Glaucoma is the second main reason behind blindness on this planet. Worldwide, an estimated 80 million persons are affected, and prevalence is rising.1 Glaucoma develops when excessive stress in your eye (ocular hypertension2) damages the optic nerve. Peripheral imaginative and prescient is impacted first, adopted by central imaginative and prescient.
Ocular hypertension happens when the entrance of your eye fails to empty fluid correctly, thereby inflicting stress to construct and put stress on the optic nerve. Factors that elevate your danger for ocular hypertension embody:
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Family historical past of ocular hypertension or glaucoma |
Diabetics and people with hypertension |
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People over 40 |
Blacks and Hispanics |
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Myopia (nearsightedness) |
Long-term steroid use |
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Previous eye accidents or eye surgical procedures |
Those with pigment dispersion syndrome or pseudoexfoliation syndrome |
The solely identified solution to stop and/or cease the development of glaucoma is to decrease the stress within the eye. Treatment choices embody medicine, lasers, laceration surgical procedure, oral medicines, dietary dietary supplements, herbs and different plant cures, a number of of which I’ll evaluation under.
Keep in thoughts that lack of imaginative and prescient is normally the primary and solely symptom of glaucoma, so it’s necessary to get a radical eye examination by an ophthalmologist to find out in case your ocular stress is elevated, which might make you a candidate for glaucoma. Once imaginative and prescient loss happens, the harm to your optic nerve is irreversible.
The Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study (OHTS)
Being recognized with ocular hypertension doesn’t imply you’re destined to develop glaucoma, but it surely does considerably elevate your danger, because it’s the first underlying trigger. The Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study (OHTS), which started in 1994, has additionally recognized different danger elements that may assist decide your danger for glaucoma. As reported by Harvard Health:3
“The researchers enrolled a various group of 1,636 individuals with ocular hypertension from 22 websites throughout the US. To research glaucoma prevention, individuals have been randomly assigned to start out both early eye pressure-lowering eye drops (medicine group) or shut statement (management group).
At 5 years the information confirmed that 4.4% of individuals developed glaucoma within the medicine group, in comparison with 9.5% within the management group. This tells us that early use of medicated eye drops helps delay over 50% of glaucoma circumstances in folks with ocular hypertension.
During later phases of the research, the management group might obtain eye pressure-lowering medicines to see whether or not beginning medicine later might nonetheless delay glaucoma; it did.
At 20 years, about 49% of these within the management group and 42% of these within the medicine group developed glaucoma. However, because the research was not randomized, the researchers have been unable to match the 20-year danger discount between the preliminary beginning teams …
Glaucoma danger, it turned out, didn’t rely solely on eye stress and race, however on a mixture of examination findings. This info helps information clinicians in figuring out whether or not an individual with ocular hypertension is at a low, medium, or increased danger for growing glaucoma. Having such info might assist folks resolve when to start utilizing medicated eye drops to stop imaginative and prescient loss or sluggish its progress.”
Aside from excessive eye stress, different elements that affect a person’s danger for growing glaucoma have been discovered to incorporate:
- Older age
- Thinner corneas
- Larger optic nerve cup sizes
- Low preliminary peripheral imaginative and prescient take a look at scores
Treatment Alternatives
If you’re recognized with ocular hypertension, notably in the event you additionally produce other danger elements listed above, your ophthalmologist could prescribe eye pressure-lowering eye drops, oral medicine and/or selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT).4
SLT is a five-minute process carried out at your ophthalmologist’s workplace, the place a low-energy laser is pulsed into particular cells in your eye. Your physique’s pure therapeutic response then does the remainder by rebuilding these cells. The rebuilding course of mechanically reduces the intraocular stress and improves drainage.
Studies have additionally proven that sure natural cures, plant extracts5 and dietary dietary supplements might be useful, though most standard medical doctors know little or no, if something, about these merchandise.
Melatonin Lowers Intraocular Pressure
Melatonin, for instance, has been proven to decrease intraocular stress in sufferers with glaucoma. Subjects who took 2 mg of melatonin every day at 10:30 p.m. for 90 days, skilled a number of advantages, together with:6
- Increased stability of systemic circadian rhythm by way of improved part alignment and alignment with intraocular stress
- Decreased intraocular stress
- Improved operate of retinal ganglion cells in these with superior glaucoma
- Improvements to sleep and temper, notably in these with superior glaucoma
Interestingly, these researchers7 prompt that glaucoma could, in truth, be a kind of neurodegenerative illness, and harm to retinal ganglion cells impacts not solely imaginative and prescient but additionally circadian rhythms and sleep, which melatonin helps regulate.
Its useful results on the eyes can maybe be defined finest by the truth that melatonin receptors exist in a number of areas of your eyes, together with the retina, lens and cornea.8 This hints at melatonin’s significance for regulating eye processes, notably when stress homeostasis is concerned. As defined in a March 2020 paper revealed in Progress in Retinal and Eye Research:9
“Glaucoma, probably the most prevalent eye illness, also called the silent thief of imaginative and prescient, is a multifactorial pathology that’s related to age and, typically, to intraocular hypertension (IOP). Indeed IOP is the one modifiable danger issue …
Melatonin and analogues lower IOP in each normotensive and hypertensive eyes. Melatonin prompts its cognate membrane receptors, MT1 and MT2, that are current in quite a few ocular tissues, together with the aqueous-humor-producing ciliary processes.
