Cataracts and Alzheimer’s Disease
The Antioxidant Connection - Do You Have Enough Vitamin A?
Cataracts and Alzheimer's have been linked with antioxidant deficiencies, including Vitamin A, Carotenoid (Spinach), Vitamin C, Glutathione (Asparagus), and Selenium.
Eating your way to better lens health may be the easiest way to prevent cataract, slow the progression of cloudy lens, while also decreasing your risk of Alzheimer's disease.
Cataracts are essentially a scaring, an increased opacity or clouding of the lens of the eye.
The lens sits behind the iris, the colored part of the eye and the pupil, the center black part. To see clearly we use the lens to focus an image on the retina at the back of the eyeball. When the lens is cloudy or inflexible it doesn’t adjust or allow the image to come through clearly.
Like much of our body the lens is primally made up of water and protein. The proteins are arranged in a specific way in order for the light to pass through. Cataracts form when the proteins are misfolded and clumped together.
Types of Cataracts
There are several kinds of cataracts. The most common is the nuclear cataract, which forms in the center of the lens and often are found in people who have had a long time to be exposed to sunlight, radiation and toxicity in their environment.
Cortical cataract forms in the outer part of the lens, gradually extending into the center. These are most common in diabetics and people with Alzheimer’s disease.
High doses of steroid and visual conditions such as diabetes, farsightedness and retinitis pigmentosa can cause a cataract to form in the back of the lens, called a subcapular cataract.
Vitamin A and Caratinoids
People with cataracts tend to be deficient in a number of vitamins, including Vitamin A, Carotenes, Lutein, and Zeaxanthin. The carotenoids are also assosiated with reducing the risk of Macular Degeneration. These are obtained primarily from dark green, leafy vegetables such as spinach, collard greens, kale, mustard greens, and turnip greens.
Cataracts and Alzheimer’s Disease
In one kind of cataract, found in people with Alzheimer’s disease, beta-amyloid proteins cause the clouding of the lens behind the iris. These are the same proteins that contribute to Alzheimer’s disease by forming plaques in the brain. These proteins have a beneficial side and a destructive side. The components that are made into Beta amyloid proteins or the Beta amyloid precursor protein help our nervous system tissue grow and heal. In particular, they have a nerve growth factor-like activity. Inside the cell these proteins are also protective and delay cell death.
On the other hand, the Beta amyloid proteins are a key factor in the oxidative stress and inflammation, which can lead to cell death and are characteristic of Alzheimer's disease.
Herbs and Nutrients for Beta Amyloid Protein Caused Conditions
A study from 2006 noted, "our results suggest that Uncaria rhynchophylla has remarkably inhibitory effects on the regulation of Beta amyloid fibrils, and we conclude that this medicinal herb could have the potency to be a novel therapeutic agent to prevent and/or cure Alzehimer’s disease."
Sufficient levels of Vitamin A (mangos, sweet potatoes) have also been linked to slowing down or reversing the expression of Beta amyloid proteins.
Nutrients for Cataracts
Proteins, rich in sulfur containing amino acids and in particular whey protein from milk or cheese that has not been heated can be beneficial in cataracts because they optimize glutathione levels.
Other nutrients and botanicals, which may benefit cataract patients or help prevent cataracts, include glutathione (asparagus, broccoli, avocado) pantethine (many foods), folic acid (tomato juice, green beans), melatonin (walnuts, milk), and bilberry fruit.
