Preventive health, natural health and special diets can all be useful for maintaining good health. Keeping your eyes healthy is no exception. There are certain vitamins you should be sure to include in your diet to keep your eyes healthy.
Vitamin A
Vitamin A is important to your eye health. A lack of vitamin A can lead to night blindness, and if it isn't corrected you could end up with xerophthalmia and suffer from swollen eyelids, dryness in your eyes and corneal ulcers. Left untreated, it could lead to blindness. Vitamin A is also known to help prevent cataracts and possibly even to prevent macular degeneration. Smokers and drinkers beware: you need to get extra vitamin A in your diet. Drinking alcohol can wipe out the vitamin A in your body, and smoking makes it difficult for your body to absorb vitamin A. Smokers in particular should get a lot of vitamin A, specifically from food, not supplements.
Foods you can incorporate into your diet to get vitamin A include beef and chicken livers, mangoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, cod liver oil and kale.
Zeaxanthin and Lutein
Studies, including one by researchers at Tufts University, have shown that zeaxanthin and lutein possibly decrease your chances of developing cataracts. They could also decrease your chances of developing age-related macular degeneration, but results are mixed. Your body doesn't make zeaxanthin and lutein, so it's important to ensure you include them in your diet. Foods that are good sources of them are leafy green vegetables. The best is spinach, followed by kale and collard greens. Yellow and orange fruits and vegetables also have some lutein and zeaxanthin. As for lutein, cook your food sources to release lutein in them.
Vitamin E
Vitamin E is another vitamin believed to prevent cataracts and macular degeneration. The Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) showed that people who included vitamin E in their diet had a 25 percent less chance of developing macular degeneration. Talk to your doctor about how much vitamin E you should get; a diet high in vitamin E can sometimes lead to its own problems, such as increased bleeding. It's easy to remember get plenty of vitamin E, as most sources are a form of nuts: sunflower seeds, dried and unbalanced almonds, dried and unbalanced hazelnuts, peanuts and mangoes.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is yet another vitamin that reduces your chance of developing cataracts and age-related macular degeneration. Studies reported by the USDA have shown that it may help prevent glaucoma, and help ease the symptoms of glaucoma (reducing the pressure in your eyes that comes with glaucoma). As with vitamin A, if you drink or smoke, you need to get extra vitamin C. Also, diabetics should get extra vitamin C. You can get vitamin C from tropical fruits, leafy veggies such as kale, berries, red sweet peppers, broccoli and cantaloupe.
Age-Related Macular Degeneration
Most of these vitamins are important because they help to prevent age-related macular degeneration (often referred to AMD or ARMD). Age-related macular degeneration has no cure. Vision loss and blindness among those 65 years old and up is mostly due to AMD, and because this age group makes up a large percentage of the U.S. population, it's a large concern.
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