For Your Eyes Only

Mainstream medicine sometimes pooh-poohs the use of supplements, but consider this stunning number: According to a recent analysis, more than 300,000 cases of vision loss could be prevented in the next five years if people in the early stages of a particular type of eye problem took high doses of antioxidants.

Research has already shown that vitamins C and E, as well as beta-carotene and zinc, can halt age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness among older people. When it strikes, it damages the light-sensing cells in the retina, and once you lose vision, there are no good treatments that can bring it back, says Frederick Ferris, an ophthalmologist and clinical director of the National Eye Institute, in Bethesda, Maryland. That’s why stopping the disease in its tracks is so important.

But why antioxidants? “The eye is a rich place for free radicals to develop and cause damage,” says Ferris, so it stands to reason that antioxidants, which thwart that activity, could help.

Bausch & Lomb makes a product, called Ocuvite Preservision, that contains the formula used in the study and is readily available in drugstores. There are others, but not all have been shown to contain their stated doses.

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