As powerful antioxidants, they also mop up the free radicals produced by light-detecting chemicals in the eye, to help protect long-term vision. What can lutein help? Zeki, S (1980). "The representation of colours in the cerebral cortex". Nature. 284 (5755): 412–418. Bibcode: 1980Natur.284..412Z. doi: 10.1038/284412a0. PMID 6767195. S2CID 4310049.

An optometrist or ophthalmologist may see “drusen” when they examine your retina. Drusen are small deposits under the retina, which they can see as yellow dots. Drusen can be present as a normal part of ageing and are not always a sign that someone has AMD. There is little that can be done to prevent presbyopia due to the fact that the lens grows throughout life, while the eye stays a fixed size. Eye muscles are therefore less able to change the lens shape by constricting or relaxing. Eat to beat it: The macula contains two yellow pigments known as 'lutein' and 'zeaxanthin'. These pigments help to filter out harmful blue light and neutralise the damaging chemicals it produces during light detection. When your levels of these pigments decline, the rate of cell damage increases and can lead to a widening circle of visual distortion. Eat to beat it:

Glaucoma

Brazionis L, Rowley K, Itsiopoulos C, O'Dea K. (2009). Plasma carotenoids and diabetic retinopathy, The British journal of nutrition As we get older, the risk of poor eyesight increases, with the most common causes being cataracts, glaucoma, and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Many of these conditions are also progressive – which means that there is always a benefit to starting an eye health routine, even if you have one of these conditions already. Ratnayake, K., Payton, J.L., Lakmal, O.H. and Karunarathne, A.(2018). Blue light excited retinal intercepts cellular signaling. Scientific reports In fact, research has shown that age-related macular degeneration is associated with reduced levels of lutein and zeaxanthin in the macula, and that those living with the condition have, on average, 70 per cent less carotenoid pigments in their eyes than those with healthy vision. If you have difficulty digesting food, your GP may recommend a supplement so that you can get the right amount, but most people can get all the vitamins and minerals they need through diet alone. Your lifestyle

Sight is one of our most precious senses, yet we often take our eye health for granted. Many of us find it hard to believe that we could lose it one day, but as we get older the risk of poor eyesight increases.

Bartlett, H. and Eperjesi, F. A randomised controlled trial investigating the effect of nutritional supplementation on visual function in normal, and age-related macular disease affected eyes: design and methodology [ISRCTN78467674]. Nutr.J. 10-10-2003;2:12. View abstract. Dry AMD is the more common type of AMD. It develops very slowly and causes a gradual change in your central vision. Dry AMD usually takes a long time – often years, to get to its final stage. At its final stage, dry AMD causes a blank patch in the centre of your vision in both of your eyes. It doesn’t affect your peripheral (side) vision, so it never leads to total blindness. Based on the results of AREDS and AREDS2 and concerns about the risk of beta-carotene for smokers, the current recommended daily formula to slow down the progression of AMD in people already diagnosed is: At present the strongest evidence about which vitamin formula to take comes from AREDS (2001) and AREDS2 (2012), two large-scale clinical trials carried out in the United States.

Consider buying wraparound sunglasses which will protect your eyes at the side but still give you 180-degree vision. An alternative technique for the computation of the designator in the retinex theory of color vision" Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 83:3078–80. Beta-carotene supplements have been found to increase the risk of lung cancer in smokers and people who have previously smoked. Results of AREDS2Recent advances in retinex theory and some implications for cortical computations: Color vision and the natural images" Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 80:5136–69. Reprinted in McCann, vol. III, pp.159–66. Barghout, Lauren (2014). "Visual Taxometric Approach to Image Segmentation Using Fuzzy-Spatial Taxon Cut Yields Contextually Relevant Regions". Information Processing and Management of Uncertainty in Knowledge-Based Systems. Communications in Computer and Information Science. Vol.443. Cham: Springer International Publishing. pp.163–173. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-08855-6_17. ISBN 978-3-319-08854-9. ISSN 1865-0929.