July 21, 2022 - EyeClarity Podcast
Cataracts affect a growing number of people, and many factors can contribute to this. I have found that adding certain specific antioxidants can reduce cataract formation and, in some cases, eliminate it altogether. But they don’t work for everyone. So today, I wanted to talk to those who aren’t seeing results with my approach and discuss why this might be and how you can move forward. Enjoy the show. If you want more, sign up for my newsletter at: www.drsamberne.com.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
cataracts, lens, progressive lenses, cataract surgery, eye, sunglasses, surgery, person, lenses, astigmatism, protein, worse, stress, oxidative stress, diet, desert southwest, work, factors, vision, reduce
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 another EyeClarity podcast. Great to have you in today. And I’m going to be talking about cataracts. So when we go to the eye doctor, and the doctor looks into our eyes, and he or she says, Oh, you have the start of cataract, and you ask the doctor, is there anything you can do? And basically, he or she will say, well, we just watch it. When it gets ripe. We cut it out. Now, in my practice, and through my social media outlets, you know, I’ve been at this for over three decades, I definitely have found that adding certain specific antioxidants, at the very least, can reduce cataract formation. And in some cases, the cataract can go away. In fact, in early stage cataracts, my community does very well at either a, keeping the cataract from getting worse, or be reversing it completely. And there are a variety of factors, why we develop cataracts. But what I want to spotlight in this show is those small percentage of people who contact me and say, Dr. Berne, I’ve been using your protocols for three months, six months, nine months, I’m frustrated because things aren’t getting better. And in a few cases, things might even be getting worse.
So that’s the group I want to address today. But it’s going to affect all of us, because cataract development is in such a huge part of the population, especially once we hit age 60. Now what is a cataract, it’s basically free radicals oxidative stress that begins to accumulate in the lens of the eye. The lens is made up of mostly protein and water. And this protein can start to break down. Sometimes glucose molecules start to attach to the protein. And this is called the glycation process. So it’s a it’s a cause of certain types of cataracts like cortical cataracts. This would be the type of cataracts associated with things like high glucose levels in the blood or diabetes. But we run down the list on why we develop cataracts. Smokers, people drink too much alcohol, diabetics, people have had eye surgery to treat glaucoma, retinal detachment, taking steroid drugs, taking statin drugs, getting radiation, or chemotherapy. Now, there are two other factors that I will give a little bit of credence to the first is genetics. Because we need to be careful around just saying, Well, my grandmother had cataracts, my father had cataracts. So I’m gonna get cataracts.
Because when we say that we invalidate the the science around what we call epigenetics. And epigenetics means that our genes express in a certain way based on our environment, what we eat, what we think, what our emotional health is, like, what our lifestyle is like. And all of those things influence how the DNA expressed themselves. So I’ll give a little bit of influence on genetics. But be very careful that you don’t get too attached to that particular idea. Because if you do, you’re probably going to, you know, follow in the footsteps of your father, your grandfather, in terms of eye diseases and cataracts and other other things. And it really puts you into a victim state, instead of saying, Well, wait a minute, you know, yeah, my parents had this had cataracts. But I know that if I do A, B, C, D, and E, I lower my risk. So that’s one aspect. The other aspect is in mainstream, they say, oh, too much exposure to the sun, without sunglasses will definitely cause cataracts. And I disagree. I do think in a moderate way we do you need to protect ourselves from the sun, especially in the summertime, if we’re outside all day. If we live in a climate like where I live in the desert southwest, or by the ocean. There are times I do wear sunglasses, and I take them off and I put them on, but I’m also getting about 30 minutes of natural sunlight every day. And, you know, we
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actually need trace amounts of ultraviolet light. It’s very good for our immune system. We know that natural It’s good for vitamin D, production and absorption. And so that is another one that I would take offense to. If you’re going to say, Oh, I’ve got to wear sunglasses all the time and you know, you may need to you may want to if you’re dealing with light sensitivity, or glare, you know, there are certain circumstances when sunglasses are definitely warranted. In fact, I’m going to do a whole show on sunglasses, so stay tuned for that, but I want to stay on cataracts. Now, when a person is diagnosed with cataracts, and they’ve met me, they’ve come across a video blog or a podcast.
