Enhancing Eye Health Through Lifestyle Choices and Preventative Measures

Sun protection 0:57 0
“You will learn about the benefits and detriments of sunlight, meaning how it can help your vision in fact how it can help reverse or prevent myopia, nearsightedness as well as the things to be cautious about with respect to sunlight in terms of development of cataracts which are occlusions that prevent vision.”

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Nutrition 2:08 0
“We also discuss the scientific and clinical data around nutritional approaches and supplementation based approaches for maintaining and improving Vision.”

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Sleep 5:44 0
“in order to fall and stay deeply asleep your core body temperature actually has to drop by about 1 to 3 deg conversely in order to wake up feeling refreshed your core body temperature has to increase by about 1 to 3°”

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Cognitive stimulation 12:10 0
“the brain is taking that information in and is very plastic, it's changing at these early stages of development and that it's fairly critical to get that stuff corrected early on because if you wait too long the brain can essentially become blind to the the um or rather the the brain cannot learn to handle the proper alignment”

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Cognitive stimulation 14:42 0
“it's still worth a try to really push to um retrain the weaker eye and then also realign the muscles so that they can work together to keep the eyes focused”

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Environment 20:48 0
“Nowadays kids from a very young age are looking at iPads and phones and screens and things very close up and there is a wealth of experimental animal data showing that if you limit Vision to just close range that the eyeball lengthens and therefore the visual image Falls in front of and not directly onto the neural retina the essentially the light sensing portion of the of the eye and those animals become myopic or nearsighted.”

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Environment 21:25 0
“What can we say about the environmental conditions in which kids are seen from the time they're born through let's say adolescence and their teen years in terms of how their visual system wires up and are there any recommendations that are coming from the scientific literature clinical studies clinical trial excuse me or otherwise that indicate what a healthy visual environment consists of?”

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Sun protection 23:30 0
“it's only been in the last few years that some really exciting Studies have actually pointed in a slightly different direction and that's that maybe it's not all not to say it's not about near activity but maybe it's not all about near activity maybe it's actually a little more about the kind of light we're getting into our eyes.”

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Sun protection 24:13 0
“you're outside in sunlight even it's in direct sunlight you're getting a different spectrum of kind of Full Spectrum Lighting from the sun and it looks like it's pretty clear now actually that it has maybe more to do with outdoor lighting time than just near work.”

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Sun protection 24:53 0
“the kids who spend time Outdoors are are progress dressing in their nearsightedness less like their their nearsighted prescription is not getting as strong as the kids who are spending more time indoors.”

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Circadian rhythm 29:38 0
“You've talked a lot about circadian rhythm there are so many health benefits to exercise and you know if you're getting outdoors there's a good chance you're going to be walking or bicycling you know so so exercise value for the health of our eyes and the rest of our body is clearly there.”

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Gut health 30:30 0
“Our gut is very important it's populated by gut microbiota that communicate with the brain, the immune system and basically all the biological systems of our body to strongly impact our immediate and long-term health.”

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Environment 31:32 0
“It's probably not a great idea to be exposed to extremely bright light and this is why people who weld wear eye Shields.”

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Oral hygiene 37:13 0
“you can also just use like a No More Tears baby shampoo just pump a little bit into the palm of your hand once or twice a day uh let a little uh dilute it with a little water under the sink and either with your finger or an edge of a washcloth just very light rub the eyelashes what I like to do with the eyes closed with the eyes closed and don't scrunch them closed too tight because you're actually burying the eyelashes when you do the the roots of the eyelashes when you really scrunch close so just gently close your eyes just you know real gentle closure and then just lightly scrub it shouldn't be abrasive you're not trying to exfoliate the eyelids or eyelashes in any way just lightly rub with that kind of dilute No More Tears baby shampoo and that can really help people with eye Comfort”

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Hydration 38:03 0
“your ideal eyewash is actually going to be a sterile saline solution a saltwater solution that you know they sell little bottles over the- counter uh eyewash Solutions like that a lot of people wear contacts will have that kind of eyewash solution just a sterile saline eyewash just pure salt water doesn't have to have any other chemicals or preservatives in it”

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Disease prevention 40:41 0
“how often do you recommend people get eye exams what is a true regular eye exam and is it important that people go to an opthalmologist or will an optometrist suffice”

