Can You STOP Diabetic Vision Loss?! (SHOCKING!)

If you have type 2 diabetes, you also have a smorgasbord of complications that come with it.

Heart and blood vessel disease… nerve damage… kidney damage… hearing impairment… sleep apnea… skin conditions… the list goes on.

Diabetic retinopathy—the vision loss caused by damage to the eye’s blood vessels—impacts nearly half of all type 2 diabetics.

There’s no cure for it, and mainstream medicine has no way to prevent it.

But researchers have found a simple way for diabetics to STOP this disease… and help PROTECT their vision. 

When it comes to nutrients that are good for your eyes, vitamin A is right up there at the top of the list.

Your eyes need vitamin A in order to function properly. But vitamin A could be especially beneficial for type 2 diabetics.

Diabetic retinopathy is a common side effect of type 2 diabetes—affecting nearly half of all diabetics. It occurs when blood vessels in the eyes become damaged, leading to debilitating vision loss.

There are no current treatments that can prevent diabetic retinopathy. And that’s what makes this study on vitamin A so exciting.

Vitamin A is required for the production of a chromophore called 11-cis-retinal, which your eyes need to produce optimal vision.

Previous studies have shown that diabetes causes a deficiency in vitamin A in your retina—and that rats with diabetes have lower levels of 11-cis-retinal.

Researchers wanted to test whether there was a connection between vitamin A deficiency and early vision loss in diabetics.

For the study, researchers gave mice 9-cis-retinal (a more stable form of 11-cis-retinal) to one group of mice with diabetes, while a second group received a placebo.

The results showed that mice receiving 9-cis-retinal had IMPROVED vision across all parameters measured.

This supports the idea that diabetes messes with vitamin A metabolism, which leads to vision loss associated with diabetic retinopathy.

It also indicates that by increasing 11-cis-retinal, vitamin A could be an effective therapy for helping prevent or delay vision loss in people with diabetes.

But vitamin A is a double edge sword. When vitamin A is released in the form of retinal, it acts as a free radical and can destroy photoreceptors. There is a theory we get too much vitamin A (mainly from fortified foods) and this adds to the problem. That’s why I never recommend vitamin A supplements to my patients.

What prevents the release of retinal? Avoiding blue light and man-made electromagnetic fields. This is why artificial light damages the retina.

And the best way to get more natural vitamin a is through animal sources like grass-fed beef and carotenoid-rich plants like red peppers, spinach, sweet potatoes, and carrots.

 

P.S. Protecting your vision is crucial as you age – even if you’re not diabetic. Click here and learn about the four supplement duos that will boost your heart AND your eyes!