Organized Guide of Essential Vitamins that Aid in Proper Function of Your Eyes

In order to maintain your entire body and other organs properly functioning, you need to have a variety of vitamins and minerals and your eyes is no exception.

We will see a host of vitamins and minerals that play a very vital role in maintaining a proper and functional health of your eyes.

Vitamin D

This vitamin is instrumental in calcium metabolism and for absorption of calcium and phosphorous minerals from your intestines, you need to have vitamin D in your body.

In young children, vitamin D deficiency can cause rickets, high irritability, and weakness and in the case of adults, the vitamin D deficiency will show up as bone softening.

Further during the initial human growth period vitamin D is needed for better bone and tooth formation and in the absence of vitamin D, your bone growth may not be proper and that may lead to more complications at a later stage.

It has also been found out that vitamin D is directly instrumental for your improved vision and for maintaining an overall good health.

Mother Nature has provided our body with the necessary expertise to synthesize its own vitamin D requirements. Our system is capable of producing vitamin D from the sunlight and in the process two of our skin compounds that has a cholesterol base will get converted as vitamin D.

The various food sources also has vitamin D in its composition and the food varieties such as egg yolk, butter, fish liver oils and few of the fatty type fishes such as tuna, sardine, oysters, and salmon also have rich vitamin D contents.

You can also get vitamin D supplements in the market, but they are rarely prescribed as by nature and by our food habits we have more of vitamin D in our body system.

Vitamin B Category

The various members of vitamin B group do have a very marked effect on your health, especially your eyes.

All the body cells need oxidation reactions for growth and all the vitamin B category members behave as coenzymes that take care of oxidation process and carbohydrate metabolism necessary for any healthy eyes and body. We will see below a list of members of the vitamin B family.

Thiamine – Vitamin B1

This vitamin B group member is responsible for carbohydrate metabolism, production of energy, niacin synthesis, fatty acid production, the most important RNA synthesis, and for transmitting nerve impulses all through the body.

Very often our body will be in need of an enzyme for the purpose of natural inhibition of cholinesterase and the thiamine will take care of this function.

Like any other deficiency, thiamine deficiency will also result in various complications and the most important of them is impairment in vision and nerve damage.

In one of the studies conducted, two groups of people were chosen and one group was fed with diet that was deficient in vitamin B components and the other group was fed with a diet that was rich in vitamin B components.

After the prescribed period of time, the control group which was fed with a diet that was deficient in vitamin B have shown a major increase of open-angle glaucoma incidence and the other group which was fed with vtamin B rich diet never exhibited any symptoms of glaucoma.

Food items that are rich in thiamine are peas, wheat germ, brewer's yeast, peanuts, pasta, liver, beans, whole grains, and pork.

Riboflavin – Vitamin B2

This member of the vitamin B group is responsible for breaking dietary fat, fatty acid synthesis, folic acid and vitamin B6 activation, red blood cells formation, corticosteroids synthesis, and glycogen formation that is directly involved in supplying energy for the body.

Further the so formed glycogen is stored in liver and muscles with the aid of riboflavin only.In the event of riboflavin deficiency, your mucous membrane and the moist tissues in the eyes and nose will get the first beating.

Riboflavin is also responsible for maintaining glutathione supply to the lens of the eye and this glutathione compound is actually an antioxidant that help in your proper vision.

You can get a very good supply of riboflavin from sources such as brewer's yeast, wheat germ, milk, almonds, pasta, yogurt, broccoli, cottage cheese, pasta, kidney, liver, and heart.

Any of the processed foods will not have any amount of riboflavin as the various processes involved in any food processing will destroy the vitamins including riboflavin and in case of milk, the pasteurization process will totally deplete the riboflavin content from milk.

Niacin & Niacinamide – Vitamin B3

Niacin and Niacinamide are the two forms of Vitamin B3 group. Niacin is capable of dilating blood vessels and hence used for lowering blood pressure and niacin is also more commonly used for reducing blood cholesterol.

Due to the above-mentioned properties, ophthalmologists use niacin component of vitamin B3 group for increasing the blood flow to the optic nerves.

When it comes to the source from where you can get sufficient amounts of niacin, the brewer’s yeast occupy the top position.

Besides this, you can also derive niacin from food sources such as peanuts, whole grains, soybeans, and from food items that are considered to possess high-quality proteins and such food items are eggs, milk, meat, liver, fish, and poultry.

Use of alcohol will destroy niacin in any form and cooking is also known to deplete the foods from niacin content considerably.

Niacin if taken from supplemental source, then it may cause an increased bowel movement initially and any prolonged over dose may cause damage to liver.

The other member of vitamin B3 namely Niacinamide doesn’t possess any of the properties possessed by niacin and is not much used for lowering the blood cholesterol or for improving the blood circulation to optic nerves.

Your body is capable of producing niacin on its own from the available amino acid tryptophan, but for that process your system will be in need of Vitamin B6, riboflavin and thiamine.

Pyridoxine – Vitamin B6

Pyridoxine is an another member of vitamin B group and it is primarily known as Vitamin B6. Pyridoxine is required for various metabolic processes and for protein formation through a process in which the amino acid will be broken down to form protein.