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Disease prevention 44:17 0
“we do wish that we had a little more screening going on because there are some diseases gloma for example my specialty the two main risk factors for glaucoma are increasing ing age and it usually presents you know in most cases actually after age 40 but also increasing eye pressure”

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Disease prevention 46:12 0
“the optometrist office or the ophthalmologist office as part of a comprehensive screening exam they'll check the eye pressure they'll look at the surface of your eyes make sure everything's looking healthy there including the eyelids and lashes and the look inside the eye and be able to screen for these diseases that way too”

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Disease prevention 46:35 0
“after age 40 or so a lot of people will present to an eye care provider because we all get what's called presbyopia and as we age the lens inside our eye that's helping focus light onto our retina gets stiffer such that our eye muscles are no longer able to relax and reshape that lens and we're not as good as we age at moving our Focus from distance Vision”

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Cognitive stimulation 52:34 0
“psychologically we get addicted to good easy vision and if you don't have to squint and if you're not straining your muscles and all of a sudden the the text on your phone looks crisper again uh boy that's addictive you're you're going to like good vision”

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Cognitive stimulation 56:47 0
“it's probably ideal to give your retina and your brain the sharpest visual signals you can so why hamstring your retina and your brain and your vision and your enjoyment and ability to read or do near work by constantly undercutting the the reading glasses or leaving them out or you're not helping the whole back part of your”

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Circadian rhythm 58:28 0
“I do enjoy you using the readers at night it really helps for all the reasons I mentioned before.”

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Circadian rhythm 58:34 0
“I've noticed that driving at night presents an enormous strain on my visual system and I've noticed this for a number of years.”

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Circadian rhythm 59:11 0
“I'll sometimes even wear my plus one readers when I drive at night which removes the fatigue even though I'm looking more or less at a distance.”

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Cognitive stimulation 1:04:13 0
“from the time I was pretty young I could make my sister laugh by deviating one eye inward so not crossing my eyes but moving one eye Inward and then what happened was when I was in college and studying a lot a lot and getting very fatigued I noticed that this I started just kind of drift in a little bit so I went to the campus Health Center and they gave me a prescription for a prism lens which of course redirects the image but then I noticed that this eyeball moving Inward”

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Sun protection 1:05:28 0
“certainly get outside and get sunlight into the sunlight full spectrum light as opposed to relying on corrective lenses”

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Cognitive stimulation 1:09:56 0
“is there any real value to um near exercises you know so-called pencil push-ups or uh smooth Pursuit tracking I've talked a little bit about it before on the podcast but that was you know some time ago so what are your thoughts on on that is there any value whatsoever”

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Cognitive stimulation 1:11:49 0
“there's definitely some good clinical trial data suggesting that they can actually help for example recovery from concussion”

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Cognitive stimulation 1:15:50 0
“some athletes train using these special goggles that actually use electrical signals in the glasses part of the goggles to actually black out your vision 130th of every second 2 30ths of every second 3 30ths of Every second now imagine you and I are passing a basketball back and forth except you're wearing goggles and all of a sudden you're only getting 90% of the data of where's that basketball on its way to my hands now you're only getting 80% now you're only getting 70% of that visual information and you are practicing right you are getting good at catching a basketball when you only have a fraction of the visual information”

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Cognitive stimulation 1:23:15 0
“The Optics of newborn babies are just dreadfully bad but they need visual stimulation.”

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Body weight 1:27:24 0
“if your the basketball shape of your eye is a little too steep or a little too shallow that's what the standard glasses correct.”

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Disease prevention 1:28:38 0
“contacts can trap bacteria or fungus and if you get a corial infection from a contact lens it actually can be quite devastating to your cornea even if you successfully treat the infection you can be left with some corneal scarring.”

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Disease prevention 1:30:44 0
“being really good with the recommended use and cleaning of the contacts is critical considering daily use contacts you don't have to and look most contacts are going to be the two we or four-week kind where you put them in the cleaning solution overnight each time give them a good rinse and put them back in the next day.”

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Circadian rhythm 1:31:53 0
“I think it's important to avoid Bright Lights of any wavelength late at night if you want your melatonin production to be normal and you want to sleep well.”

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Sun protection 1:33:31 0
“UV light will accelerate the formation of cataract which is a blurring of an oxidative blurring of the lens inside the eye. Profound UV light can be damaging to the retina if you're getting way too much on the inside.”

