There aren’t many things scarier than losing your sight as you get older. It’s one of the most common—and devastating—side effects of aging.
But new research shows that getting enough of this simple vitamin may help protect it. You may even slash your risk of exfoliation glaucoma (EG)—a leading cause of age-related blindness—by up to 25%.1
Researchers at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary looked at the diets of over 120,000 healthcare professionals over the course of 20 years. They were all at least 40 years old and free of EG at the beginning of the study. The goal was to track their diet and supplement habits to see what role—if any—B vitamins play in preventing EG.
By the end of the study, about 400 people developed EG. They found that vitamins B6 and B12 didn’t help prevent it. But there’s one B vitamin that did…
Folate. But you may also know it as vitamin B9.
It’s a B vitamin that’s easy to miss—especially if you aren’t eating the right foods. But if you’re deficient, diet alone may not do the trick.
Folate is popular for its ability to help prevent birth defects during pregnancy.2 But it can also help prevent age-related macular degeneration (AMD). It’s the leading cause of blindness in people over 50.3 And unlike the other vitamins in this study—B6 and B12—it may also be you secret weapon for preventing EG.
EG is the result of exfoliation syndrome. It affects 10% of people over the age of 50. It causes tiny white flakes to build up on your eye lenses. This stuff rubs off when your iris moves. But it also takes some pigment with it. The end result is high levels of pressure. And keeping eye pressure low may help lower general glaucoma risk.4
Not everyone with exfoliation syndrome will develop EG or another form of glaucoma. But having it makes your risk about six times higher.5 In other words, you’ll want to start preventing it now.
Folate is a versatile tool for keeping healthy vision. But like we said…
Getting enough folate from your diet isn’t always easy. But it’s possible. Dieticians recommend aiming for 400 mcg of it each day. Yet even “high-folate” foods aren’t that high in it. And they’re foods that people usually aren’t eating enough of.
Spinach and artichoke will give you 130 and 93 mcg per half cup. Broccoli and collard greens are also good sources at 89 and 81 mcg per half cup.6 But you still may come up short.
Your best bet—in addition to eating a diet rich in these foods—may be to find a quality multivitamin that includes folate, B9, or folic acid. It should come from natural, whole-food sources. But you can also find this vitamin as its own supplement online and in health food stores.
Losing your eyesight is just one of the many frightening aspects of aging… But researchers in Wisconsin may have found a way to help fight it off.
They discovered a way to reverse up to 20 years of aging in just 6 months–in a random group of men as old as 81.
These men lost 14.4% of their body fat and gained 8.8% lean body mass… Their skin thickened and their bone density increased. And the results were peer reviewed and published in one of the world’s most respected medical journals.
Go here to discover how you can get all details on how to ramp up your body’s production of this age-reversing compound all on your own—without a doctor.
References:
1http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24699833
2http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=63
3http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/supplement/vitamin-b9-folic-acid
4http://www.glaucoma.org/gleams/high-eye-pressure-and-glaucoma.php
5http://www.glaucomafoundation.org/exfoliation_syndrome.htm
6http://www.dietitians.ca/Nutrition-Resources-A-Z/Factsheets/Vitamins/Food-Sources-of-Folate.aspx
http://institutefornaturalhealing.com/2014/06/this-elusive-vitamin-helps-preserve-eyesight/
1http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24699833
2http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=63
3http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/supplement/vitamin-b9-folic-acid
4http://www.glaucoma.org/gleams/high-eye-pressure-and-glaucoma.php
5http://www.glaucomafoundation.org/exfoliation_syndrome.htm
6http://www.dietitians.ca/Nutrition-Resources-A-Z/Factsheets/Vitamins/Food-Sources-of-Folate.aspx
