Holistic Eyecare Assistance

[WhiteFeather]

As Im getting pased my 50th birthday I have noticed my vision has been taxed a little lately. Stepping up the reading glasses from a 2.0 now heading towards a 2.5. As Im sure its normal to some, maybe Macular Degeneration or the over use of handheld devices, computer screens etc. etc. However i have been looking into the holistic approach with regards to herbs etc, that could possibly aid in my vision. Im not a fan of any Dr. but would consider a holistic Dr. perhaps soon. In searching i found several herbs that look insightful , no pun intended. Here is the holistic list i found below so far.

Eyebright
Ginkgo
Bilberry
Cannabis
Grape Seed
Lutein
Bilberry

I just purchased a supplement from Solgar, Bilberry Ginkgo Eyebright Complex Plus Lutein, 60 Veggie Caps here. http://www.iherb.com/Solgar-Bilberry-Ginkgo-Eyebright-Complex-Plus-Lutein-60-Veggie-Caps/13093

Im Giving this a shot for now, it couldnt hurt i guess.

Supplement Facts Serving Size: 2 Vegetable Capsules

Vitamin A (as palmitate 1000 IU, 80% [4,000 IU] as natural beta-carotene) 5000 IU 100%Vitamin C (as calcium ascorbate) 300 mg 500%
Vitamin E (as d-alpha-tocopheryl succinate) 100 IU 333%
Calcium (as calcium ascorbate) 36 mg 4%
Zinc (as zinc glycinate) 10 mg 67%
Selenium (L-selenomethionine) 25 mcg 36%
Lutein (from marigold flower) 10 mg **
Eyebright Extract [whole-plant] (4:1) 25 mg **
Bilberry Extract (anthocyanosides 5 mg [25%]) 20 mg **
Ginkgo Biloba Extract [leaf](ginkgoflavoglycosides 2.4 mg [24%]) 10 mg **
NAC (as N-acetyl-L-cysteine) 100 mg **
Taurine 100 mg **
Carotenoid Mix (alpha-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin, cryptoxanthin) 46 mcg **
** Daily Value (DV) not established.

[B]Im asking Avalon members if they have any knowledge on this topic and to please coorespond/interject to this thread.

[Snookie]

Thanks for the info WhiteFeather! My better half is having issues with macular degeneration. He has to go to an eye specialist yearly. So far his eyesight hasn't gotten worse at least.

One thing I did find out is that Asprin causes AMD (age-related macular degeneration). He has been taking a baby Asprin for years now (on the advise of his son who is a Dr.) supposedly to prevent a heart attack.

Ever since I found this out I have been begging him to quit taking it as well as Caduet which he was taking for cholestrol/high BP. I even agreed to quit smoking if he would. It will be 7 weeks tomorrow. He started taking Omega 3 instead of the Caduet and his BP has dropped at least 10 points or more, and is now in the healthy range!

He has agreed to gradually quit the Asprin starting next week.

[northstar]

Hello
I started going to a naturopathic doctor last summer and I am extremely impressed by her knowledge and attentiveness to my issues. She has helped me significantly with ongoing health problems that were not helped by my family MD. None of my issues were related to my eyes but I mention this because you spoke of seeing a holistic doctor. One caveat is that you need to be very careful about naturopaths, some are better than others. I lucked out with mine and I am very happy with her care.

[fourty-two]

Ive experienced vision problems in the past and have taken supplements which stopped it and turned it around.This product looks good to me from my past experience. If I was really, really wanting to change things for the better as fast as possible, I would take this supplement (probably twice a day 12 hours apart) and also purchase a 4 ounce tincture of bilberry and squirt a dropper under my tongue several times a day.

[WhiteFeather]

Thanks for the info WhiteFeather! My better half is having issues with macular degeneration. He has to go to an eye specialist yearly. So far his eyesight hasn't gotten worse at least.

One thing I did find out is that Asprin causes AMD (age-related macular degeneration). He has been taking a baby Asprin for years now (on the advise of his son who is a Dr.) supposedly to prevent a heart attack.

Ever since I found this out I have been begging him to quit taking it as well as Caduet which he was taking for cholestrol/high BP. I even agreed to quit smoking if he would. It will be 7 weeks tomorrow. He started taking Omega 3 instead of the Caduet and his BP has dropped at least 10 points or more, and is now in the healthy range!

He has agreed to gradually quit the Asprin starting next week.

Thanks for your input. And How Synchronistic!..... I just added an Organic Cold Pressed Flax Seed Oil to my intake as well. And It came in the mail several hours ago. Omegas 3, 6 and 9 you cant go wrong.

This just rang a bell. Nikola Teslas quote on 3, 6 and 9. Off topic just a bit. Excuse me whilst i derail my thread here.......

