New research shows a way to preserve your precious eyesight

The exciting information that Bill Sardi brought us on the program Saturday was so powerful and life changing for some folks that I thought I’ better repeat at least some highlights. Most of us probably know someone who is struggling with macular degeneration or has a parent that suffers with it. Do them a giant favor and forward this article to them. They can listen to the show by clicking here.

Macular Degeneration (MD) causes more people to lose their eyesight than cataracts and glaucoma combined—more than 10 million Americans are affected. (The photo above illustrates the effect and it can be worse.) Furthermore, even people with perfect vision should pay attention if one of their parents had the problem. That’s because 45% are also likely to develop the disease in their lifetimes. Sadly, until now, there has been no proven way to prevent MD. Nor is there a proven treatment for the most common type (dry). The therapy for the fast-progressing wet type is expensive and involves monthly injections into the eyeball. (Yikes. Some science suggests that the drugs used in those injections might cause blindness.)

There hasn’t even been an early warning of MD…just the prospect of surprising and terrifying news during an eye exam. Now an FDA-approved test can predict MD. This test measures how long it takes our eyes to adapt to a dark environment after having been exposed to bright light. If a person’s eyes take 6.5 or more minutes to make that transition, they can expect to develop macular degeneration within 4 years—unless they know the right things to do.

“Popular” is not the same thing as “effective”. For example, you may be familiar with the Age Related Eye Disease (AREDs) antioxidant supplement formulated by the National Eye Institute and marketed most widely by Bausch + Lomb under the name PreserVision®. That combination has been shown to slow the worsening of MD (25% slowing over 10 years), but it does not stop the loss of vision or restore what has been lost. Worse yet, for 2 of 4 genetic types, it even makes matters worse.

One supplement has recently been shown to do what we really need. Longevinex®, formulated by Bill Sardi, is not new. People have been taking it for various reasons, e.g. to protect their hearts or slow the effects of aging. Surprisingly, many consumers reported that they also experienced a major improvement in their eyesight…even the reversing macular degeneration. And, that observation was not just made by consumers. An eye doctor at a VA hospital said he saw reversals of MD among many patients using Longevinex. As impressive as these testimonials are, they are not science per se.

Then Dr. Stuart Richer OD, PhD*, in a small study of elderly subjects with dry macular degeneration, discovered that roughly 86% of subjects significantly reduced the time it took for their eyes to adapt to the dark when taking Longevinex. That means it had reversed the process that is predictive of macular degeneration.

Sure, it would be great to have a larger and longer study proving the benefits of Longevinex for Macular Degeneration. Unfortunately, too many of us cannot wait that long. Such studies take years and many millions of dollars. But, it is even worse in the case of a natural nutritional supplement because current law forbids a nutrient to say it prevents or treats a disease—no matter what the research shows! Bill Sardi tried to conduct a study on Longevinex for macular degeneration but the FDA said he would have to declare it a drug. Also, he has found that eye doctors do not refer patients for such tests. (Is there just too much money to be made giving those eye injections?)

If you have a family history of MD or have been diagnosed with it, what do you have to lose by trying Longevinex? At the least you would be supporting the health of your heart and gaining other benefits you can read about in my article on resveratrol. (Note. Plain resveratrol is only 1/6 as effective Longevinex which combines a safe dose of herbal antioxidants (resveratrol and quercetin) with vitamin D, a metal binder (IP6 phytate from rice bran) and DNA-repairing nucleotides (RNA).)

Preliminary studies suggest that Vitamin B3 (as nicotinamide or niacinamide) and zinc also help protect the eyes against MD. Those are contained in another Bill Sardi formulated product I greatly admire and personally use, Molecular Multi. A clean diet and UV-blue filtering sunglasses may also help.

* Dr. Stuart Richer OD, PhD is Director of the Ocular Preventive Medicine at the Captain James A Lovell Federal Health Care Facility, North Chicago, IL, and President of the Ocular Nutrition Society. He announced that discovery at the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision & Ophthalmology (ARVO), Baltimore, MD, May 8, 2017

 



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