Nutrition News

At a recent meeting, Anshel and colleagues discussed the role of nutrition for ophthalmologists. While the Ocular Nutrition Society (ONS) encourages membership to all eye care providers, he has found that many ophthalmologists are unaware of the true role of nutrition in eye health.

The other day I received an email from someone who attended one of my recent lectures on contact lenses and nutrition. This person appreciated the talk and thought it was very informative. He did have one question, however: “How do we get the wealth of information that you know on ocular nutrition and just what is good and not good for our bodies and our eyes?”

NEW YORK – “Randomized clinical trials are very good for testing drugs, but when we’re talking about individual foods or patterns, the way these studies are conducted are not a gold standard,” Jeffrey Blumberg, PhD, said here at the Ocular Nutrition Society symposium, held during Vision Expo East.

NEW YORK – More than 20 genetic variants that influence the risk of age-related macular degeneration have been identified, knowledge that, when combined with environmental considerations, will allow for personalized medicine, according to Johanna M. Seddon, MD, ScM. Seddon, a professor of ophthalmology at Tufts University School of medicine and director of the ophthalmic epidemiology service at New England Eye Center, spoke at the Ocular Nutrition Society meeting, held in conjunction with Vision Expo East.

NEW YORK – Panelists here at Vision Expo East said much more information will be gleaned from the Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 in the future.

According to a new study, eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid may aid in identifying patients at risk for neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

In a press release on Tuesday, VisiVite announced that the company had released AREDS2 Silver, a new macular health vitamin formula with lower zinc levels.

LISBON, Portugal — Because there are no safety issues in non-smokers exposed to beta-carotene, there is no reason why these patients should be switched to the AREDS2 formulation from the original AREDS formulation, according to one speaker at the Controversies in Ophthalmology meeting. In response to studies reporting an association between beta-carotene and increased risk of mortality and lung cancer, AREDS participants who were current smokers were reassigned to a formulation that did not contain beta-carotene. “At the conclusion of the AREDS, no increase in mortality or lung cancer was found in the antioxidant arm in spite of the high doses of beta-carotene. AREDS did not identify any adverse effect of the original formula that were specific to non-smokers,” Susan B. Bressler, MD, said.

Valensa Inc. announced last week that ZanthinNEX astaxanthin will be commercially available by the end of 2014.

The Ocular Nutrition Society will host a continuing education conference in conjunction with Vision Expo East in New York next week.