Continued from Part 3
Comment 7: Time to Get Personal: Are The Moores Getting Enough LMZ?
How do WE know if we are among those who get enough lutein from our food and make enough meso-zeaxanthin from it? We don’t.
What I understood at this point from the research:
- those whose eyes are outwardly healthy, but who have risk factors for developing AMD, have ‘dips’ in their macular pigment in the center where meso-zeaxanthin resides. That research was, ‘A “central dip” in macular pigment is related to age and cigarette smoking.’ Kirby ML, Beatty S, Loane E, Akkali MC, Connolly EE, Stack J, Nolan JM. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science. June 2010.
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those with Alzheimer’s Disease have macular pigment that is deficient in LMZ. Macular pigment is a biomarker (biological marker; an objective measure of an abnormal biological process) for Alzheimer’s Disease.
This is big!
This is the key to stopping that genetic gun from firing!
Since we cannot get a measure of our macular pigment, we have to assume it’s not as healthy as it needs to be to prevent both diseases.
Comment 8: Can The Moores Improve Their Diet?
My husband and I have had general concerns about our nutrition for some time:
- We have trouble finding produce that we’re convinced is nutritious because there are well-documented problems with farming, distribution, and availability.
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We often don’t get the vegetables cooked properly. Sometimes they are in the refrigerator for too long. Our health issues mean that some days we just don’t have the energy to prepare a healthy meal, even though we have the food.
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We both have diseases for which we take medications, so we know we don’t absorb nutrients from food as well as someone with no other diseases and who do not take medications.
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Because of our age, we don’t absorb nutrients as well as someone younger.
Even if we were to try to follow the Anti-AMD Diet that I refer to frequently (see Guide 11), the daily recommendation is to eat 6-7 servings of fruit and vegetables a day: 2.5 cups of vegetables & 2 cups of fruit). A serving is ½ cup cooked, 1 cup raw. The vegetables should include leafy greens, but I’ve not seen any recommendations of the ratio of leafy greens to other vegetables.
That’s a LOT! Do YOU eat this every day? We certainly don’t!!
Comment 9: Those of You With AMD
So far, I’ve shared research that says that having the optimal amount of LMZ in the macula is linked to the PREVENTION of AMD which applies to me, my husband, your kids, your grandkids – those of us with a family history – and your friends and neighbors who do not have AMD or a family history of it.
Want Me To Fast Forward? Sure!
You’d like me to fast-forward, right, to the part where I tell those of you who already have the disease what, if anything, LMZ will do for you?
Relief From the Symptoms
Full disclosure: this is not about slowing the disease – at least we don’t yet know/haven’t proven if having optimal macular pigment reduces the risk of AMD progressing to an advanced stage such as wet AMD or Advanced Dry AMD/Geographic Atrophy. Those types of clinical trials take a LONG time.
We DO know it is about:
- protecting the photoreceptors from further assault and damage from oxidative stress;
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improving the symptoms that make vision with AMD problematic: problems with glare and contrast, slow recovery from bright light, slow dark adaptation;
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protecting the photoreceptors from damaging blue light. Here’s a great video where Dr. Nolan talks to Dr. Kerry Gelb about it. https://youtu.be/wpV4dWd3_80
AREDS2 Formulation Plus Meso-zeaxanthin for Some
What HAS been shown is that for those who are good candidates for an AREDS2-based formulation – those with intermediate dry AMD or with wet AMD in one eye but not the other – adding meso-zeaxanthin DOES improve vision while providing that same reduced risk of progressing to wet AMD found in the AREDS & AREDS2 research.
Dr. Nolan’s CREST Trials
In 2011, Dr. Nolan received funding from the European Research Council to do 2 trials called ‘Central Retinal Enrichment Supplementation Trials (CREST).
Their research question was: if we enrich a person’s macular pigment by giving them LMZ as a supplement, can we improve visual function as measured by contrast sensitivity as the primary endpoint and visual acuity, glare disability, and other measures of vision as secondary endpoints.
CREST AMD (sometimes referred to as CREST 2)
There were 2 CREST trials, but I’m leaving out the details, including those for Trial 1. Dr. Nolan can fill us in about it (and a lot of his OTHER research that I’ve not discussed – there’s just been SO much!).
Trial 2 is called CREST AMD, so they studied people with early AMD. Their primary measure was contrast sensitivity. There were 32 tests in all!
There were 2 treatment groups who both got a supplement with the ingredients from the AREDS2 formulation: Vitamin C and E and 25 mg of zinc, lutein and zeaxanthin.
Group 1 also got meso-zeaxanthin.
You’ll find a good graph in this article that shows the results. The article says, “Patients with AMD would have usually been expected to experience a continued deterioration in their vision throughout the 2 years of the clinical trial. Instead, those receiving carotenoid supplementation showed a significant improvement across 24 out of 32 tests of vision. Improvements in vision were particularly marked among those patients receiving all three carotenoids (group 1) compared with those receiving only Z and L (group 2). Of note, 34.8% of trial participants who received all three carotenoids had what is deemed to be a clinically meaningful improvement in their vision after 24 months, compared with 19.6% of patients on the AREDS2-like formulation (see Figure 1).”
‘CREST AMD Trial: Vision Improvement Among Patients with AMD Who Consume Xanthophyll Carotenoids’ https://www.optometricmanagement.com/newsletters/nutritional-insights-for-clinical-practice/may-2018
What If Your AMD Is Beyond the Early Stage?
It’s not been studied, I’m sorry. However, since we know that LMZ protects the macula from further damage from oxidative stress and from further damage from blue light and has proven to reduce symptoms of glare and contrast sensitivity, improves dark adaptation, and improves photostress recovery, I think it’s safe to assume it will have a positive effect for you, too!
It’s Also About Alzheimer’s
No matter what stage AMD you have, LMZ also reduces your risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease. Every time there’s an article about the link between AMD and Alzheimer’s Disease, it causes quite a stir.
The connection isn’t between AMD and Alzheimer’s: it’s the connection between the eyes and the brain!