Nature's Aide

We developed this perfectly balanced nutritional eye support formula after many years of testing. Its origins began with World War II pilots night blindness tests and continue to this day to include the latest in scientific nutritional and herbal technology.

The Eyes Have Had It

Eye problems are on the upswing and it's no wonder. Every waking hour in today's world the eyes of most North Americans endure conditions they were not designed to handle. Conditions like reading in low light, straining to catch the details on computer video display terminals and television screens, blinking away traffic fumes and a multitude of other toxins, squinting in abnormally high levels of ultra-violet light, and that's not all.

According to James F. Balch, MD, author of Prescription for Nutritional Healing, one of the primary contributors to eye trouble is the standard American diet, the nutrient-poor, chemical and preservative-rich foods that most Americans consume.

A deficiency of just one nutrient can lead to various eye problems and, according to government reports, the American diet is deficient in ten major nutrients surveyed. Private analysts assert that American diets are even more deficient than government gurus claim, as well as severely lacking in the sixteen other nutrients considered vital to human health. Combine the abnormal stresses of chemical exposure, ultra-violet light, computer usage, and television viewing with a serious lack of the vitamins and minerals needed to protect eyes from damage and the reason more and more of us have eye problems becomes abundantly clear.

The gift of sight that we usually take for granted (until trouble appears) is a complex process that goes on at lightning speed and is made possible through a miracle of bioengineering consisting of countless layers of specialized tissues and fluids, pigments, muscles, ligaments, nerves, blood vessels, ducts, and glands.

Light enters the eye through the pupil which almost instantly changes size in accordance with the light levels. The light is then focused by the lens which thickens or flattens according to the distance to the object upon which the eye is focused. From the lens, the light is projected onto the retina where special pigments absorb the light and form a corresponding image. This image is then transferred to the brain through the optic nerve.

Anything which interferes with this chain of events can result in impaired vision.

Now consider that the light-absorbing pigment in the retina is composed primarily of vitamin A and protein-both of which are depleted as images are formed and transferred-and you can begin to understand the true impact of nutrient deficiencies on the eyes.

Supplementation with the proper vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients can help protect eyes from damage and can sometimes reverse problems arising from deficiency.

Nutritionists tell us that never before has supplementation been so important. In an era when nutritional requirements have increased due to the impact of environmental toxins, we Americans are getting fewer and fewer nutrients from the food we consume. Modern growing methods, long-term storage, and treatments to increase shelf life or improve visual quality for sales appeal mean that many of us are consuming large amounts of "empty" calories even when we try to eat correctly. And, because we require fewer calories as our lives become increasingly sedentary, we are eating less.

The answer? Consult a natural health care professional and reach for those supplements.

Everyone that works in front of a computer screen should be taking a nutritional support formula that contains these important ingredients.

Proper eye care includes eating lots of veggies with an emphasis on broccoli, raw cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, green vegetables, squash, sunflower seeds, and watercress (sound familiar?), and making certain you get sufficient amounts of the ACEs (vitamins A, C, and E), and the pluses (zinc, selenium, and B complex).

Vitamin A, or its precursor betacarotene, is absolutely necessary for eye function. Part of the eye, the light absorbing retinal pigment, is actually composed of vitamin A and protein. Symptoms of even a mild deficiency of vitamin A include dryness of the conjunctiva and cornea as well as dry hair and skin, and night blindness. Additional symptoms range from abscesses in the ears, through fatigue, insomnia, sinus problems, pneumonia, frequent colds and other respiratory diseases, and reproductive problems, to a variety of skin disorders including acne.

Taking large (really large) amounts of vitamin A over a long period of time can result in toxicity but, according to nutrition experts, an overdose cannot occur with betacarotene. Both vitamin A and betacarotene are antioxidants, so in addition to contributing directly to the mechanisms of sight they protect the eyes (as well as the rest of the body) from free radical damage. And while you are protecting your eyes you get a little added insurance against cancer. Studies indicate that vitamin A helps prevent, and in some cases may be helpful in treating, various forms of cancer.

*Notes-if you have hypothyroidism you may have difficulty converting betacarotene to vitamin A. Pregnant women and those with liver disease should not take more than 10,000 IU of vitamin A per day.

Thanks to the efforts of Nobel laureate Linus Pauling, Vitamin C has begun to receive the recognition it deserves. According to Pauling, nothing in the body works at optimum levels without sufficient vitamin C. Nothing.

In the eyes, vitamin C protects against free radicals and helps prevent glaucoma by reducing intraocular pressure. And, as Pauling so clearly demonstrated, the C in ACEs is also a prime anti-cancer agent. In addition, sufficient amounts of vitamin C are needed for the absorption and assimilation of most other vitamins and some minerals.

