September 26, 2022 - EyeClarity Podcast
So today, you’re getting a sneak preview of a session I gave recently to a patient who was recently diagnosed with Glaucoma. Glaucoma is a disease that affects the circulation in the eye, specifically the optic nerve. We will go into what Glaucoma is and steps you can take to mitigate it. Enjoy the show. If you want more, sign up for my newsletter at:Â www.drsamberne.com.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
optic nerve, glaucoma, eye, retina, nitric oxide, studies, form, vitamin, omega, circulation, cataracts, antioxidants, health, good, vitamin e, glutathione, capsule, book, important
Hello, everyone. It’s Dr. Sam, I’d like to welcome you to my EyeClarity podcast. This is a show that offers cutting-edge information on how to improve your vision and overall wellness through holistic methods. I so appreciate you spending part of your day with me. If you have questions, you can send them to hello@drsamberene.com. Now to the latest EyeClarity episode.
Hey everybody, it’s Dr. Sam, I’d like to welcome you to another EyeClarity podcast. So today, you’re gonna get a sneak preview of a session I gave recently. This is somebody who traveled from out of town to come and see me, and she’s been diagnosed with glaucoma. Glaucoma is a disease that affects the circulation in the eye, specifically the optic nerve. And there are many different kinds of glaucoma. This person has what we call low-tension glaucoma. So what that means is, the pressures are a little below normal eye pressures, but she’s still having some optic nerve damage. And the doctors really can’t figure out why they’ve put her on some glaucoma medications. And she’s traveled from Texas to come and see me. And so I’ve given her so I’m going to be giving her some advice. We’ll start off the first part with what can a person do to reclaim their eye health if they’ve been diagnosed with glaucoma. So, here’s the first excerpt. So in this particular part of the exam, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about glaucoma. And you have what we call low-tension glaucoma. So, the most common type of glaucoma is called open-angle glaucoma. And that’s where the eye pressure goes up. In your situation, your eye pressures are lower than say what happens in open-angle glaucoma.
And the bottom line is, is that it’s still in some ways affecting the circulation in the retina. So just to give you some statistics, the retina has one of the highest metabolic needs in the body, because of all the tiny blood vessels that are in the retina. And then the macula, which is 1% of the retina has the highest metabolic need. So the retina has a high metabolic need. And the macula has an even higher metabolic need. Now, the thing that the retina needs is antioxidants. That’s kind of the name of the game. And the optic nerve, which is the part of the eye that is affected by circulation, which is what Glaucoma is. So in glaucoma, either you’re not producing enough fluid, or the fluid you are producing is impeded in being able to circulate through the eye. And there’s a meshwork where the fluid runs through different parts of the eyeball, soothing it, bathing it, and doing kinds of things. There have actually been some research studies that say Glaucoma is the Alzheimer’s of the eye. And there have been other studies that show Alzheimer’s in the brain is like glaucoma in the brain. So it has to do with circulation, and some very targeted nutrients that have been shown to help the optic nerve health. And that’s what I want to share with you. Because the name of the game and glaucoma is how well you can take care of your optic nerve. So in all the studies and all the literature and all the clinical practice, I’m going to give you the best ones to take. And we’re going to negotiate it because you might say, Well, I’m already getting that or no I don’t need that or we’ll we’ll see. So number one on my list is omega three.
04:21
And omega three fatty acids are really important for I brain health. And there’s a certain component in the Omega three, you don’t have to remember this, but it’s D ha and the Omega three, DHA and EPA those are kind of the components and all the studies say the DHA is the even more important in terms of optic nerve health. So what is a good source because you have to look at there’s a lot of company He’s out there. But which ones do the testing because we now know that some fish oils are contaminated with heavy metals and things like that. So there’s a company that I use called metagenics, me ta, G and ICS. And you’re looking to find omega Genex 1000. So that’s what it’s called. And you can either take it in a capsule, or you can take it in a liquid. Now it has a lemon flavor, so it’s not going to be real fishy. I used to take Omega three, okay. regurgitation. Okay, so what you might look at with the metagenics, is to see whether or not the liquid might be better than the capsule, and when to take it. Like is it better for you to take it on at meals? Is it better for you to take it on its own before meals, you’re gonna have to figure that out. For some people, it’s better that they take their dietary supplements with their meals. And that kind of covers up some of the taste, especially if they regurgitate your music and have to play around with that. But it’s an essential, important ingredient. Because we don’t make it we have to get it from outside sources.
