Your Eye Doctor Needs To Know This Supplement – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 529
If you spend your days staring at phone, TV or computer screens, you need to know about what supplements can benefit your eye health, and your eye doctor should, too.
Tag: lycopene
Antioxidant Carotenoids For A Longer, Healthier Life – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 283
Carotenoids are colorful pigments from plants that are found in fruits and vegetables. Based on reading thousands of studies spanning decades, if you consume a broad variety of these pigments, they lend to a longer and healthier life.
Studies Show Tomatoes May Help Prevent Cancer – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 188
Invite Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Jerry Hickey. Ph
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Lycopene is a red pigment in fruits and vegetables, so it’s a carotenoid. Unlike some other carotenoids, it is not converted into Vitamin A. It stays as Lycopene. The best known source for Lycopene is tomato products, like tomato paste, tomato sauce and tomato juice. The Lycopene is stuck in the fiber of the raw tomatoes, so you really want tomato products to help with absorption. It is also found in very ripe watermelons, red oranges, pink grapefruits, apricots, guavas and mangoes.
Studies have shown that if you have a lot of Lycopene in your bloodstream, your skin is less damaged by the sun. It has some photoprotective activity. It doesn’t really replace the need for sunscreen, but it offers you some protection from the inside out. But there is also a lot of evidence indicating the use of Lycopene for cancer prevention. Lycopene has been related to reducing the risk of certain cancers, like prostate cancer and some forms in the digestive tract. While doing research on the relationship between Lycopene and our skin, I found 72 meta-analyses about Lycopene and cancer prevention. That’s a huge amount. That means there’s so many studies involved because each meta-analysis can contain anywhere from 5 to 100 studies.
THE RESEARCH
A meta-analysis done by the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham Women’s Hospital in Boston in conjunction with Harvard Medical School and published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute looked at carotenoids and breast cancer. Lycopene was found to reduce the risk of breast cancer by 22% when comparing the highest and lowest intakes of the nutrient. Breast cancer is a very common cancer, so reducing the risk by that much is very powerful because it affects many, many, many thousands of women in a very good way.
Chemicals That Harm Your Hormones & Health – Invite Health Podcast, Episode 140. Listen Now >>
Another meta-analysis, completed by the US National Cancer Institute, John Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, the Keck School of Medicine, University of New Mexico, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the University of California San Francisco and additional international institutions, looked at the relationship between Lycopenes and prostate cancer. The analysis, which was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, looked at 15 studies and found that Lycopene reduced the risk of aggressive prostate cancer by 35%. That’s really important. Many prostate cancers are very mild and never become life-threatening. In fact, people die of old age with these types of prostate cancer. But if it becomes an aggressive form of prostate cancer, it could spread into other parts of your body and become life-threatening. It’s very difficult to treat. For more studies indicating the effects of Lycopene on cancer prevention, make sure to tune into the full podcast episode!
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What You Need To Know About Your Prostate Cancer Risk – Invite Health Podcast, Episode 105
On today’s episode we will discuss things that men do every day that can increase their risk of developing prostate cancer and the lifestyle habits, foods and nutrients that may help to reduce it, based on the results of multiple human studies.
New Study: People with Metabolic Syndrome Live Longer with Lycopene
What is Lycopene? Lycopene is a naturally occurring pigment that gives fruits and vegetables a red color; it is an important carotenoid and research indicates that it may be the most important carotenoid for the skin and body. On the other hand, Lutein (the carotenoid …
Eye Health: Finding a Cure for Blindness
Photo by Soroush Karimi on Unsplash
According to the World Health Organization, 285 million people around the world are estimated to be visually impaired in some way. Of these, 39 million are blind and 246 million have serious vision issues. Losing a portion of your eyesight is a common problem, whether it’s due to aging or a certain condition.
Fortunately, a large amount of common vision problems can be corrected with glasses, contacts and laser surgery – in fact, up to 80% of vision conditions can be prevented or even completely cured. But what about the other 20%?
Retinal degeneration disorders are a group of the most serious vision disorders that currently do not have a cure. These conditions break down the retina, which is the layer of tissue found at the back of the eye that contains cells that detect light entering the organ. Retinal degeneration disorders include retinitis pigmentosa, macular degeneration and Usher syndrome. In particular, age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in the developed world.
So, how close are scientists to discovering an ultimate cure for these conditions? Knowledge in this area of health has drastically improved in recent years. If these retinal degeneration disorders are caught early enough, there are many options available to preserve at least a portion of the patient’s vision. “By protecting cells within the retina from death associated with the underlying biochemical disorder, we may preserve sight among large populations of patients,” explained Dr. Raymond Lezzi, an ophthalmology consultant with the Mayo Clinic.
In patients whose vision is still partially intact, treatment can be directed at neuroprotection or gene therapy. Gene therapy focuses on correcting the biochemical abnormalities that lead to the death of retina cells. This approach is highly specific, and Dr. Lezzi stated that several hundred treatments would need to be developed in order to treat the full range of retinal degenerative diseases.
Science is definitely getting closer to finding an ultimate cure for blindness, with experimental options like stem cells and even a prosthetic eye currently being tested. But for now, our best option is to protect our eyes as best as we can.
Here are some suggestions from the National Eye Institute to help keep your eyes healthy throughout the aging process –
- Maintain your weight and eat a nutritious diet. Foods like carrots, which contain a high volume of Vitamin A, and tomatoes, which contain the eye-nourishing ingredient Lycopene, are great options to boost your eye health.
- Do not smoke. Smoking has been linked with increased risk of cataracts, optic nerve damage and age-related macular degeneration.
- Know your family’s vision health history. Many serious eye disorders such as retinitis pigmentosa are hereditary – knowing your individual risk of developing these conditions can increase your treatment options.
- See an eye doctor. The only way to be completely sure of the health of the eyes is to visit an eye care professional.
Source: Medical News Today