Further, vitamin B6 is also responsible for assimilation of fat, carbohydrates, for antibodies synthesis, red blood cells production, production of elastin and DNA, and for release of glycogen which is the prime source of energy.

You can get a very good amount of vitamin B6 from food sources such as legumes, lima beans, soybeans, avocados, walnuts, peanuts, bananas, buckwheat, chicken, beef, pork, tuna, steak, kidney, veal, and salmon.

If you are in a habit of taking oral contraceptives, then bear in mind that such contraceptives are capable of depleting the niacin from your body and as you grow old also you tend to suffer from niacin deficiency invariably.

Vitamin B12

In your body, synthesis of DNA and RNA is taken care by vitamin B12 in combination with folic acid. Vitamin B12 helps in maintaining nerve tissues and is responsible for glucose metabolism.

In early 1958 itself a study was conducted and it was found that vitamin B12 is capable of increasing the strength of optic nerve tissues and hence very useful for treating glaucoma patients.

A yet another study carried out during the year 1969 revealed that vitamin B12 is very beneficial for optic neuropathy and it was proved successful only when the treatment is given well within the first six months of vision problem.

In the year 1976, the outcome of one particular research conducted on monkeys was that a severe vitamin B12 deficiency will result in an acute impairment of vision and the autopsy done on such animals revealed degenerated peripheral visual pathway to a much greater extent.

When this was the case in control group, the other group, which was given with sufficient vitamin B12 supplement, did not exhibit any of these symptoms and all the animals were near to normal.

Vitamin B12 can be derived from various food sources such as oysters, liver, poultry, fish, salmon, clams and eggs. The main source of vitamin B12 is from non-vegetarian food and hence strict vegetarians need to take vitamin B12 supplements.

Further, as alcohol and certain birth control pills can destroy vitamin B12 from one’s blood, people who are in the habit of taking birth control pills and consuming alcohol should take care to take supplements.

Advancement in age also will result in depletion of vitamin B12 from the body system and hence aged people should be sufficiently provided with augmented supplement of vitamin B12.

Folic acid

Folic acid, is an another member of vitamin B group and this helps in preventing anemia, aids in new cells growth, and is very essential in the early stages of developing fetus.

Any deficiency during the early stages of fetal development can result in a complicated condition called spina bifida. Many experts opine that for people who suffer from visual problems, an increase of folic acid supplement in diet can show remarkable improvement in their vision.

Folic acid is abundantly available in leafy and raw green vegetables, and in fresh ripe fruits. In the non-vegetarian category, food items such as liver, eggs and salmon also hold very good quantities of folic acid.

Besides the above-mentioned sources, bean sprouts, asparagus, garbanzo beans, and whole wheat also have sufficient folic acid in them and the point that has to be borne in mind is that cooking can destroy the folic acid contents in food.

Pantothenic Acid

This Pantothenic acid is popularly called as brain chemical and deficiency will result in optic and nerve deterioration or degeneration.

Your body needs panthothenic acid for production of energy, red blood cells and a kind of steroid. It also aids in production of antibodies for fighting against diseases and is responsible for enhancing intestinal absorption.

The food sources that give an ample amount of pantothenic acid include sunflower seeds, liver, kidney, brewer’s yeast, heart, peanuts, buckwheat flour, royal bee jelly, cereals made out of whole grains, fish, bran, and egg yolk.

In earlier days, say up to the time where today’s modern food processing technique was not invented, there was no reported deficiency of this nutrient or vitamin.

However, after the use of modern food processing techniques and growing foods using chemical based fertilizers combined with heavy fumigation for controlling pests all contributed heavily to the depletion of various vitamins, particularly pantothenic acid from foods that we eat.

Biotin

This particular member of vitamin B group is a necessity for your body energy metabolism and for synthesis of antibodies to fight against diseases.

Further biotin is also responsible for producing niacin and other digestive enzymes. In case of diabetic patients, a regularly administered biotin supplement can help in reduction of blood sugar levels and a similar dose can also help in reduction of intraocular pressure (IOP) in some patients.

Normally the beneficial bacteria that is present in your intestine takes care of producing biotin in the system and hence if for any reason you take a heavy dosage of antibiotics, it will hamper the production of biotin in your body.

Biotin rich food sources are kidney, liver, milk, egg yolk, whole grains, yeast, cauliflower, active culture yogurt, legumes, nuts, and fish. It is advised that you should consult a doctor before you could try to have a biotin supplement.

Choline

Choline is also another member of vitamin B group that is called as brain chemical. Choline is synthesized in your body with the aid of pantothenic acid and acetylcholine, and this beneficial chemical helps in glaucoma management in patients.

Further the lecithin compound present in choline also helps in preventing your arteries from developing plague and any normally healthy person’s body will be able to assimilate the required choline by its own mechanism.

In case of need, you can get choline from foods such as egg yolks, cereal, legumes, fish, soybeans, liver and lecithin. Though most of the fatty foods are rich in choline content, they are not normally recommended due to the associated negative effects they may have.

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