10 Ways to Avoid Vision Loss & Keep Your Eyesight Sharp

The internet is full of disinformation. Stuff written by people who should know better than to write as if what they say is fact. Thankfully, within all of the detritus, there are some decent people that we can trust. One such is the highly respected Dr Eliaz Elias MD. Based in the US he is a common-sense fellow that we have been listening to for a long time.

This week he writes “Too many people view their eyes as something separate from the rest of their body. But the opposite is actually true — your overall health significantly influences your vision. 

Another misconception related to eye health is that vision loss is a normal part of aging. You might even think that macular degeneration or the need for eyeglasses are unavoidable parts of the aging process. Neither of these is true!

Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to support eye health throughout your life — here are 10 simple tips to protect your eyesight and vision health well into your senior years.”

Having regular eye exams is something that too many people we know ignore, to their detriment, so we think that this and other advice in this article is worthy of sharing with you.

The UK College of Optometrists writes that “High blood pressure increases the likelihood of a blood vessel in your eye bleeding or becoming blocked which may seriously affect your vision and in some cases lead to total sight loss in one eye, so, eating a wide variety of fruit and vegetables, including dark green leaves, is good for your general health and may support good eye health. Eating healthily will also help you to maintain a healthy weight, which helps keep your blood pressure under control.”

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of sight loss in the UK – affecting more than 600,000 people, however, in the US another doctor we highly respect, Dr William Li writes “When it comes to dietary risk, the basics are clear. We are not eating enough “good” whole, plant-based foods, and we are eating too many of the “bad” hyper-processed foods. These basic tenets are the groundwork and must be a baseline for food as medicine. There are no superfoods… or super drugs for that matter. Without a healthy diet, we are stuck with temporary solutions to symptoms rather than long lasting treatments for the underlying disease.”

He was one of a group of physicians and scientists who in 1994, established the Angiogenesis Foundation, where they shared a vision that angiogenesis-based therapy could conquer the major diseases of our time. In 2003, they collaborated with the US NIH (National Institute of Health) to uncover angiogenesis-based bioactivity of fruits and vegetables. (Angiogenesis is the creation of new blood cells – whereas anti-angiogenesis starves the blood vessels feeding tumours). This was the most remarkable thing that I discovered in my journey back to health, that I could actually eat the right food to starve a tumour (or tumours) – as I did. A food lover, I was delighted to read about Dr Li’s collaboration with Wolfgang Puck to create anti-angiogenic menus at his world-renowned restaurant Spago.

Of most interest to this article is the fact that in 2012, Li convened a world summit in Berlin on age related macular degeneration, bringing together leading eye disease experts and publishing recommendations for action.  In 2017, he launched a video interview series called Vision Narratives featuring interviews with patients, leading retina specialists and clinicians who share how people can protect their vision.

So, the question remains as to why we in the UK don’t have our own government-funded Angiogenesis foundation such as in the US where through research, education, and advocacy — with patients, physicians, researchers, industry, payers, and government — we can enable patients to gain access to safe and effective treatments coming from the angiogenesis field for cancer, blinding diseases, wounds, and many other serious diseases? Maybe it’s time for all of us to ask our MPs to act. But, yet again, Big Pharma will have a finger in the pie to make sure that it never happens. That’s the problem.

However, we hope that you have found this newsletter to be of value. One thing for certain is that having an eye check is key. Vitamins for eye health are all very well, but eye exam prices and eye exam cost should be the least consideration when it comes to eye health. Eye appointments can be made in a huge variety of places these days.

Remember to have a look  at Essence of Egypt.  Our lovely, clean products are here to help you live a better life, much like your body benefiting by a good walk, the skin can benefit by embracing our clean, natural products.