So, how much is enough? Unfortunately, there is no simple answer. Needs vary according to age, weight, and individual biochemistry. The only thing upon which nutritionists and researchers like Dr. Pauling agree is that government standards are far, far too low.

Recommended daily allowances (RDAs) were set more than forty years ago by the US Food and Nutrition Board as a standard for the daily amounts of nutrients needed by a healthy person. These RDAs are not at all useful as they take into consideration only the bare minimum needed to ward off active deficiency disease, not the amounts needed to gain and maintain maximum health.

In the case of vitamin C scurvy is the end stage deficiency disease. Unfortunately, a lot of pathology occurs well before the symptoms of vitamin C deficiency result in scurvy-pathology like the initiation of cancerous cells by rampant free radicals. And more. And more. And more.

The Nutrition Board sets a mere 60 milligrams as the RDA for vitamin C. That's clearly not enough. In just one study, doctors in California tested the sperm of large groups of men receiving 60 milligrams of vitamin C daily and found that this low level of intake resulted in high rates of borderline infertility. To make matters worse, the US Department of Agriculture recently compiled data indicating that at least 40 percent of Americans routinely consume a diet containing only 60 percent of the already-too-low RDA of selected nutrients. In other words, malnutrition is rampant in the richest country in the world.

Deficiency disease is the order of the day-not amongst the underprivileged in distant third world countries but right here at home-on Wall Street, in boardrooms, and attending meetings of the Junior League. On college campuses, on ocean-going yachts, and in palatial homes with eight bedrooms plus maid's quarters.

Even with all the information we have about vitamin C and its role in keeping us hale and hearty, vitamin C deficiency (along with nine other major nutrients surveyed by government bureaus) is the norm, not the exception to the rule.

Dr. Linus Pauling conducted extensive studies with primates. He chose primates because, unlike humans, they produce their own vitamin C and their requirements for this nutrient are basically similar to ours. Two conclusions emerged from these studies: One, vitamin C requirements vary widely between individuals of the same species; and two, minimum daily requirements for humans are undoubtedly in the range of several thousands of milligrams per day, not 60 milligrams.

Then, of course, there is synergy which complicates matters even more. Synergy is the cooperative action that occurs between most vitamin and minerals. They work as catalysts for one another and are necessary for the absorption and assimilation of other vitamins and minerals. Vitamin C requires sufficient amounts of bioflavonoids, calcium, and magnesium for absorption or most of the vitamin is excreted in the urine rather than sticking around to do its vital health-preserving job.

Another example is calcium, often prescribed to combat osteoporosis. Unfortunately, all the calcium in the world won't halt osteoporosis unless the right cofactors are present because the calcium will never be absorbed by the body. In order to assimilate calcium the body also requires the proper amounts and proportions of: vitamins A, C, D and F (essential fatty acids), boron, L-lysine, magnesium, manganese, and phosphorus.

This illustrates why taking a single vitamin or mineral may be, at best, ineffective. Always take balanced vitamin and mineral products and be sure you're getting bioflavonoids along with your vitamin C.

Incidentally, it's time to worry if your gums bleed when you brush your teeth, if you seem to get more than your share of colds and bronchial infections, if you're low in energy, slow to heal, have joint pains, lower back pains, poor digestion, or a tendency to bruise easily. These may all be symptoms of a sub-clinical deficiency of vitamin C.

*Notes-alcohol, pain medications, antidepressants, anticoagulants, oral contraceptives, and steroids may reduce levels of vitamin C in the body. Smoking causes a serious depletion of vitamin C.

There have been a number of studies of different forms of vitamin C. Balch recommends esterified or non-acidic vitamin C in the form of mineral ascorbates (i.e., calcium ascorbate), citing it as being more readily assimilated than ascorbic acid, the standard form of vitamin C.

Vitamin E -- The problem with vitamin E," quipped an early researcher, "is that it's too doggone good."

Strangely enough, the fact that vitamin E does everything but scrub the kitchen sink was probably the factor that prevented its timely recognition by medical science. The workhorse vitamin seemed too good to be true.

Research reports of forty-five years ago indicated that vitamin E prevented heart disease. Had the research stopped there physicians would most likely have been prescribing vitamin E for heart disease ever since. But, encouraged by those early results, biochemical researchers homed in on vitamin E, and reports from all over the world began touting the E in ACEs as being good for everything from arteriosclerosis to zits. Medical science sneered.

Under the heading of better late than never-the American Medical Association has finally discovered vitamin E-a recent JAMA headline announced that vitamin E may help prevent heart disease.

It does. It does all those other things from A to Z, too, and there are a couple of thousand research reports and clinical studies to prove it.

