If you want to protect your eyes, forget the carrots and go right for the fish--because a new study finds again that seniors who eat the most seafood have the lowest risk of age-related macular degeneration.
Researchers examined the diets of 2,400 seniors between the ages of 65 and 84 who live in the seafood-crazy Eastern Shore region of Maryland, then gave them thorough eye exams.
They found 450 of them suffered from ARMD, a frightening disorder that is the leading cause of vision loss and blindness in seniors.
Sixty-eight of them were in the advanced stages of the disease.
Maybe they should have enjoyed the hometown favorites just a little more often--because the researchers wrote in Ophthalmology that these advanced ARMD patients were among the lowest consumers of fish.
Since the same docosahexaenoic acid in fish oil is found in the human retina, the study isn't a surprise--just confirmation of what other researchers have discovered.
Some studies have even found that extra fish consumption can lower the risk of ARMD by up to 38 percent.
Unfortunately, you can't get this kind of protection from Maryland's best-known seafood dishes: shellfish like crabs and oysters. Even though they're high in zinc (a nutrient that's essential to vision health and can even lower the risk of ARMD), you'd need to eat pounds of it every day just to get the levels of zinc you'll find in an ordinary supplement.
So for zinc, at least, stick to the supplement. But don't stop there--other nutrients that can help boost your vision and lower your risk of ARMD include the three carotenoids found in marigolds: meso-zeaxanthin, lutein and zeaxanthin.
One British optician claims a marigold supplement actually reversed his ARMD, and clinical trials are under way now.
I gave you all the details on this last year, including the other key nutrients that can help lower your ARMD risk--and you can read all about it for free right here.
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