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Sun protection 1:35:07 0
“blocking UV is a good idea and I think it's pretty standard. They make glasses by the way that actually react to UV light, they're called transitions.”

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Sun protection 1:35:50 0
“all standard car glass also filters UV. That's why if you're riding around in the car and it's sunny out you've got your hand up next to the window wearing a t-shirt you never get a sunburn through the car window anymore.”

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Sun protection 1:36:15 0
“morning sunlight viewing which again I highly recommend over and over. Low solar angle sunlight viewed for maybe 10 minutes a morning is not going to cause extensive UV damage to the eyes.”

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Sun protection 1:39:01 0
“people with blue eyes we absolutely know blue or Hazel or light colored eyes uh you put that eye drop to dilate their eyes it's going to lasts four 6 eight hours whereas in a brown-eyed person often the dilation only lasts one two 4 hours so there's clearly biological differences between the irises and their muscles and maybe the nerve that feed those muscles uh between lyed people and and darker eyed people uh and that may also therefore relate to this differential sensitivity that some people have you know if you're not able to constrict your eyes in the bright light as effectively you're going to find that bright light more frustrating more annoying uh you know even painful people will feel like their eyes are cramping almost uh as they try to get that those eye muscles to activate to bring down down the pupil and block some of that excess light from getting in”

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Circadian rhythm 1:49:49 0
“it turns out that when you read including when we maybe used to read more books than we do now but also read on the computer or stare at the computer screen or work on the computer or actually just even watch the TV done very careful studies you blink less when you're doing any of those activities and when you blink less you're redistributing the tears less effectively and you squeezing out less of the tears including less of the oils as effectively as you could be when you're blinking.”

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Disease prevention 1:51:02 0
“if we're not making as many or as good oils uh as part of our tear film that's uh that's also like kind of working against the saltwater part of our tear”

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Disease prevention 1:53:05 0
“we Counsel on the use of Tears we Counsel on the use of uh eyelid cleaning like we talked about before where you take either these eyelid scrubs or a little dilute baby shampoo to keep those eyelashes really clean that keeps those oil glands functioning at their top capacity for you uh so that you're maximizing high quality tear production”

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Disease prevention 1:53:25 0
“reducing inflammation is also important whether that's inflammation from allergy and of course a lot of people's dry eye gets much worse in the spring with seasonal allergies when pollen is around”

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Disease prevention 1:53:54 0
“some of the prescription drops now to help combat more severe dry eye uh are anti-inflammatory or even low dose steroid types of eye drops”

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Disease prevention 1:52:57 0
“for a subset of people who have really much more severe symptoms with the dry eye it's it's really it's hard it's a really hard thing to have to live with all the time”

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Toxin exposure 1:56:44 0
“it's really good because the preservatives can be very irritating or even inflammatory to the ocular surface to the surface of our eyes so we really do want to if we're using more than a drop or two upgrade they cost a little bit more money they're still over the counter upgrade yourself to the preservative free artificial te”

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Disease prevention 1:58:07 0
“PRP is an FDA approved protocol for injection into the uterus injection into pretty much every tissue and organ system of the body in order to quote unquote rejuvenate it”

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Disease prevention 1:58:34 0
“we're going to talk about major modes of vision loss in a moment and this horrible situation that happened down in Florida of a clinic injecting stem cells into patients eyes to recover vision and it actually blinded them”

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Disease prevention 2:07:17 0
“we can treat glaucoma today by trying to reduce the impact of that high pressure by lowering the eye pressure so we have treatments for glaucoma that Target the eye pressure we have medications like eye drops we have lasers that can be used inside the eye that can also lower the eye pressure and ultimately if we need them we also have surgeries that can also provide an outflow that lets the fluid out of the eye in a controlled way so that the eye pressure can be brought back down into normal ranges”

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Disease prevention 2:08:01 0
“the reason that glaucoma ends up being the number one cause of irreversible blindness in the world is number one we can't get those therapies everywhere in the world the affordability of ey drops the access to lasers or surgical procedures Around The World Isn't equal to what it is here and even within our country you know people may not be accessing Health Care effectively to get screened for glaucoma or to get treated for glaucoma”

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Disease prevention 2:09:32 0
“age related macular degeneration is just like it sounds major risk factor is age it's very common and actually in the developed world you know countries that are more developed also countries that have a larger Caucasian white population it's more common in certain populations than in others.”