The original research-when it was more or less accidentally discovered that vitamin E was essential to cardiovascular health-had to do with infertility (signs of deficiency include infertility in both men and women). From there, researchers tracked the link between the rise in incidence of heart disease to declines in dietary vitamin E due to changes in the milling of wheat. It became abundantly clear that vitamin E status was-and is-a far better indicator of impending cardiovascular problems than cholesterol levels.

And, low levels of vitamin E have been linked to both bowel and breast cancer.

Deficiencies can also result in damage to red blood cells, destruction of nerves, neuromuscular impairment, menstrual problems, spontaneous abortion, and uterine degeneration.

Meanwhile, reports of the benefits of sufficient vitamin E continue to pile up. It is recognized as one of the important antioxidants, but also boosts the action of the other two ACE antioxidants, vitamin A and vitamin C, as well as protecting other fat-soluble vitamins from destruction by excess oxygen. Vitamin E's antioxidant activity prevents cell damage by inhibiting the oxidation of fats and the formation of free radicals. This one action alone helps prevent the initiation of cancerous cells and is an important factor in vitamin E's impact on cardiovascular disease-scientists now believe that only oxidized fats adhere to artery walls.

But that's not all. Vitamin E improves circulation. It is necessary for the tissue repair that takes place in the body on a regular basis. The everything vitamin speeds healing, reduces scarring from wounds, promotes normal blood clotting, lowers blood pressure, helps prevent cataracts and retrolental fibroplasia (an eye disorder sometimes affecting premature babies), improves oxygenation of tissues, maintains healthy nerves and muscles, promotes healthy and more youthful-looking skin and hair, retards aging, strengthens the immune system, treats PMS and fibrocystic breast disease, relaxes leg cramps, helps prevent anemia, improves infertility problems caused by deficiency, and as an extra-added attraction improves athletic performance.

In reality Vitamin E is not a single substance. It is a group of eight different but related molecules that fall into two major groups-tocopherols and tocotrienols. Within each group there are alpha, beta, gamma, and delta forms. Until recently biochemists believed that alpha tocopherol was the primary active component and alpha tocopherol was the only portion of vitamin E found in many supplements. New information indicates that the other tocopherols may be much more important originally believed. Up-to-the-minute advice from a variety of sources recommends taking mixed tocopherols.

Bilberry, a member of the huckleberry family otherwise known as Vaccinium myrtillus, is part of the conventional European medical pharmacopoeia for treatment of eye ailments including cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, retinitis pigmentosa, and night blindness. And, we might add, treating these diverse and hard-to-treat eye problems both safely and with "substantial" success. (The word substantial comes from recent German and Italian research reports).

Bilberry Vision Magic Played a Part in WWII

Modern interest in bilberry has its roots in World War II. Military forces used the herb to sharpen night vision and to stimulate more rapid visual adjustment to changes in light levels and faster recovery of vision after exposure to sudden glare.

Recent research has isolated flavonoid compounds (anthocyanosides) in bilberry that possess (like the flavonoids in green tea and grape seed extract) unique antioxidant properties. But bilberry also contains a substance called rhodopsin which has an extraordinary affinity for the retina of the eye and provides a specialized protein needed for night vision. Bright light depletes rhodopsin which explains why bilberry was so helpful to military night vision during WWII.

In a number of very recent clinical studies conducted in Italy bilberry extract combined with vitamin E simply stopped cataract formation in its tracks for 97% of the participants in the studies.

These and other studies also confirm that extracts of bilberry are "extremely effective" in treating retinal problems arising from poor blood circulation, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, and day blindness. The big surprise was that bilberry also "substantially improved" vision for 75 percent of the near-sighted participants, an unexpected bonus.

While on the subject of bonuses, bilberry does even more-it aids in the treatment of vascular ailments including varicose veins and postpartum hemorrhoids, helps stop calcium deposits in arteries and veins, dilates blood vessels to improve circulation, helps preserve collagen in joints, and acts as an anti-inflammatory for those with various forms of arthritis.

All studies used standardized extracts containing 25 percent anthocyanosides at dosage levels of from 250 milligrams to 500 milligrams per day.

Glutathione-
The Detox Miracle

Every molecule of toxic foreign substance we breathe in, absorb through the skin, or ingest with the foods we eat must be ushered out of the body or trouble begins. The process of getting rid of foreign substances is called detoxification and nothing is more important in the world in which we live than ongoing detoxification.

The heart of the human detox system revolves around glutathione. For every toxic molecule ushered out of the body, one molecule of glutathione is required.

Although it is usually classified with the amino acids, like carnitine, glutathione is not actually an amino, it is a tripeptide formed from the amino acids cysteine, glutamic acid, and glycine and, under ideal circumstances, is manufactured from these amino acids by the liver.

