Eyes & Eyesight

Our eyesight plays a vital role in our day-to-day lives. The world is visible to us because of our eyesight. Imagine a world without being able to see your loved ones, or the pleasure of watching your favourite programme on television… reading a book or a newspaper… walking to the supermarket… driving a car… Suffice it to say, our eyesight is a precious gift.

Sadly many people only realise how important it is the day things begin to go wrong. Cataracts, age-related macular degeneration and retinopathy are just three of the many diseases that can affect your eyesight.

While many diseases affecting your eyes are age-related, unfortunately there are some widely prescribed drugs that can also have a damaging effect on your eyesight, like cholesterol-lowering statin drugs – which have been linked to an increased risk of developing macular degeneration. Or aspirin – taken regularly by millions of people on a daily basis. Studies have suggested that those who took a daily low-dose aspirin were TWO TIMES more likely to develop wet age-related macular degeneration.

“Wet” is the advanced form of AMD. And it sharply increases blindness risk.

Apart from avoiding these drugs – especially when you are at risk of vision loss or blindness – there are natural and safe alternatives – like zinc, lutein and eating broccoli (or supplementing with sulforaphane found in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cabbage) – that will help combat common disease diseases associated with eyesight and that will help keep your eyes healthy well into your old age.

The Daily Health will help you discover how you can protect your vision – not just as you age, but we’ll also tell you what are the medications and mainstream treatments (like aspirin therapy and statin drugs) that may actually be the cause of your eyesight fading no matter how old you are.