take your vitamins, but dont go crazy. If you ever want to measure the macula and get vitamin recommendations please give us a call. Dr. Dave
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 20:20:39 +0000