As we look at the six original Solfeggio frequencies, using the Pythagorean method, we find the base or root vibrational numbers are 3,6, & 9. Nicola Tesla tells us, and I quote: “If you only knew the magnificence of the 3, 6 and 9, then you would have a key to the universe.”

John Keely, an expert in electromagnetic technologies, wrote that the vibrations of “thirds, sixths, and ninths, were extraordinarily powerful.” In fact, he proved the “vibratory antagonistic thirds was thousands of times more forceful in separating hydrogen from oxygen in water than heat.” In his “Formula of Aqueous Disintegration” he wrote that, “molecular dissociation or disintegration of both simple and compound elements, whether gaseous or solid, a stream of vibratory antagonistic thirds, sixths, or ninths, on their chord mass will compel progressive subdivisions. In the disintegration of water the instrument is set on thirds, sixths, and ninths, to get the best effects.”

In the book of Genesis it states that there are six days of creation. Yet many talk about the creation week – or seven days, and the Christian Bible views the number seven as the number of completeness. Why Seven? It is due to the influence of the Near Eastern culture at the time in which Jesus lived, when it was believed that there were only seven planets.

When wrestling with adding a 7th number, I was mystically drawn to an article in Discover Magazine. In his newest book, Just Six Numbers, Rees argues that six numbers underlie the fundamental physical properties of the universe, and that each is the precise value needed to permit life to flourish. In laying out this premise, he joins a long, intellectually daring line of cosmologists and astrophysicists (not to mention philosophers, theologians, and logicians) stretching all the way back to Galileo, who presume to ask: Why are we here? As Rees puts it, “These six numbers constitute a recipe for the universe.” He adds that if any one of the numbers were different “even to the tiniest degree, there would be no stars, no complex elements, no life.” (From Discovery Magazine). As some authors have speculated, could these tones have played a role in the miraculous shattering of Jericho’s great wall in six days before falling on the seventh day? Some scientists are now stating that if we have been created, we most likely would have been sung into existence. Is it possible that the six days of creation mentioned in Genesis represent six fundamental frequencies that underlie the universe? Religious scholars believe both events occurred as a result of sounds being spoken or played.

Other scientists, including the geniuses Nikola Tesla, Raymond Rife, as well as Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, and Chladni, all must have known about, and used the concept of, the inherent power of threes, sixes, and nines. So we are dealing with three powerful numbers: 3-6-9. Everyone of the six Solfeggio Tuning Forks all add up, individually to the Pythagorean scheme of 3-6-9. In fact, because there are two sets of 3-6-9 (anagrams) in the solfeggio, they are even more powerful as these combinations serve as “portals” to other dimensions!

http://solfeggiosound.com/?page_id=4

[sigma6]

Thanks for the info WhiteFeather! My better half is having issues with macular degeneration. He has to go to an eye specialist yearly. So far his eyesight hasn't gotten worse at least.

One thing I did find out is that Asprin causes AMD (age-related macular degeneration). He has been taking a baby Asprin for years now (on the advise of his son who is a Dr.) supposedly to prevent a heart attack.

Ever since I found this out I have been begging him to quit taking it as well as Caduet which he was taking for cholestrol/high BP. I even agreed to quit smoking if he would. It will be 7 weeks tomorrow. He started taking Omega 3 instead of the Caduet and his BP has dropped at least 10 points or more, and is now in the healthy range!

He has agreed to gradually quit the Asprin starting next week.

Aspirin to prevent heart attacks, just a scam by the big pharma, a half truth, true it will reduce heart attacks, but for the best extrapolation on why you don't want to do it, read Protein Power and the issue of prostaglandins (?) I think, Aspirin is anti inflammatory, but it is going to create side effects and other imbalances ultimately (as all pharmaceutical drugs do) A simple addition of cayenne pepper to your diet would be a better solution imo. And I am sure there are dozens of ways of reducing the risk of heart attack other then that.

[Selene]

Funny you should ask, WhiteFeather. Synchronicity strikes again! Just this past week I’ve resumed using trusty pinhole eyeglasses after a decade of disuse to tone up the muscles that control my visual focus. Same reason as you – ummm – slippage, needing stronger reading prescriptions, etc.

The physical health of my eyes, thank goodness, seems fine after decades of taking daily antioxidants (1,000mg of time-release Vitamin C daily) but lately I’d noticed the reading focus getting a bit more mushy. But after only 6 days of resuming eye exercises using the pinhole glasses, I can see the beginnings of improvement already. They’re good – and cheap.

Here’s my experience with pinhole glasses:

I’m basically blind as a bat, nearsighted -6.5 diopters (which means I can’t see the ground beneath my feet without glasses; on a Snellen eye chart I can’t even read the first line…LOL) and have one slightly ‘lazy’ eye that – before pinholes - used to wander slightly out of focus, just enough to look *distant* in photos.