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Disease prevention 2:10:13 0
“there's two forms of macula degeneration but they both end up targeting the same part the same part of the retina and that part of the retina is really like the rods and the con that we talked about before the rods do your low light vision at nighttime uh primarily your cones do color vision and bright light.”

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Disease prevention 2:12:00 0
“we have some treatments for wet macular degeneration we have injections that go can go into the that actually fight against the molecules that are causing those new blood vessels to grow and these are antibodies that can be injected into the eye and they can be very effective controlling patients wet macul degeneration.”

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Disease prevention 2:14:18 0
“diabetes unfortunately really continues to grow in especially let's say in the United States certainly in the developed world you know as we um especially type two diabetes with eating habits exercise habits contributing to a proliferation of some of the risk factors for type 2 diabetes metabolic syndrome obesity.”

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Disease prevention 2:16:43 0
“type 2 diabetes someone could be mildly insulin insensitive or severely insulin insensitive and sometimes I'm told people are not necessarily obese and can have type 2 diabetes as well.”

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Disease prevention 2:16:56 0
“certainly things like smoking and alcohol intake can contribute to that”

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Disease prevention 2:20:18 0
“the number one most important element to prevent diabetic retinopathy is to control your diabetes and having a real good blood sugar control keeping your hemoglobin A1c which is one of the blood tests that gets used to measure how your kind of long-term diabetes management is going”

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Disease prevention 2:21:55 0
“it turns out that if you have high blood pressure and diabetes that blood pressure is also really damaging to your retina also by the way the kidneys and probably all the other organs that are suffering from the diabetic insult”

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Disease prevention 2:22:09 0
“Most important is to get screened with a formal exam at your optometrist or ophthalmologist because you won't notice any symptoms if your eye pressure is too high until very late in the disease.”

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Disease prevention 2:22:30 0
“A good comprehensive screening exam will always include checking the eye pressures and also looking in the back of your eye at the head of the optic nerve.”

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Disease prevention 2:24:26 0
“Lowering the pressure has been shown in large properly controlled clinical trials to slow the progression of optic nerve damage and vision loss.”

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Disease prevention 2:24:50 0
“Selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) and eye drops are very effective as a first line treatment for glaucoma.”

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Toxin exposure 2:28:41 0
“major risk factor smoking including exposure to second hand smoke major risk factor for macul degeneration and for the progression and vision loss potentially associated with macular degeneration”

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Genetics 2:29:00 0
“in the case of macul generation there's also a couple of genes that we've sequenced the human genome and there's a couple of genes associated with macul generation too”

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Nutrition 2:30:36 0
“eat healthy have a multivitamin uh get some exercise all those things that are good for your cardiovascular system are going to be good for your eyes in general and in particular if you have glaucoma”

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Circadian rhythm 2:33:40 0
“it turns out that our eye pressure also under goes the Circadian rhythm and it's actually highest at night while we're sleeping kind of peaks in those early morning hours then hits a low throughout the early day and then kind of rises again throughout the afternoon into the evening”

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Circadian rhythm 2:35:13 0
“you mentioned the Circadian rhythm and eye pressure and the fact that eye pressure is higher at night”

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Sleep 2:35:52 0
“we will sometimes counsel patients with severe glaucoma especially if they're poorly responsive to standard therapies or poorly able to tolerate standard therapies we'll counsel them if they're able to sleep up on a couple pillows get kind of a 30° sleep angle going”

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Sleep 2:36:09 0
“I don't want to interfere with a person's sleep because I just I fundamentally feel for the total health of the whole human being getting a good night's sleep is maybe more important than that 30 degrees”

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Circadian rhythm 2:36:41 0
“does which side you sleep on affect uh which eye might have worse glaucoma”

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Circadian rhythm 2:40:39 0
“if people are going to decide that they're going to jump on this result and do red light exposure in the early part of the day no matter what color a light is if it's too bright you can damage your eye so I think this is why you're pointing the fact that we need established protocols um before people really start blasting their eyes with red light and if they are going to expose themselves to Red Light it shouldn't be uncomfortably bright”

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Disease prevention 2:41:10 0
“there's actually now data also that red light and actually interestingly studies using light at the other end of the visible spectrum violet light either of those in small daily doses can also be used to prevent progression of nearsightedness in children in school AG children”

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Nutrition 2:48:10 0
“Great, we've all heard that carrots are good for our vision which presumably stems from some peripheral understanding about the fact that vitamin A is integral to the photosynthesis pathway of converting light into electrical and chemical signals that the rest of the ion brain can use.”

