Cataracts, that film that grows over the lens of the eye, gradually steals away vision.  Age is the biggest predictor of developing them.  One statistic I found, but was unable to substantiate, said that 75% of people over 60 will develop cataracts.  Yikes!  That doesn’t make our chances look very good.

There is a cure, but it involves surgery to replace the damaged lens with an artificial one.  Newer innovations have made these lenses so they flex just like your natural lens did.  They also improve your eyesight so you may not need glasses.

Both my husband Paul and I have suffered through life with extremely bad eyes.  He has worn glasses for farsightedness and astigmatism since he was two years old and I was extremely nearsighted from childhood.  When age-related eye problems hit we both found that we couldn’t see at any distance — even with the aid of glasses and contacts.  We had our lenses replaced to improve our vision with the same surgery used to remove cataracts and have been happy with the results.  However, now I have glaucoma, and I wonder if there is a connection between the surgery and developing the disease.

At any rate, I did the research and found a number of things that help protect against cataracts.  Vitamins A, C, and E are important. (Sound familiar?  We talked about those in our posts about glaucoma.)  Also adequate Omega 3s are important.  Do I sound like a broken record?  While I am repeating myself, I will say that I found sugar and a high glycemic diet are big predictors of cataracts.  So are transfats and processed foods.

There are a few more helpful tips about cataracts that I turned up in my research.  More on them tomorrow.

Eating to live and living for Christ,

Susan Jordan Brown