To Your Health: Antioxidants and eye health

By Gillian Slade on July 23, 2018.

Antioxidants are more and more important in the fight against free radicals and could play a significant part in eye health.

There is research to suggest eating even one orange a day can reduce your risk of developing age-related macular degeneration, which affects the retina. Changes occur to the central vision and can cause significant loss of sight over time.

There are two types of age-related macular degeneration the “dry” and the “wet.” The “dry” tends to result in more gradual changes while the “wet” develops more quickly with growth of blood vessels trying to repair the damage to the retina.

About a millions Canadians have age-related macular degeneration.

A research study has shown the flavonoids in oranges help to protect against macular degeneration. There are flavonoids, that have significant anti-inflammatory benefits and boost the immune system, in other fruit and vegetables but the ones in oranges seem to have specific benefits for the eyes.

More than 2,000 adults were involved in the study, the results of which were published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Oranges are available almost year round in Medicine Hat being imported from the U.S. and even as far away as South Africa. They are a great source of fibre and contain enough vitamin C to make up all you need for a recommended daily dose. They also contain folic acid and potassium.

It is important to note choosing to drink a glass of orange juice is not the same as the benefits of eating a whole orange. Oranges are ideal to take with you as a snack or as part of your lunch while at work.

They don’t have to be difficult to peel either.

If you score the peel through to the pith (the white stuff) with a sharp knife from the top centre to the bottom centre it is later relatively easy to pull that peel back just before you want to it the orange. There is another advantage to this, they are relatively inexpensive to enjoy year round.

There has been some interesting pioneering research in treating dry macular-degeneration by implanting an eye patch at the back of the eye. The eye-patch is a very thin patch covered with embryonic retinal cells and is placed near the optic nerve.

So far participants in this U.S. research have reported there was improvement in their vision or that it stablized their vision loss. In the study only one eye was done and so far the eye without the patch continued to deteriorate.

Here’s to the researchers constantly striving to find treatments for this disease and here’s To Your Health.

To Your Health is a weekly column by Gillian Slade, health reporter for the News, bringing you news on health issues and research from around the world. You can reach her at gslade@medicinehatnews.com or 403-528-8635.

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