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Nutrition 2:48:42 0
“In the last really five years but in particular in the last two years I've seen a proliferation of supplements on the market to promote Eye Health and longevity of vision.”

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Nutrition 2:49:45 0
“In Opthalmology we actually do have quite a bit of studies, there's been quite a bit of attention over the years even over the decades looking at this question and I think it's worth highlighting a couple of yeses and a couple of nos for macular degeneration.”

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Nutrition 2:50:01 0
“There have been two age related eye disease studies called AIDS (Age Related Eye Disease Studies) - ARIDS and ARIDS 2. These studies were large randomized trials of giving patients supplements and in ARIDS it was Vitamin C and E, higher dose than would just come in a multivitamin, zinc and copper, and also beta carotene.”

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Substances 2:52:51 0
“it turns out that the beta katene they noted a little bit of an increased cancer risk in the patients in the arids one who had that beta keratin mostly in patients who are smokers”

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Substances 2:53:45 0
“high do vitamin B3 is in boy 3 it's also called in its various forms either nicotinic acid or nicotinamide”

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Substances 2:54:56 0
“there have now been two limited but randomized controlled clinical trials one looking at glaucoma patients looking at their visual so they're actual visual performance and the other looking at the electrical signals in the eye called an electroretinogram”

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Disease prevention 2:59:56 0
“Imaging of the neural retina perhaps one of the best diagnostic tools for predicting and tracking the progression of Alzheimer's and other forms of neurodegeneration.”

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Disease prevention 3:00:54 0
“We can detect the degeneration of the retina optic nerve associated with Alzheimer's disease.”

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Disease prevention 3:01:31 0
“There may not be very good specificity differentiating the different diseases.”

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Disease prevention 1:50:10 0
“developing new ways of measuring diseases, developing new ways of treating diseases”

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Sun Protection and Eye Health

Andrew Huberman, a renowned professor specializing in neurobiology and ophthalmology, emphasizes the dual impacts of sunlight on vision. Sunlight has the potential to reverse or prevent myopia (nearsightedness) but can also accelerate the development of cataracts, a major vision impairment condition. Recent studies suggest more time spent outdoors under natural light may be beneficial compared to indoor lighting or near activities like reading. Huberman underlines the importance of managing exposure to reduce risks such as eye strain and severe conditions like cataracts and retina damage.

Nutrition and Vision

The nutritional aspect of maintaining and improving eye health is underscored, with particular attention to the effects of various supplements and dietary choices. Clinical data support the role of certain nutrients, including possibly Vitamin A from sources like carrots, in supporting the photosynthesis pathways crucial for vision.

Importance of Sleep and Circadian Rhythms

Sleep quality and circadian rhythms significantly affect overall health, including eye health. Concepts such as the core body temperature needing to drop to initiate sleep and increase upon waking highlight the intricate balance our bodies maintain daily. Furthermore, the discussion explores how eye pressure follows a circadian rhythm, which is a consideration for those with conditions like glaucoma.

Cognitive and Visual Stimulation

Early and continued cognitive and visual stimulation is critical, especially for children. Corrective approaches such as using prism lenses or engaging in specific eye exercises play crucial roles in addressing and potentially reversing eye-related issues. Discussions also touch on how activities like specific eye exercises can aid recovery from conditions such as concussions.

Disease Prevention and Management

Eye diseases such as glaucoma and macular degeneration are highlighted with various management strategies discussed, from pharmaceutical approaches to surgical interventions. Preventive measures, particularly regular comprehensive eye exams and specific treatments like Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty (SLT), are recommended to manage or slow down disease progression.

Environmental and Lifestyle Factors

Environmental factors such as exposure to devices like smartphones and the impact of UV light are discussed. Lifestyle factors including diet, physical activity, and avoiding harmful habits like smoking are pivotal in preventing or managing eye health issues. Preventative strategies, especially in managing diseases like type 2 diabetes, which can closely impact eye health, are also discussed to underline the intersection of overall health management and vision care.

Overall, the wide-ranging discussion encapsulates the multifaceted approaches to enhancing and protecting vision, stressing the interplay between environmental exposure, nutritional habits, disease management, and the imperative of early and ongoing intervention.