is it true? can eye vitamin supplements indeed help cure eye floaters? in today's video we're
going to break down what these eye vitamin supplements are and what the new research
says about how they could help! plus stay tuned toward the end because I'll share some
facts that you need to know before taking any supplement like this let's take a look
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hey Eyes and Shine my friends! Dr Joseph Allen here from the Dr Eye Health show helping you
learn everything about the eyes and keeping them healthy. so there's a new eye vitamin
on the market and is claiming to work as an eye floater's treatment. Historically,
it has been believed that there is no medical or natural way to get rid of eye floaters except
through surgical intervention such as doing a vitrectomy, where your retina surgeon siphons
off the gel from inside the eye in the operating room or through a YAG laser vitriolysis where your
doctor uses a laser to zap away and vaporize any of those floaters that are floating around
inside the eye but now we have some research that suggests there may be another way. the
scientific support for this vitamin comes from a study published in just 2021. this was a
double-blind placebo-controlled study which they had one group which was the treatment group that
received the supplement and then they had another group which worked as a control group receiving a
placebo of a microcrystalline cellulose which is just a fancy way of saying wooden pulp. but
both groups are receive just a single capsule of either the supplement or the placebo every
day for six months the vitamin supplement used was a mixture of L-lysine, grape seed extract,
vitamin C, zinc and citrus fruit extract in the form of something called hesperidin. first we have
L-lysine which is an essential amino acid and place a role in preventing collagen glycation
which is where a sugar molecule attaches onto a collagen protein and is believed to play a
major role in the development of eye floaters in the first place then we have vitamin C which
is a very potent antioxidant which is naturally found in very high quantities within the eye and
is believed to be one of the main antioxidants that slows down the aging process of the eye
then we have grape seed extract which works kind of both ways both at preventing glycation and as
a powerful antioxidant then we have zinc which again works as preventing glycation as well as
an antioxidant but also helps with the synthesis of something called metallothionine which is a
protein which helps prevent the absorption of Trace Metals into the vitreous which is
believed to be a connection with some levels of vitreous degeneration and then finally citrus
fruit extract which most of which is something called hesperidin which is a powerful antioxidant
and plays a role in preventing the cross-linking of collagen fibers which is basically what the
fundamental buildup of eye floaters is it's basically a bunch of cross-linking Aggregates
of collagen proteins building up inside the eye as the vitreous gel degenerates now the study
measured and tracked the effects of the vitamin supplement versus the placebo by first asking a
detailed questionnaire of people's symptoms both before and after the study then they did and
this is something honestly I really liked they did an objective measurement of taking a video
recording of people's eyes so that they could specifically measure the vitreous area like how
much of the floater is taking up the vitreous and where it's located that way they don't just
have a subjective measurement of people's symptoms but they had an objective measurement be able to
measure if the vitreous was indeed changing with the supplement that's just really good
I'm glad that they did that and then they also measure just visual Acuity contrast Acuity as
well as some other medical things like making sure that the retina wasn't getting thickened
or just in fact if somebody had a large PVD or a posterior vitorous Detachment where the gel has
completely separated from the back of the eye as usually with that people notice really large
robust floaters so after six months what were the results the study reported that the group taking
the supplement had a 66 percent reduction in their symptoms of visual discomfort to be more specific
the patients who reported persistent or more severe eye floaters reported about a 23 percent
reduction in their symptoms people with moderate symptoms reported about a 10 reduction but people
with stable symptoms reported an increase of about 33 we're in the placebo group they did not
report a significant change in symptoms however interestingly enough the they did show that they
had about a 23 percent reduction in symptoms overall despite it not being statistically
significant which does make sense with what we know the placebo effect can be very strong but
it wasn't just the symptoms that improved the objective measurement of measuring the vitreous
area for the group taking the vitamin supplement the vitreous area decreased significantly whereas
the people taking the placebo for six months had worsening of their vitreous area although
again wasn't statistically significant and then as far as visual function the study reported no
significant changes in visual Acuity for people taking the vitamin but they did show significant
Improvement in positive polarity contrast Acuity which is when somebody reads white letters on a
black background kind of like my cool eye chart over here suggesting that these supplements May
indeed help with that type of contrast detection so overall pretty cool results and honestly gets
me pretty excited that they're finding things like this like they just may be on to something now
there's some important things to note about this study one is that it is a very small study they
only had about 61 participants at the beginning and only about 56 people at the end of the study
to report their findings on and although the findings were remarkable we're going to have to
see a lot more studies with larger cohorts before the medical community at large is going to start
recommending these vitamins and then two it may also raise an eyebrow when you look at who funded
the study there was at least an acknowledgment of a scholarship which included some form of a
royalty payment that was engaged with two of the lead authors who happen to have like a patent on
the vitamin formulation that doesn't discredit the findings of the study but it does leave me
wanting a little bit more especially findings for more independent sources so as always with
these newer studies especially around a vitamin or something that's sold on the open market we do
indeed have to look at it with a grain of salt or maybe in this case a grain of wood pulp now this
vitamin supplement is available over the counter and sold through a company called MacuHealth which
is in fact a pretty well respected vitamin brand to the Eye Care world and they have What's called
the vitreous Health eye floaters formula which is 100 based around the formula used in this
study and at the timing of this video I was able to find it for around 65 US dollars for a 90-day
Supply so again in the study they did six months worth so it's gonna cost somewhere around maybe
130 US Dollars and if you do happen to want to look at these vitamins yourself I will put a link
below the like button for you so you can look at that but if you choose to take these supplements
and see if it works for you I do encourage you first always talk to a local eye doctor or a
healthcare professional in an area before you do that because supplements especially when taken in
ill quantities can interfere with your health zinc for example which is in the supplement it is at a
low dosage in the supplement but if you take too much but to zinc it can be affiliated with some
other ailments such as urinary tract infections anemia and is has even been linked to increased
risk of macular degeneration in some people but if you have taken it already or plan to do so
please let me know your thoughts by dropping them in the comments I'm sure that other people may
like to know if you have found any benefit from them otherwise I personally Hope This research
is just kind of the beginning of research like this I think there's a lot of questions such as
you know what happens when somebody stops taking these vitamins does they notice a better effect if
they take them for a longer period or what happens if they take stronger dosages of it there's a lot
of questions and yeah research will tell if you found this video valuable let me know by tapping
that like button and subscribing to the channel if you are new to learn more about eye floaters
such as when you need to see a doctor about your eye floaters such as risk of retinal detachment
or if you want to know more about laser vitrolysis and those surgical procedures go ahead and click
or tap the screen right over here otherwise keep an eye on it and we'll see you soon
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