Now, if you do eat sea food, you do get it in things like salmon, you get it in a macro, you get it in, you know the fish. So you could you could also do it that way. There’s a company that’s, that’s really amazing that they get their fish wild caught from Alaska, I’ll give you the name of the company is called Vital choice. You write it down. So if you don’t want to shop locally, this particular level of seafood is very healthy, because they’re getting it from sources that are kind of wild caught. No, it’s not in Texas, you’d have to have it shipped. But you can go to the again, you I’m giving you the whole thing. You can also get it in Texas, that’s totally fine. So but in any event, you can do the combination of eating seafood, and probably you’re going to need to supplement with Omega three, and you’re looking to take about 2000 milligrams a day. Something like that. So this is in the spirit of protecting your optic nerve. The best split into two Absolutely, you can split it two or three doses even. It kind of depends on how you can take it. See I have a lot of kids that I work with autism and they can’t take anything and we have to be very creative around camouflaging things. So you’re gonna have to play around with that with your with your gut, you know, because that’s going to be the challenge point for you. But Omega three would be one that you want to take a look at. Another one that I would say would help you with the glaucoma is my eye vitamin. And the reason is because my vitamin I’ve put in gingko taurine and bilberry which are all really good for optic nerve circulation. So when that I vitamin, it’s just two capsules a day.
09:09
It’s got vitamin A, which is also very important for the retina. It’s got a little bit of a B complex which is good for the cornea and the islands. I designed it I formulated it. So it’s really good and it also has lutein and zeaxanthin which are those corrode noids that protect the macula. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of them. You get them in like green leafy vegetables Xanthine you get more in the red or the orange or the yellow. And then there’s a third one called as to Xanthan, which is back to the seafood so that’s in the pink seafood. And that’s another supplement that I have. And I would say that is probably more on the fence. I would rather you do the I vitamin And the acid Xanthan is not as important. And again, if it really bothers you to swallow the capsule, you know, you could take it at a meal. You could say put it in yogurt, or you could put it in something sweet or, you know, you just have to see, probably for you doing it at meals would probably be the strategy, at least I would start with. And then even the high vitamin, yes, yeah. And you could split that up. It’s two capsules a day, but it’s very high potency. And you will feel a difference in your eyes. It’s, it’s a really good. Yeah, it’s really good. I’m only going to recommend things that you know, I’m not going to do a whole lot big list. But because of the gingko and the taurine is amino acid, I think that it will help the optic nerve. Again, Kinkos. So the more you can get, I would do ginkgo tea. Another thing that’s good for glaucoma is green tea. So if you can find a essential tea or a green tea or matcha tea, the studies all say that the antioxidants in green tea are good for glaucoma. So that’s something that you can consider all right.
