I think your conclusion here is illogical. It can be reversed with exogenous treatments that break the AGEs that cause the lens to become stiffer but there is no evidence that I know of that cataracts can somehow naturally reverse, such as by doing something like improving diabetes or mitochondrial function or what not. When your doctor said diabetics can reduce cataracts if they control their diabetes, he was most certainly meaning that they can slow it down, not that they can reverse it. It’s pretty well known that it does not reverse on it’s own even if you improve other aspects of your health.
I think that’s another wrong conclusion, in case of cataracts. If I’m not mistaken, you seem to be makiing several far fetched assumptions here. The first that your cataracts is actually reversing, or has reversed. Secondly that you have improved your mitochondrial function substantially. Thirdly that this improvement in mitochondrial function is causal in reversing the cataracts. The only one that I think might be partially true is the second assumption, but even that one I doubt. The other two make no sense to me and are not reasonable at all.
You will see that there is some evidence in the literature for what I say.
In practice my own optician will confirm (Pabari of Moseley) that sub clinical cataracts have reversed in one of my eyes. That is not an “assumption” it is independent evidence.
I have not directly measured the mitochondria, but other things are changing which lead to that conclusion.
I explain in the web page above how gene expression is driven by mitochondrial changes.
I don’t mind defending my position with references etc which are available on the web page above and also in this topic although I accept that people normally don’t read the whole topic and I cannot sensibly criticise you for not reading it all before jumping in. I do just the same at times.
“Temporary cataracts have been previously reported in patients with poor diabetic control.”
That’s interesting and is something I’ve never heard of before. I don’t know what causes this temporary cataracts but almost certainly something separate from the age-related cataracts because that is not something that comes and goes quickly but is caused mainly by very slow gradual changes in the lens resulting from age-related extracellular matrix damage.
That’s interesting. Perhaps there are other things besides the classical age-related changes in extracellular matrix that also contribute to it and perhaps these have potential to be reversed.
I have strong doubts about that because there aren’t any good measures of mitochondrial function for humans so if it were improved it would be very hard to know. Rodent studies on improving mitochondrial function in old rodents showed increased locomotive activity as one effect but that’s going to be hard to notice unless you’re old and frail and then notice that you have more energy after doing something to try to improve your mitochondria.
Yes, but there is another assumption that you’re making here that changing gene expression can reverse cataracts. I have seen no evidence of that or any reasonable mechanisms for how that could happen so I consider it very unlikely.
However, the genome functions mainly by producing proteins. This relates to mitochondrial function. When it comes to maintenance of extracellular processes the same applies.
It is possible to see in phenotypic changes improvements in mitochondrial efficiency. Things like improvement of kidney function, hair changing from white to pigmented.
I’ve got a friend who is starting to develop cataracts in one eye. After looking it up here I see rapamycin might be suitable so I told her about it and I’ll get her some and get her to reimburse me for the cost.
She is taking vitamin D3, I got her to get some vitamin K2 to take along with it, and also taurine.
Yes, floaters suddenly appeared in one of my eyes (along with light flashes triggered by eye movement) and I was subsequently diagnosed with retinal detachment which required immediate treatment. I.e., (the sudden appearance of) floaters are not to be taken lightly.
About 5/6 years ago I developed light flashes and floaters in my left eye. Some of the “floaters” showed up as weird structures in my vision.
Knowing what this likely indicated (detached retina) I went to an ophthalmologist. I had the full gamut of checks and tests (even an ultrasound of my eye!) and….nothing.
Retina was fine. When I asked what it could have been, the answer was a shrug of the shoulders! LOL
To my relief it hasn’t reoccurred.
One of the women who most got me interested in rapamycin suffers from long covid. The long covid gave her ME/CFS and also glaucoma. She was placed on rapamycin, and her glaucoma disappeared, which her eye doctor has confirmed–it’s not supposed to be reversible. A drug cocktail that includes the rapamycin has given her a much better baseline in ME/CFS than she once had too.
Unfortunately, neither my severe ME/CFS nor some of my various eye issues have responded to rapa yet (although another condition does respond to the rapa).
