• Review of common mechanisms and contrasts between age related cataracts and macular degeneration
• Analysis of multitasking functions of the retinal pigment epithelium and general biology of aging
• Up-to-date summary of aging compensatory mechanisms in lens and retinal pigmented epithelium
• Novel insights into the origin of lens crystallins in the drusen deposits
• Summary of recent finding regarding structure and function of individual crystallin proteins
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Abstract
Aging is the greatest risk factor for chronic human diseases, including many eye diseases. Geroscience aims to understand the effects of the aging process on these diseases, including the genetic, molecular, and cellular mechanisms that underlie the increased risk of disease over the lifetime. Understanding of the aging eye increases general knowledge of the cellular physiology impacted by aging processes at various biological extremes. Two major diseases, age-related cataract and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are caused by dysfunction of the lens and retina, respectively. Lens transparency and light refraction are mediated by lens fiber cells lacking nuclei and other organelles, which provides a unique opportunity to study a single aging hallmark, i.e., loss of proteostasis, within an environment of limited metabolism. In AMD, local dysfunction of the photoreceptors/retinal pigmented epithelium/Bruch’s membrane/choriocapillaris complex in the macula leads to the loss of photoreceptors and eventually loss of central vision, and is driven by nearly all the hallmarks of aging and shares features with Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. The aging eye can function as a model for studying basic mechanisms of aging and, vice versa, well-defined hallmarks of aging can be used as tools to understand age-related eye disease.
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Well Engadin, it’s very, very long. I fell asleep once trying to get through it, then decided to search for any recommendations it might have on how to prevent, but, better yet, recover from some of the damage my eyes have already received over several decades of use. I found none. How about you? Did you find anything useful in the article for those of us who can’t go back, but would like to prevent further damage and possibly recover from some of the damage that’s already been done? Thanks for whatever you can contribute.
Sorry to learn of your eye condition. I kindly invite you to read the study I base my supplementation on. I mainly follow AREDS2 protocol, regarding zeaxanthin, lutein.
And omega 3 acids because:
Animal studies, epidemiological data, and evaluations of dietary habits in different countries have indicated that the inclusion of lutein + zeaxanthin, and omega-3 unsaturated fatty acids (docosahexaenoic—DHA and eicosapentaenoic—EPA), in the diet reduces the risk of developing advanced AMD. This became the basis for the AREDS 2 study [63]. It was assumed that DHA is an essential structural component of the retina and EPA affects its biological function. Lutein and zeaxanthin in a ratio of 5:1 were supplemented together because lutein absorption is dependent on the presence of zeaxanthin.
(AMD for Age related Macular Disease.)
Also:
Carotenoids are important in AMD because of their physiological functions and location in the retina. Lutein and zeaxanthin are part of the macular pigment. Trace minerals such as zinc and copper may also be involved in retinal antioxidant functions. Omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to have protective effects against macular degeneration, including anti-angiogenic, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant effects. Omega-3 fatty acids reduce pathological angiogenesis in various cellular and animal models by affecting multiple angiogenic factors, including platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) [68,69]. Unsaturated fats also facilitate the absorption of lutein and zeaxanthin.
All of this said, I am not aware of suffering from AMD in any of its versions, wet or dry, but would be certainly glad to postpone its appearance as much as possible and the mix zeaxanthine, luteine and omega 3 acids seem to push in the right direction, IMHO.
In trying to protect or help one thing with a given intervention, we should always balance that against possible harm elsewhere.
My concern is supplementation with vitamin E. The AREDS vitamin E amount is not trivial. If you are also taking supps which happen to stabilize their pills with vitamin E - and there are a lot of them, fish oil etc. - you could be taking in a worrisome daily levels of vit. E in supplements. It is concerns such as this, that lead them to drop betacarotene from AREDS in AREDS2.
I would try to get my vit. E from food (which I try anyway). I’d also be cautious with zinc and copper. Unless you have serious zinc/copper deficiencies, I would supplement with zinc and only very sparingly, like minimal amounts once/twice a week just to prevent frank deficiencies (copper is pretty prevalent in plants, i.e. veggies). Metals like copper, iron and even zinc can accumulate in the brain with negative neurological consequences, this is more of a concern with supplements, because in food, metals are incorporated and chelated into the matrix, fiber and other modifying compounds which has a different effect than a bolus of metal in a supplement.
Lutein and zeaxanthin seem fine at those quantities (and perhaps astaxanthin as suggested by the poster). Irony: my NOW brand lutein & zeaxanthin supplement is stabilized with “mixed tocopherols”, i.e. vit. E… do I really also want to slam back more vit. E in the AREDS stack? I think not.
But really the best thing you can do for your eyes is to protect them from UV radiation (glasses outside, always, even when overcast, as most of the UV gets through the cloud cover), and have regular ophthamology eye exams.
Well, since cataracts were mentioned in the topic title I’ll list again what others have posted in other threads related to cataracts for those looking for alternative medical solutions. The common one I’ve seen mentioned a number of times is Can-C, an NAC eye drop that is said to reverse cataracts. Some say they have had good luck with it, but I saw no benefit (or harm) when I tried it a few years ago. An old product, but new to me, is Visoluten, a peptide said to help with many eye problems. I have not tried it, but I have been investigating it. I have doubts about it because I can’t find any specific discussion about it. And, the newest thing I have come across is LumenPro, a Lanosterol + NAC eye drop for dogs and other animals. The website for this is https://shop.lumenpro.com/. It looks interesting because I believe I saw reference to some research at the Univ. of Maryland on this product. But, I’m having difficulty finding the actual research. I also don’t find it listed on sites like Chewy.com, only on the lumepro.com site which tends to make me think it may be more hype than reality. But, Lanosterol and NAC do make medical sense because there is information about both in medical research. So, I’ll be keeping track of this one for a while. If it actually works for animals without bad side effects it may go on my list of things to try.
One final thing I just now found is cataract research at Edinburgh Biosciences (https://edinburghbiosciences.com/) called Ledinbio. This, like Visoluten and LumenPro, is on my list of things to investigate. I’m not presenting any of the information about these 3 things because I don’t know enough to give any type of summary. They are just items on my watch list.