The catch comes because we do not live in an ideal world and our detox systems become overwhelmed by the flood of toxins to which we are exposed on a daily basis. Aging also brings about a decline of glutathione levels, although it is not known whether this is because we produce less of it or because we use it more rapidly. The result is more rapid aging which, if not corrected, means less and less glutathione and an even more accelerated rate of aging. In addition to its activity in the detox system glutathione is another of the powerful antioxidants.

Have You Had Your Minerals Today?

Unless you took a mineral supplement it's a very good bet that you have not had your minerals today-at least your share of the minerals required for optimum functioning of the body. Every living cell on our planet depends on minerals, including your cells and mine.

Aside from their vital role in keeping us alive, there are two very important things you need to know about minerals, form and balance.

Minerals are naturally occurring elements found in the earth, elements like rocks and metals, and in their natural form just about as useful as trying to get your quota of calcium by chewing on oyster shells. In nature, rocks are gradually broken down into minute particles by the action of wind and water. Microorganisms in the soil utilize these tiny crystals of mineral salts which are then passed along to plants where they are combined with other substances to form part of the living plant. In this form the minerals can be absorbed and utilized by the herbivorous animals or humans who eat the plants. That's one reason why mothers everywhere urge us to eat our veggies. There's more usable calcium in a serving of broccoli than in a large glass of milk. No kidding.

Unfortunately, plants do not require all the minerals for optimum growth that humans require. Because modern growing methods cater to producing salable plants rather than providing humans with the necessary nutrients we are not getting our quota of minerals from the food we eat.

The good news is that laboratory wizards have devised methods to chelate naturally occurring minerals, which means simply that they are bonded to protein molecules in much the same way as they are within the system of a plant. The molecules of protein carry the minerals into the bloodstream where they can be absorbed and utilized.

The other problem with minerals is balance. The human body, like every other living thing in the universe, must maintain the proper chemical balance. This balance depends on minerals, most especially the ratio of certain minerals to one another.

The level of each single mineral in the body has an effect on every other. If one is out of balance, all mineral levels are affected, which can start a chain reaction of imbalance that reacts like toppling dominoes and leads to illness.

Nutritionally, minerals are divided into two groups. The first of these are the macrominerals or bulk minerals: calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, and phosphorus, so named because they are needed in larger amounts than the other group, called trace minerals. Trace minerals include boron, chromium, copper, germanium, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, silicon, sulfur, vanadium, and zinc. Although only minute amounts of trace minerals are needed by the body they are, nevertheless, vital to the proper functioning of the body.

The secret is to shop carefully. Always buy supplements from reputable sources and read those labels. Take calcium for example. If you see words like "oyster shell" or "dolomite" put the bottle down and run for the exit. Words like "orotate, citrate, or arginate" indicate that the calcium is a chelate. Next check the amount. A thousand milligrams of calcium orotate does not equal a thousand milligrams of elemental calcium. Somewhere on the label it should tell you just how much elemental calcium is contained within. This is the amount you will use to calculate your desired intake.

Incidentally-while on the subject of calcium-Tums ® are not recommended as a source of calcium in spite of advertising to the contrary. They do contain calcium, but if taken in the amounts needed to serve as a good source of calcium they also neutralize the stomach acid needed for calcium absorption.

Selenium-Are You Getting Your Share ?

Selenium's principle function as an antioxidant is to prevent the oxidation of fats which we now know is a prime factor in the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Selenium deficiency has also been definitively linked with cancer and is known to prevent the formation of certain types of tumors.

Chances are you're not getting enough selenium.

The soil of much of America 's farm land is low in selenium which results in selenium-deficient produce. In New Zealand , where the soils are even more deficient, cattle and sheep suffer a breakdown of muscle tissue, including heart muscle. Humans in New Zealand fare somewhat better because of the import of Australian wheat grown on selenium-rich soils.

Zinc-
The Plus in ACEs Plus For Eyes

Zinc helps prevent retinal detachment which has earned it a well-deserved reputation as a "plus" for eyes. But, like most other nutrients zinc does not have only one function. Like all the nutrients discussed in this report, zinc is a powerhouse.

Although zinc is not an antioxidant in its own right, it is extremely important to antioxidant formation and activity within the body. Zinc is an ingredient in the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD) and, bound with the amino acid methionine forms zinc monomethionine which has recently been found to have antioxidant activity equal to that of vitamin C, vitamin E, and betacarotene. In addition, zinc strengthens the immune system and promotes the healing of wounds and speeds recovery from infection.

If food tastes a little flat to you, or if you can't detect the odor in the roses you stop to smell along the way it is likely you have dangerously low levels of zinc. Zinc is the element that allows acuity of taste and smell.

*Note-do not exceed a total daily intake of zinc of more than 100 milligrams. Daily doses of under 100 milligrams enhance the immune system. But, higher doses can depress immune function.