Now I know you take a vitamin E, what form is it? Is it a liquid a capsule D? Okay, so I’m just gonna kind of give you a little backstory here may be too much information. But I feel that I need to say this. So the National Institutes of Health did a study in 2001, on what supplements would feed the retina. And it was called the aret study, because they were focusing on macular health. And one of the components that they found was important is where you’re taking vitamin D. They actually redid the study in 2006. And they said, Yeah, vitamin E is part of this thing. Well, what happened since then, is that there are different forms of vitamin D. And there’s a new form of vitamin D, that has come on the market. And I’m going to spell it for you. And it’s from what we call, and that toe and that toe tree, a and n a tea to. And it’s a plant form of vitamin E that absorbs better in the retina. And I’ve formulated it and the liquid. And so when you’re done with your vitamin E, I would recommend going over to my vitamin E, it’s in the liquid form that you put in water, but like nine drops in water, and you can drink it, you can put it in just about anything. But we if you look at my website, and you look at the studies that are natto II, there’s a term they use, which is it’s neuroprotective for the optic nerve and retina, so protects the retina, and it’s more absorbable. So that is a really good one to my eye vitamin and the Natalie, if you do nothing else, do those with the Omega three. And you’re you’re increasing your optic nerve by 500%. If you can do that, to true South America. And more and more holistic doctors are using this form of vitamin D and not the old form. The new form another term for you not for remember it is called a toca Trino. That’s the new form of the plant based vitamin E. And it’s more absorbable and it just works better. So you don’t put it in your eye. You put it in water and you drink it. Yes, exactly. So with the
14:04
with your glaucoma protocol, there’s one more thing that I want to talk to you about. That’s very hot right now in glaucoma. And it has to do with a molecule that your body needs to be called nitric oxide. I’ve done podcasts on it. And I formulated optic nerve formula, which has nitric oxide and glutathione. So what is it? What does it do? So nitric oxide is a molecule that’s naturally forming, and when you take it, it dilates your blood vessels. So it’s good for eye circulation, heart health, it gives you more energy, it helps your brain. And I think this is a really good for you with your heart history. And then with glaucoma, I think they’re related. And this nitric oxide can boost your circulation. And so I think it’s an a powder that you can, it’s raspberry, and you just put it in water and you can drink it. Even, you know, a lot of people say it’s good, you know, like I can, I can take that one. So the little fuzzy, little little man, so you just do a small scoop. Once a day, I would do it more in the earlier part of the day. So people discovered it, as well. A book that came out a few years ago called Breathe James nester.
And it’s kind of funny how he discovered it. He worked with, you know, different kinds of breathing actions you like breathing through the nose is so much better than breathing through the mouth. But in his studies with nitric oxide, this is gonna sound really weird. He says that when you hum, you’re producing a lot more nitric oxide in the body. Well, he researched it, and he, he was the guinea pig. On my website, when you see the optic nerve formula, and you see nitric oxide, you will see all the citations, there must be 40 of them that I listed. And they did all kinds of studies on this nitric oxide and how it affected the circulation in the body. So the research is on my webpage, so you can like how did they discover it? They’ve been looking for ways to naturally dilate the blood vessels. And that’s been my mission for many years. How can I help people improve their circulation, because when your circulation is down, you have more inflammation, and you have more metabolic waste. That’s why cataracts form that’s why macular degeneration forms, and so on. So inflammation is our enemy. You know, that’s so this night, so you can get nitric oxide from plant based foods, like celery is a good one. A lot of the green leafy vegetables have nitric oxide. I’ll tell you what else has nitric oxide, but it’s toxic. Toxin based hotdogs. Yeah. So you want to stay away from things like I mean, if you want to have a little bit you can but bacon, pork, you know all those things, but it’s the bad kind. Yes. So the good kind is in the plants, or in the supplement, the bad kind creates more toxicity and inflammation.
18:17
I know. Well, it’s, it’s, there’s a lot of science around nitric oxide, and there even some glaucoma studies that have been done on the benefits of nitric oxide, you know, bringing the eye pressure down and things like that. In your case, it’s more about balancing the the high pressure. So those would be the things I would I would say. And now we’re into the kind of part of the lecture around. These are add ons, but they’re not essential. If you decided that the cataract was something you wanted to address, there is a natural eyedrop that can improve your lens health and reverse early stage cataract. And I’d like to give it to you just so you have it. And if down the road, you know you say okay, I could do this eyedrop so let me give it to you. It’s called Aquaman I’ll spell it Oh, see lumed and you buy it from a pharmacy in Colorado called College pharmacy
19:42
and it’s got vitamin C in it. And it’s got glutathione in it. That’s a antioxidant. It’s partly produced in the liver. And let’s just say it’s one of the master antioxidants. For our immune health, our lens health, and you can get it in foods like broccoli. Okay, so it’s those, we call them cruciferous vegetables. So you can get the glutathione kind of from those plant based foods. Selenium is a trace mineral that helps the glutathione you can get those in Brazil nuts. Just so you know, it’s not essential that you do this eyedropper because you’re cataracts are very, very, very early. But if you’re wanting that, at some point, you know about it, because you probably never heard of it. Until you either the the regular doctors make their money in cataract surgery, they don’t want you to know about this. So so does prevent them advancing. can reduce number two? It can, it can reverse and reduce them. Yeah. Especially in the early stages. Now, another reason why we develop cataracts is because of sugar. So high levels of sugar, cause cataracts. If you’re diabetic, if your glucose if your glucose levels are high. This is why, for some, they’ll even move into a special diet called a ketogenic diet, which is no carbs, just fats and proteins. I’m not recommending that for you. Okay, I just don’t think, you know, with your celiac condition, we need to be careful, you know about doing a lot of crazy things. However, if you decide, you know, on your radar screen, okay, you got a radar screen out there. If you want it to treat the celiac disease. There are what we call functional medicine doctors.