Melatonin receptors belong to the superfamily of G-protein-coupled receptors and their activation would result in completely different signaling pathways relying on the tissue … The present work highlights the necessary function of melatonin and its analogues within the wholesome and within the glaucomatous eyes, with particular consideration to the management of intraocular stress.”
Personally, I query the timing of the melatonin within the above research at 10:30 p.m. In my view that’s removed from a super time to sleep and about two hours later than I personally do. The different concern of concern is that it’s unclear if these authors have been conscious that the best manufacturing of melatonin will not be the pineal, however the mitochondria, when uncovered to infrared gentle.
It can be fascinating to match the outcomes of their 2 mg 10:30 p.m. protocol versus one hour of sunshine round photo voltaic midday in a heat local weather.
Melatonin’s Effects Have Been Known for Decades
The impact of melatonin on intraocular stress has been identified for many years, but most standard medical doctors are nonetheless groping at the hours of darkness. In 1988, researchers with Oregon Health Sciences University uncovered topics to brilliant gentle to suppress serum melatonin ranges, after which supplemented with melatonin to gauge its impact on intraocular stress.10 A major connection was discovered:11
“Our information means that throughout the interval of melatonin’s biggest ranges within the serum, IOP is lowest. All topics had most pressures type 4 p.m. to six p.m. and most topics had minimums from 2 a.m. to five a.m.
In experiment one, brilliant gentle suppression of melatonin secretion attenuated the early morning fall IOP. This was statistically vital at suggesting that melatonin is concerned in reducing early morning IOP.
In experiment one, there was solely partial suppression of melatonin manufacturing with brilliant gentle and consequently there was no vital distinction in IOP between topics uncovered to dim gentle and brilliant gentle.
However, administering 200 micrograms (one-fifth of 1 mg) of melatonin orally induced a big lower in IOP. Intraocular stress remained low for about 4 hours after the final dose.”
Lutein Protects Against Glaucoma and Other Eye Diseases
Lutein is one other nutrient that’s actually necessary for eye well being and helps to guard towards age-related macular degeneration, cataracts, glaucoma and different eye illnesses.
Lutein concentrates in your macula, which is the a part of your retina chargeable for central imaginative and prescient. Along with zeaxanthin and mesa-zeaxanthin (a metabolite of lutein), these three carotenoids type the retinal macular pigment, which not solely is chargeable for optimizing your visible efficiency but additionally serves as a biomarker for the danger of macular illnesses.12
Lutein can also be discovered within the lens, the place it helps defend towards cataracts and different age-related eye illnesses. Among carotenoids, lutein is probably the most environment friendly at filtering out blue gentle — the kind that comes from cellphones, computer systems, tablets and LED lights. Blue gentle induces oxidative stress in your eyes, which will increase the danger of cataracts and macular illnesses. Lutein, nonetheless, acts as a defend towards it.
Your physique can not make lutein, so you have to get it out of your weight loss plan. Following are 10 meals which can be notably wealthy sources of lutein.
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Dark leafy greens |
Carrots |
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Broccoli |
Egg yolks |
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Red and yellow peppers |
Sweet corn |
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Avocados |
Raspberries |
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Cherries |
Paprika |
Lutein and different carotenoids are fat-soluble, so to optimize absorption be sure you eat it together with a supply of wholesome fats, similar to coconut oil or grass-fed butter. Because natural, pastured egg yolks comprise fats, they’re among the many healthiest sources of lutein.
Other Helpful Remedies
Certain herbs, plant extracts and nutritional vitamins have additionally proven promise within the therapy of glaucoma, together with:13
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Ginkgo biloba — A 2013 research14 highlighted the advantages of ginkgo biloba, discovering it slowed the development of glaucoma. Forty-two sufferers with regular stress glaucoma acquired 80 mg of ginkgo biloba extract twice a day and underwent 5 or extra visible subject exams over the course of a minimum of 4 years. Mean follow-up was 12.3 years. While intraocular pressures remained largely the identical after therapy, the visible subject index considerably improved, particularly central subject imaginative and prescient. |
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Chinese skullcap — A 2021 research15 concluded that baicalein, a flavone present in skullcap root, successfully improved signs of glaucoma and diminished retinal ganglion cell apoptosis. |
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Bilberry — In animal analysis,16 bilberry extract was proven to stop the loss of life of retinal ganglion cells in mice whose optic nerves have been crushed. The dosages given have been 100 mg per kilo of body weight per day and 500 mg/kg/day. |
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Green tea — A 2019 animal research discovered inexperienced tea extract helped defend retinal ganglion cells throughout ischemic circumstances (i.e., when blood stream is restricted). As such, inexperienced tea extract could also be a viable therapeutic strategy for glaucoma and optic neuropathies. A more moderen report,17 revealed in 2022, proposed that reasonable consumption of inexperienced tea or 400 mg of concentrated inexperienced tea extract per day may profit people with elevated intraocular stress and people in danger for glaucoma. |
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Curcumin — According to animal analysis18 revealed in 2014, curcumin, a polyphenol discovered within the spice turmeric, may help deal with glaucoma by limiting oxidative harm within the eye and reducing intraocular stress. |
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Vitamin B3 (nicotinamide) — Research19 revealed in 2020 reported that glaucoma sufferers who took oral vitamin B3 skilled vital enchancment in retinal operate. Patients within the therapy group acquired 1.5 grams of nicotinamide per day for six weeks, adopted by 3 grams a day for an additional six weeks. |