I wanted to speak to floaters, however, since so many of you are bringing them up. I’m in the unhappy camp of people who have severe hypermobility–and severe disabling features of it. One of the annoying though more livable things that such persons experience is a far far higher incidence of floaters–often many shooting at one time and many times an hour. And I was one such person. Getting on some of the supplements in the Cusack Protocol for Ehlers Danlos Syndrome almost completely eliminated my floaters. High dose oral hyaluronic acid (NOW brand) is the most targeted supplement for floaters, but I think it stacks on a couple of the other supplements–namely PQQ and polysaccharides from any one from of the following: PharmAloe aloe capsules, 1 per day, Dr. George’s Aloe liquid, 30-60ml, or maitake mushroom.
I was searching “vision” in the forum here because I have presbyopia and a number of weird eye problems–all of which I’d hoped rapa would help. I was curious to see what, if anything, people here have found for eye health.
Additionally, since people were discussing glasses:
I’m currently at only about 1.25 diopters, although my eyes are rather imbalanced. However, I have very sensitive eyes and neuro problems, so I’ve found this new need for glasses pretty difficult, and I REALLY pay for missteps (reading without glasses for a couple of minutes, reading in the dim lighting, etc.).
All that said, I suffered so much trying to use either three-way progressives or standard reading glasses on the computer. Having middle distance computer glasses is so valuable.
I thought that you could only get this type of computer glasses with a prescription from your optometrist, but I picked up a couple of sale pairs w blue light filters at readingglasses dot com. They just use your normal diopter to estimate what you’ll need for the intermediate. Almost the entire lens is devoted to the intermediate 60% computer distance, and there is a progressive full strength reader at the bottom. I happily used the 1.00 for a few days, but on a day with a lot of symptoms, I switched to the 1.50 that I had also purchased. And my symptoms diminished immediately. Since my normal reading diopter is in between those two, I really didn’t know which would work. But going a little higher was the answer. They allow you to test them for 30 days and do returns.
Trying to see through that tiny, narrow strip on regular progressives was just not happening for me, a difficulty that someone else here mentioned. So I thought I would give a shout out to that site.
I looked on so many sites trying to find these kinds of OTC glasses, rather than a three-way progressive of some sort, and this was the first and only site where I found it.
Of course, the downside is that you need to take the glasses off or look over the glasses somehow if you are interacting.
Cataracts, vision issues. I’m 67, soon 68. I have some senile cataracts seen upon examination, but not noticeable by me in practice. I have had natural monovision for 45 years - left eye distance, right eye near-medium. That worked great for some 40 years. But in the last 5 years or so, my far vision deteriorated 0.5 diopter, and right eye started losing the middle distance. I had to get glasses for sharp distance vision. With time, I anticipate further deterioration. In view of that, my plan is simple - IOL surgery. The IOLs have come a long way. Right now, lenses are becoming available that don’t suffer from the problems of the past with distance limitations, night vision problems, contrast issues, light bursts and halos. Some are already approved in Europe. The next 2-3 years should see almost all these problems ironed out. I can easily wait a few more years to get a longer track record and more experience from patients. At that point I intend to do one eye at a time. That should take care of any cataracts and free me from glasses. I look forward to a bionic solution for life. There are still some risks, like dry eye, but on the whole it seems the success rates and patient satisfaction is very high. YMMV.
There are also developments in floater resolution. The current limitations of laser treatment is lack of precision. But computer assisted targeting is coming online and being successfully trialed right now. Of course, this is more suited to a smaller number of floaters - in my case I have one, in the left eye, and in time I hope to take care of it.
@CronosTempi Just offering a few protocols I’ve been on that have not worked in an effort to save anyonee time should google find some mention of the following that did not work for me. I have a slight cateract in one eye causing slight double vision.
H2 generator into eye googles. I bought a high end setup, a few 20min treatments a week for 6 mo. Then fell off. Compliance on trapped in some contraption is hard to keep up.
Russian bioregulator oral and eye drops. Maybe something here and I suspect more for retina / optic nerve issues then the lens (cateracts).
Lutin/astaxanthan (??) based typical eye products. Upped doses, AM / PM. Again maybe better for the retina issues.
Home made SS-31 + TB-500 +BPC-157 eyedrops. Been doing for 1 yr AM/PM. Said to give approx 50mcg of SS-31 per drop. FWIW its saiid that SS-31 at high enough dosing can restore some organs lost function. Many success stories restoring nearly gone kidneys, but 50mg / day range… ;(
Nothing has improved my one eye’s sliight double vision. I was diagnosed by an optimologist so the cateract treatment target does make sense. JUST nothing has worked for me including all sorts of weekly Rapa dosing with blood testing to verify absorbsion.