Have you ever heard of them? Okay, write this down functional medicine. And these are holistic doctors that specialize in digestive health. And they might say, Okay, you need to do special probiotics. Or they might say, let’s test you for heavy metal toxicity, or dental health. If you have a lot of mercury amalgams or root canals? I’m not sure you do, but you have one. Okay. So it’s not not, but a functional medicine doctor could analyze the celiac from a more holistic perspective. Well, to be honest, I haven’t really addressed it except in diet. And that’s okay. That, yeah, yeah. And, you know, it’s, if you go to a regular doctor, they’re probably just gonna, you know, maybe give you some pharmaceutical drugs. This would be kind of saying, Okay, is there inflammation is there Candida? What’s, what’s behind this irritation that you’ve had. And it’s a, it’s a deeper analysis on a holistic level.
23:41
In this next excerpt, we go into an exercise which I like to call open focus, or soft focus. And this is where you look at these three dimensional pictures. They’re called Magic guy. And these are in wonderful at helping a person learn how to use their two eyes together, integrate them collaborate them in a way so that a person can see 3d in the pictures. And what this does is it synchronizes the brain. So both hemispheres of the brain work together. But it also engages the peripheral vision. And if you’ve got glaucoma, that’s the part of your visual system that is declining, deteriorating, shrinking, and when you stimulate those retina cells by doing this exercise, what you’re doing is you’re re sensitizing the retina cells to work to engage. And I call this neuroplasticity training. And so I’m walking this person through the exercise in terms of doing soft, soft focus. So here we go. And I want you to Imagine yourself looking through the book. So you’re just, it’s an imagination, I’m looking through the book. And I want you to slowly start pushing the book away from your face. And as you start pushing the book away from your face, I want you to look at the spaces between the jelly beans. And as you do those two things, see if you’re able to notice the jelly beans starting to float. So when there’s three dimensions, you can alternate your eyes like you were doing with the dog and the pig. And the farther out you’re able to push it and continually seeing the 3d, you’re now engaging the right eye with the left eye. You’re synchronizing it, you’re integrating it. I’m assuming you got it out there.
So this is an exercise that you can do every 20 minutes while you’re at the computer. Now when I do this exercise, and I get it, I actually start moving the book. And I have the 3d. So this is so good for my peripheral. And my right eye and left eye are working together. Which is the opposite of what you’re doing, which is right now. Your right eye is overpowering the left eye but you have this, this flickering that’s going on. So there are a lot of great pictures in here. Let’s do another one. And it’s just like, let’s try the solitaire game. So you’re looking through it. You’re looking beyond it and see, can you do you have it? Okay yeah, so why don’t you copy the name of that book down, that’s gonna cost you like three bucks. And or take a picture of it. Yeah, even better. And that will be your exercise the you have to do it every 20 minutes. While you’re on that computer, to say I have the book there and go okay, I’m going to take a break. And you can do it both with your computer glasses, or no glasses, you can do both. And that would be the one that I would say won’t take a lot of time. And it’s fun. Maybe 30 seconds, it’s short, but it will start to get your right eye and left eye working together. Now I’d like you to do it several times a day. So with glaucoma, it’s very important that you protect your optic nerve. So the nutritional protocol I’ve given this person along with making recommendations on reducing the glasses, prescription using single vision glasses for the computer, and then doing this eye exercise soft focus. We’ll be monitoring her closely. We’ll check in with her in about three months. But this particular protocol can work very well at neutralizing glaucoma. So that’s our show for today. I want to thank you so much for tuning in. Until next time, take care.
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