Have you ever experienced floaters in your vision?
Did someone tell you that eating pineapples can get rid of them?
Is that true or is it just a hoax?
To learn more, keep on watching.
Hello everyone, I am Dr. Audrey Tai, welcome back to my channel - Eye channel by eye surgeon.
I am a board certified and fellowship trained refractive and cataract surgeon, ophthalmologist
and cornea specialist, I am here to bring you the latest information on eye health and
medicine.
If you have noticed some tiny gray or black strings that are floating around in your vision,
you're not alone.
Those small floating objects you are seeing in your vision are commonly called floaters,
or posterior vitreous detachment as the scientific term.
In fact floaters are so common, I see multiple patients every day in my clinic who come in
because they have developed symptomatic floaters.
In today's video, we will discuss the nature of floaters, and whether eating pineapples
is really an effective treatment for floaters, what are the confirmed effective treatment
options for floaters, and when you should be concerned about floaters.
So what are floaters?
Floaters are basically clumps of collagen fibers formed in the Jell-O like material
called vitreous gel, which fills the cavity in our eyes.
Vitreous gel is composed of 99% water, 0.5% collagen fibers, and the remaining 0.5% is
mucopolysaccharides and hyaluronic acid.
Vitreous gel is usually clear and transparent.
However due to aging or mechanical factors such as trauma to the eyes, vitreous gel can
undergo a process called syneresis, which is the contraction of a gel accompanied by
the separation of liquids from the gel.
As the volume of the vitreous gel shrinks, the collagen fibers embedded in the vitreous
gel break and form free floating clumps of collagen, known as floaters.
The collagen fiber clumps move with the eyes, and when they are near the center of your
vision, you can see them as gray structures such as bubbles, strings, cobwebs, or dark
spots.
Floaters are very common among people over the age of 50, and become more common as we
age.
It is reported that the prevalence of floaters is over 87% among people over 80.
However it doesn't mean floaters do not affect people younger than 50, I frequently see patients
in their 20s, 30s and 40s with symptomatic floaters.
In fact, over 30% of the general population has floaters.
Now that you have learned about floaters, let’s get to the pineapples – can you
really get rid of floaters by eating pineapple?
You may have seen some pineapple eating challenge videos on the Internet, or heard about people
who reported seeing less floaters after eating pineapple for a few months.
How did this all come about?
It all started with a study conducted in Taiwan and published in 2019 in a Journal called
Journal of American Science, not to be confused with the more well known American Journal
of Science.
In this article they reported 388 participants were divided into two experimental groups:
in experiment one, 190 participants ate two pieces of pineapple after lunch every day
for three months, and the study reported a 70% reduction of floaters in this group; In
experiment 2, 198 participants were divided into three groups and ate different amounts
of pineapple, one , two or three slices of pineapple after lunch for three months, and
the study reported a dose dependent reduction of floaters ranging between 55% and 70% in
this experiment.
So did these researchers discover a miracle cure for floaters in 2019?
When I read the title of this article, just like you, I was really hoping that this pineapple
treatment for floaters could be true.
But after reading this study, I have many questions.
This study was published in 2019, but since then, there have been no studies that were
able to replicate those results reported in any major or minor scientific journals.
Usually when there is a new ground breaking scientific finding that could potentially
affect a third of the global population, that is something a lot of researchers would be
interested in studying, and yet there have been no studies by any other groups confirming
these findings.
Let’s dive a little deeper into this study.
The study’s authors hypothesized that bromelain, which is a group of enzymes found in pineapple,
breaks down the collagen fibers in the floaters and dissolves them.
One important thing to note is that, many parts of our eyes are made out of collagen
fibers, besides the ones in the vitreous gel that form floaters.
Collagen fibers also form parts of the cornea – the clear windshield of the eye, the sclera
– the white wall of the eye, and the lens capsule – the thin membrane that wraps around
the lens inside of the eye.
All of those structures and more are made out of collagen.
If bromelain from eating pineapple can dissolve the collagen fibers in the floaters, why would
it not affect the collagen fibers in the rest of the eye?
By this logic, if bromelain can break down collagen fibers that form floaters, it would
break down collagen fibers that support the normal structure of the eye, and the whole
eyeball would melt.
Another question that I had is that the study’s authors reported a cure rate of up to 70%
of floaters in a matter of 3 months by eating a few slices of pineapple every day.
You might expect therefore people who eat a lot of pineapple would have a lot less floaters.
However, countries with high consumption rates of pineapple such as Brazil and the Philippines,
to the best of my knowledge, do not have a dramatically lower prevalence of floaters.
So if pineapple really cures most floaters, I wonder why we are not seeing significantly
less floaters in those regions.
I have always been interested in natural remedies that are effective in treating common eye
diseases, and I actually also have a Masters degree in nutrition, so I really wanted this
study to be true.
Unfortunately, after reading this study, I am sorry to report that most likely, more
rigorous future data will likely not show eating pineapple can cure floaters.
Also please keep in mind, the natural progression of floaters is that they often get better
spontaneously without any intervention.
Because the clumps of collagen fibers that form the floaters tend to settle away from
the center of the vision over time.
This is one reason why regardless of pineapple, many people notice resolution of floaters
over a period of a few months.
That said, pineapple is a delicious fruit, so if you have floaters and want to try eating
some pineapple every day and see if that helps your floaters, that’s probably fine for
most people.
But do keep in mind that pineapple is high in sugar content, and is very acidic.
So for people with diabetes or other medical problems, I would recommend that you speak
with your doctor before eating large amounts of pineapple.
Please let me know your experience in the comments below.
Now we have talked about whether pineapple can really cure floaters, let's talk about
the confirmed effective treatment options for floaters.
As I mentioned before, naturally, many floaters tend to get better on their own without any
intervention.
For majority of people who develop floaters, the symptoms become less bothersome after
a few months.
For floaters that are persistent over months, and especially if the location of the floater
is central, and obstructing the vision, limiting what you can see and do, your eye surgeon
can perform a laser procedure called YAG laser vitreolysis in the office, to treat floaters
that are very well formed and with certain anatomical characteristics.
In rare cases, a surgical procedure called pars plana vitrectomy can be performed in
the operating room, to remove the whole vitreous gel and replace it with clear fluid to remove
all of the floaters.
Both the YAG laser procedure and the vitrectomy surgical procedure have risks, so please discuss
with your eye surgeon if you're interested in having those procedures to improve any
persistent and severe floaters.
So when should you be worried if you're seeing floaters?
Floaters are one of the most common eye diseases that can affect our vision.
For the vast majority of cases, eye doctors recommend people who experience new symptomatic
floaters to get a full dilated eye exam, to rule out any tears or detachment of the retina.
There are three symptoms you should definitely watch out for, and they are common symptoms
of tears or detachment of the retina, number 1: seeing flashing lights in the peripheral
vision that is continuous and painless; number 2.
Seeing a curtain or a shadow like image that starts gradually to block part of the vision;
number 3.
All of sudden start developing a significant number of floaters, like looking through a
snow globe.
While those symptoms are not inclusive, if you do see any of those three symptoms, you
need to contact your eye doctor right away and get a full dilated eye exam.
Do you see floaters in your vision?
If so, are you going to conduct your own pineapple experiment?
Let me know in the comments below.
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Thank you again for watching and I will see you in my next video.