August 29, 2022 - EyeClarity Podcast
There are no blood vessels that grow or come near the macula. But in the case of macular bleeding, if the macula is starting to starve from not getting the nutrients it needs, then it starts creating its blood vessels. This is a very serious situation that should be looked at by a doctor. Today we are converting what causes Macular Bleeding and how to prevent it. Enjoy the show. If you want more, sign up for my newsletter at: www.drsamberne.com.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
macula, retina, eye, macular, nutrients, condition, blood vessels, metabolically, ski, taos, bleeding, talk, helps, high concentration, functional medicine doctor, glucose levels, zeaxanthin, cranial sacral therapy, inflammation, hemorrhaging
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, and I want to welcome you to my EyeClarity podcast. So as you can tell him on my morning walk today, I want to take a question from a listener. I’m hiking in the Carson national forest, near Taos ski Valley. And one of the things that we talk about as skiers in the winter is Taos is the four-letter word for steep. So when you get to the ski area, all you see are these huge mountains. And you go, Oh, my goodness, I can never ski this. But once you get over the lift, there are a lot of really gentle, moderate runs. And it’s a great place to be any time of the year. So let’s get to the question. This is a listener who has a condition called macular bleed. So her macula is bleeding. So just to remind you, the macula is the center part of the retina. It has the highest concentration of cones, it’s where we see detail and color vision. And it’s very vulnerable because there are no blood vessels that grow or come near the macula. But in this particular case, if the macula is starting to starve from getting the nutrients it needs, then it starts creating its blood vessels.
We call this process angiogenesis. And it’s a condition that’s related to things like diabetic retinopathy and wet macular degeneration; it is a very serious condition; you need to go to your eye doctor and get treated immediately. Now, for the treatments, you may need to get some laser surgery if the bleeding is really out of control. This is something you’re going to have to discuss with your eye doctor. Whenever I work with this kind of condition, I look at it both on a macro level, meaning systemic and metabolically and a micro level, which is on the eyeball itself. So let me give you a statistic, the eyes in the brain make a 2% of the body weight and use 25% of the food intake. So one-quarter of what we eat is needed by our eyes to stay healthy. Our eyes have one of the highest concentrations of microcapillary blood vessels. These are involved in oxygenating the eye and also getting rid of metabolic waste. Another thing to note about the retina is that it comprises about 50% of fatty acids.
This is why functional medicine doctors talk about the value of omega three, especially the DHA part of omega three for retina health, brain health, and so on. Another thing to note about the retina is that it has a very high concentration of mitochondria. So I want you to remember that. So I’m going to come back to mitochondria in a minute. We know that mitochondria helps in the production of ATP. ATP is an energy that, again, helps get rid of oxidative stress free radicals and it helps reduce inflammation. So I think the first place to start with this condition after you’ve gotten a diagnosis from your eye doctor and you may or may not get treatment is to go to a functional medicine doctor and start to look at your glucose levels, how much carbohydrates you’re eating, what’s your dietary absorption, like? Do you have any toxicities like mold, or heavy metal toxicities.
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All of these factors can affect the integrity of the retina and the macula. Remember, in a macular bleed, we call this angiogenesis. Your macula is so starved for its nutrients that it’s producing these fragile blood vessels as a way to get nutrients to the macula. But what’s happening is because the blood vessels are fragile. This creates hemorrhaging, bleeding, fluid behind the eyes behind the macula. And this is where you’ve got to start looking at this systemically and metabolically. Also, if you’re living with inflammation in your body, this is another risk factor. And another condition that you have to take a look at is how well you are absorbed. Being your fat salt soluble nutrients, like vitamin A, lutein, zeaxanthin and so on. So I would definitely check out the glucose levels. Make sure that you’re not diabetic. Maybe you’re pre diabetic. This is where in working with your doctor, you might move more towards a ketogenic diet.
Again, I wouldn’t do that on your own. You can also do things like intermittent fasting. Again, I wouldn’t do this on your own without talking to a functional medicine doctor. But these are some techniques we’ve used to turn the retina and macular health around, especially in the big picture. So the nutrients that I suggest and recommend Of course, vitamin A, lutein, zeaxanthin and astaxanthan; I love using things like grapeseed extract. Saffron saffron is a very powerful antioxidant. That really helps macular health. Curcumin is another powerhouse that can help your retina health, and things like bilberry and ginkgo. Now, if you’re on a screen, of course, you want to be protecting your eyes from the damaging blue light. That is obvious because if you’re exposed to blue light, especially long-term, and you’ve got a weakness in your eye, you’re not getting enough of the nutrients there.
Remember, blue light is going to dry out those tissues, it’s going to create an imbalance in the retina Macula area. And then from there, you know this is where some of the hemorrhaging can occur. I have definitely seen people’s retinas get a lot better when they improve their diet. Diet and vision are so connected. Some other things to consider might be getting some acupuncture, if you’ve had any trauma, car accidents falls on your head, you know anything like that in terms of the traumatic world, I would consider some cranial sacral therapy. And don’t wear progressive lenses if you’ve got some macular problems because when you wear a progressive lens, this actually splits your vision into tiny compartments. And really the only part of your retina you’re using is the macula area. So I want to thank you so much for the question. I wish you the very best. And that’s our show for today. Thanks so much for tuning in. Take care.
Thank you for listening. I hope you learned something from the EyeClarity podcast show today. If you enjoyed the episode, make sure to subscribe on iTunes or Spotify and leave a review. See you here next time.
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