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Macular carotenoids can have positive effects on visual function
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Researchers found that in subjects free of retinal disease and with low macular pigment, supplementation with a formulation containing carotenoids lutein, zeaxanthin and mesozeaxanthin resulted in measurable improvements in vision, according to a study in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science.
The CREST Trial 1 is a parallel group, double-blind, placebo-controlled, block-randomized trial investigating the impact of macular carotenoid supplementation on visual function in normal subjects with low macular pigment (MP) at baseline, researchers wrote.
In the trial, 53 subjects were randomly assigned to the active intervention containing 10 mg of lutein, 10 mg of mesozeaxanthin and 2 mg of zeaxanthin in a sunflower oil suspension. A total of 52 subjects were randomly assigned to placebo, which contained only sunflower oil.
For each participant, the eye with the best visual acuity was selected as the study eye.
Following supplementation for 12 months, visual function exhibited significant improvement, according to researchers.
The study results, “suggest an outcome governed by some or all of the determinants of visual performance; for example, visual acuity did not change over the study period for subjects in the active supplementation group, whereas contrast sensitivity (CS) did, and this observation indicates that CS is influenced by factors other than the determinants of acuity, including retinal and/or cortical factors, thereby explaining the disparity of the results in terms of visual acuity vs. CS,” the researchers wrote. – by Abigail Sutton
Disclosure: The researchers reported no relevant financial disclosures.
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