The 2020 opticians standard is rare for seniors - why?

You can help keep your 2020 vision.


Preventative measures is the term used for anything you can do yourself to retain the opticians 2020 vision standard. Aside from annual check-ups what can you do yourself ?

At the moment your gene set is not alterable. This means if you have a family history of eye disease you are more likely to suffer the same fate. But what if you took steps to remove some of the causative risk factors many years earlier - would it make a difference ? The answer is yes - lifestyle and dietary factors are indeed significant.

You are under attack.

Starring directly at this dot l you will notice that words close to the dot appear sharply focussed and words further away (off-center) are blurred.

Rays of light from all of the words beam through the pupil and lens onto the retina. However the sharp words are focussed upon retinal cones at the macular.

It is only the macular cones that are responsible for sharp, direct line of sight. Now the important bit...

The lens and macular cones are under threat of damage by oxidation from free radicals that arise from normal metabolic processes but particularly with exposure to daylight UV rays. This is termed oxidative stress.  

If the lens is damaged and loses some of its transparency, light passing through gets scattered so that it fails to focus properly. This is cataract which is treated surgically.

If the retinal cones are damaged, images focussed upon them will be seen corrupted. This is macular degeneration and the most common cause of blindness in the west.

So protect yourself.

If you partake in any outdoor activity that involves more than a couple of hours exposure to daylight, such as golf, walking, fishing, or work outside, you should protect your eyes from the sun's UV-A rays. Remember UV is invisible, temperature independent and more of it is passing through the thinning ozone layer, even on a cloudy day, than 10 years ago.  

Its not carrots. 

Nutrition is now regarded as a significant factor in eye disease and nutritional supplements have a role in the treatment and prevention of eye disease. 

The good news is that our bodies possess substances which disarm free radicals and in the eyes these are aided by the antioxidant vitamins A C E Zinc and lutein.

In China, a controlled clinical trial - The Linxian Cataract Study- showed that subjects given multiple vitamin supplements developed significantly less cataract than the non-treatment group. People with cataract have been shown to be low in antioxidants compared with people without cataract.

Zinc interacts with vitamin A in the retina where its concentration is one of the highest in the body. Night vision blindness occurs with zinc deficiency even in a person with adequate vitamin A intake and low levels of zinc have been reported in people developing cataract.

The Age-Related-Macular Degeneration Group performed a controlled intervention study in which patients were given vitamins A C E selenium and Zinc. The treatment group kept significantly better vision. On the other hand The Eye Disease Case Control Study Group showed a significant protective role for caratenoids - but no significant benefit of vitamins in advanced macular degeneration.

Caratenoid antioxidants.... not carrots!

Of about 10 caratenoid antioxidants circulating in the blood stream from our diet, only two are concentrated at the macular. These are zeaxanthin, found in maize, and lutein, from spinach. The function of these pigments is to absorb blue and UVA light thereby protecting the macular from free radical oxidative damage. Indeed a 43% reduced risk of macular degeneration is found in people with high blood serum levels of lutein. Recently it has been shown that zeaxanthin is bio chemically derived from lutein by the body.

Lutein is now considered to be paramount in protecting the eye against macular degeneration.

Studies in 1997:

1. Showed a 30% reduced macular pigment density in eye with macular degeneration

2. Found a correlation between macular pigment density and increased lens density in seniors and

3. Demonstrated that macular pigment density can be increased with dietary and/or supplemental lutein. Maintaining sufficient levels of lutein can help prevent macular degeneration 

Several manufactures manufacture dietary supplements in pill form containing lutein. The main problem with oral vitamin pills is that only around 25% of the lutein is absorbed through the stomachs wall to the liver and out to the blood stream. 

For a 43% reduced risk of macular degeneration we require around 6mg of lutein daily. This is unsustainable by diet alone. 

A lutein mouth spray for your eyes. 

The formulation of Pure Focus lutein mouth spray is next best to direct drug injection. In medical terms, spraying this under the tongue (sublingual drug route) bypasses the first-pass metabolism of the stomach-liver and 95% of the lutein is absorbed into the blood stream. The lutein gets to the eye where its powerful antioxidant effect stops the action of free radicals which can damage and destroy healthy macular cones.

Pure Focus was featured by Dr Chris Steele on the "Richard and Judy Show". It makes fascinating viewing and you may download the 5Mb window media video here.

More exciting still is that many individuals supplementing with sublingual lutein report reduced glare, improved contrast sensitivity, colour perception, night vision, light adaptation and visual acuity.

Each bottle of Pure Focus contains approximately 160x 2.05mg servings with 95% lutein uptake. Used as a dietary supplement at a preventative dosage of 2 servings daily, one bottle is over two months supply. The dosage used to attempt treatment for a therapeutic effect requires at least 4 servings daily, in which case one bottle lasts about one month.

Pure Focus Spray 6 month supply £125.40 
Order with your credit or switch card by telephone.

Best advice 

Avoid the insults to nutrition such as smoking and excess alcohol consumption. Protect your eyes from UV. If you have a family history of cataract or macular degeneration or if you smoke, an ACE vitamin supplement with zinc and sublingual lutein is recommended. 

© Eyecare-Plus 2008