OrganicMD Podcast

OrganicMD Podcast


Supplements Are Necessary But Not Sufficient

November 16, 2020

BEH PODCAST EPISODE 51 - 8 Things Your Doctor is Not Telling You About Your Eye Disease, Part 3 of 8. Hint: Your Vision Can Improve.We are continuing this series on macular degeneration, and specifically things that we can do around it. Today we are focusing on something you mentioned in the last session, which is really exploring supplements as one of the many things we can do. One of the first things that your ophthalmologist may suggest or do is hand you a little packet of vitamins as they are hustling you out the door. They offer a consolation prize, one piece in an array of things you can do to help reverse the situation of degenerative eye disease.8 Things Your Doctor is Not Telling You About Your Eye Disease, Part 3 of 8. Hint: Your Vision Can Improve.004_OMDPodcast_8Things_2-SupplementsCarlyleWelcome to the Organic MD podcast. My name is Carlyle Coash and I am here with Dr. Damon P. Miller II. Hello Dr. Miller.Dr. MillerHey Carlyle, it is good to be hear. CarlyleWe are continuing this series on macular degeneration, and specifically things that we can do around it. Today we are focusing on something you mentioned in the last session, which is really exploring supplements as one of the many things we can do. One of the first things that your ophthalmologist may suggest or do is hand you a little packet of vitamins as they are hustling you out the door. They offer a consolation prize, one piece in an array of things you can do to help reverse the situation of degenerative eye disease. Dr. MillerAt the beginning of each podcast, we will briefly repeat what we covered in our last sessions. To start, the whole focus of this is for you to realize if you, or someone you love or know has one of these retinal diseases: macular degeneration, Stargardt’s disease, retinitis pigmentosa, cone rod dystrophy, etc., that there are things you can do to regain vision lost to these diseases. We know this to be true and we are here to tell you what we know about it, so you can do this for yourself or your loved ones.This is not something your eye doctor is going to say, but it is something we help with all the time. The eye doctors tend to tell you, if they are compassionate and honest, they do not have anything to offer you. There is no drug or surgery. If they are operating more from a typical script, they might say there is nothing that can be done. If they do not have anything to offer you, there is nothing that can be done. There are things that can be done. More recently, one thing the eye doctors do offer after making the diagnosis, like Carlyle was saying, is recommend taking certain vitamins – a brand called, Ocuvite. This is done routinely now because of the ARED Studies. The Age Related Eye Disease Studies is trying to codify what has been seen in research since the 1940s and 50s. A huge body of hundreds and hundreds of peer reviewed papers, looked at what supplements, vitamins, other herbs, etc., that we could do to try and help people with these degenerative eye diseases. The ARED Studies have found, if this is the only intervention you do is take vitamins and supplements, will slow the progression of the disease. These are progressive diseases – they never get better over time, but they do get worse. There is no single vitamin, supplement, or combination of the two that has shown to stop the progression of or reverse the diseases. I stand by that statement. I will say it again, “Vitamins and supplements will slow the progression, but they will not stop the progression of the diseases. They will not reverse the diseases and they do not lead to the recovery of vision that is lasting.” You need to do more. We will be discussing this topic over the next sessions. Today is our second of the eight-part series, and we will be talking about the things you can do. We want to be clear that supplements are necessary, but they are not sufficient. One important thing to keep in mind as we are laying out the program,