About a dozen years ago and frustrated with my photos (ah, vanity!) I picked up a pair of pinholes and began exercising my eyes with them as directed. “Sit in a bright light and look at the middle distance across the room; look around at the edges of doors, windows, etc. Don’t be alarmed if you see two slightly shifted edges…” Well, I saw two doorways. It was bad. But I persisted, beginning with 10 or 15 minutes daily and gradually the dual images began to merge toward each other. Focus began improving. My eye muscles slowly began to respond after decades of inertia. When I removed the pinholes and put on my regular glasses, I could definitely see that my vision was sharper.

I began sitting across a room with a window on the far wall and a more distant view beyond it. The images kept slowly merging and sharpening; I kept looking from the nearby coffee table to the room’s walls to the outside. The focus everywhere kept getting sharper and my comfortable wearing time increasing to about a half hour per day. I did some of the eye movement/tracking exercises recommended. My regular “old” eyeglasses began to seem like a bright new prescription.

As my vision began improving, I started walking around wearing the pinhole glasses while doing ordinary household tasks. This forced my eyes to focus on various distances near and far more quickly; the muscles were becoming more responsive. My brain was reprogramming, which is also a factor in vision.

After about three months of daily use, I was sitting outside in bright light and reading a book with the pinholes – unheard of. And then I took off the pinholes and was utterly shocked to realize that I could read the text with no eyeglasses at all! I could not sustain this eyeglasses-free reading for more than five minutes at that point, but the lesson was learned: your eye muscles like all others do respond to proper exercise.

And my optometrist said: Hmm, your eyesight has improved slightly, at your age… (Maddeningly, she only smiled indulgently when I told her about the pinholes.)

I was delighted to have solved my ‘lazy eye’ problem – something that conventional optometrists say can’t really be fixed after childhood hahaha – so I stopped using the pinholes. But the improvement persisted. My prescription has not changed in a decade. Until lately, when the closeup mushiness of inevitable aging started to annoy me. So I’m back to using the pinholes again, and seeing results again.

A few tips:

• Start with five minutes of daily use and build gradually. Stop when you see your vision reverting to former status – that means your muscles are tiring. Your eye focus muscles are tiny and likely quite stiff after decades of habit. Give them time to respond; they will. Go easy. Build gradually.

• Be sure to look around at various near, mid and far distances. Don’t just sit and stare at the TV or computer screen or book. Give your eye muscles some movement to rest them and develop them properly.

• Persist. The glasses won’t do you any good sitting in a drawer.

• Don’t overpay. You can buy excellent quality pinhole glasses on EBay for less than $2, shipped free from China where they are all made anyway. Sure, you can spend more for fancy frames – but who’s going to see them? The lenses are the same. What have you got to lose?

Hope this is helpful. All best,

Selene

[TraineeHuman]

Hemp seed (not the "funny" kind containing THC) is another powerful traditional eye-healer.

Astaxanthin contains many of the best caretinoids for the eyes, whether for the macular or for other eye problems.

Eyebright was the traditional herb used for centuries. These days I believe it's illegal for actually putting onto the eyes as was done of old, but draw your own conclusions.

[Daughter of Time]

I agree with everything you mention in your OP, WhiteFeather.

Another supplement which is highly recommended by Dr. Mercola for eye care and many other physical ailments caused by oxidative stress (pretty much the entire body) is ASTAXANTHIN. This anti-oxidant is said to be 500 times more powerful than vitamin E and they are starting to include it in some natural eye care formulas I've seen in natural food stores. However, not recommended during pregnancy and nursing.

[WhiteFeather]

I agree with everything you mention in your OP, WhiteFeather.

Another supplement which is highly recommended by Dr. Mercola for eye care and many other physical ailments caused by oxidative stress (pretty much the entire body) is ASTAXANTHIN. This anti-oxidant is said to be 500 times more powerful than vitamin E and they are starting to include it in some natural eye care formulas I've seen in natural food stores. However, not recommended during pregnancy and nursing.

Thanks Everyone.... TraineeHuman, Selene and Daughter of Time. Im considering your eyedeas as we speak. I do Appreciate this very much. ;)
Dr. Mercolas solution here Astaxathin found it on ebay. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dr-Mercola-Eye-Support-with-Lutein-and-Astaxanthin-Dietary-Supplement-30-caps-/121080056220?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c30ef099c

Pinhole Glasses I found them also on Ebay. I do most of my shopping there believe it or not.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Eyesight-Vision-Improve-Pinhole-Glasses-Eyes-Exercise-/140920573228?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20cf854d2c