What I say is that because the lens requires its nutrient absorption indirectly, because there’s no blood vessels that run through the lens of the eye, we need to make sure we’re getting some very important ingredients for a healthy lens number one, glutathione, the master antioxidant, number two, vitamin C. Number three, we can add things like lutein and zeaxanthin. These are the plant based karate noids also asked to xantham which is a marine karate annoyed. And even things like vitamin A bilberry, taurine, gingko, and some of our trace minerals. It’s also very important in our diet, that we reduce or eliminate sugar. Okay, so for many people, they follow that, and their cataracts go away. So with that small group of people where they say, Oh, my cataracts, they’re getting worse. I’m doing all these things. Why isn’t this working? Well, you know, in the end, I’ve learned this, that I can provide a person with the best diet in the world, the healthiest supplements.
But there are other factors involved around cataracts, that sometimes there’s an obstacle, now can be things like being overexposed to blue light, having visual stress. So if you’re using progressive lenses for your screen time, I can’t tell you the number of people I have evaluated this year, who come to see me who are having significant eye problems. And they’ve been prescribed these progressive lenses, which are trashing their eyes, because there’s so much stress and being able to focus through a tiny window in the progressive lenses. Now, some other things to consider would be things like an acetylcysteine carnosine. These are again antioxidants that sometimes are missing in our diet. So we can add those to our, you know, to our either in our foods or through supplementation. But what I have to say about cataract surgery is that sometimes the healing is getting the cataract surgery. Now that may sound foreign to you. But sometimes that lens because it’s creating the oxidative stress, it is such a strong pattern. That no matter what obstacles we put in front of it, meaning, you know all the best eyedrops all the best nutrients, all the best, you know, things that can feed the lens. If it’s getting worse, then I think the best thing to do is just get the cataract surgery and what will happen when you do get cataract surgery if you do get it that your eyesight is going to get very, very clear when the inter ocular lenses are put into your eyes. And when that happens, whatever the reasons why you develop the cataract.
You’ve healed it and you move on. And I think sometimes people get dug in with their heels saying no no matter what, no matter what, no matter what, and they go a year, year and a half, two years and they’re not getting any better. there. And, of course, it gets frustrating, of course, that you’re doing all these things, and it’s not getting any better. That’s the time to say, Okay, let’s get the surgery. And again, there’s some things that you can do like correct both eyes for distance, don’t get monovision don’t get the fancy lenses that, you know, can create more problems. If you have under one diopter of astigmatism, I’d really think carefully about getting into astigmatism lens. I’m not sure I would get bifocal contacts or contacts, sorry, inter ocular lenses that, that correct the intermediate distance and the near vision as well. There’s new technology out there. It depends on you know, how you use your eyes, where are you, you know, where you are with your lifestyle, and so on and so forth. But sometimes, these natural remedies just don’t work. You know, I was having lunch today with a colleague of mine. And he was suffering a certain disease process, and he tried all the natural things, they didn’t work. And so we ended up doing the conventional therapy and he got better.
And true. holism is embracing it all. There times I use pharmaceutical drugs in my office, there are times I do recommend surgery, there are times that I recommend natural alternative therapies as well. And even though I’m kind of down the middle of the road, and I lean more towards an integrative holistic approach and look at the whole person, the healing can be when you get the cataract surgery, if say, after six months, things are getting worse, or the cataract is interfering with your daily activities to the to the point, or you’re struggling with reading, you’re struggling with driving, just go get the surgery, because if you get it, what it’s going to create in your brain is that connection, again, between the eyes and the brain in terms of clarity. And I know I talk a lot about going in the blur, and we we do the blurry vision glasses and all of that. But bottom line is optimal vision. Performance is what I’m after. And however we get to the finish line is however we get there. And sometimes we need surgery. Sometimes we need pharmaceuticals.
Sometimes we need natural therapies. So for those of you who are following me, and you know, I’ve written me about the frustration when cataracts and I will say it’s a very, very tiny percentage. Most people who do my protocols, they do very well in improving their vision. But sometimes the Vision Improvement is saying, Okay, I’m gonna get the cataract surgery. And I’m not going to eat all those sugary carbohydrate foods. I’m going to take good supplements for my nutrients. I’m going to heal my gut. I’m going to take a look at my emotional stuff, you know, all of those things, and reducing your stress. I think that is a huge, huge factor. So I hope that’s helpful to everybody, but especially that slice of those listeners who want an answer. You now have my answer. So that’s my show for today. Thank you so much for tuning in. Take care.
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