Information on Cataracts

Introduction

There are many conditions in Western industrialised societies today that were unheard of, or at least very rare, just a century ago. The same conditions are still unheard of in primitive peoples who do not have the 'benefits' of our knowledge. There is a very good reason for this: They eat what Nature intended; we don't. The diseases caused by our incorrect and unnatural diets are those featured on these pages.

Dietary causes:

Cataracts

Cataract is a condition that may be caused by the oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids. When damaged proteins gather within one or both of the eye lenses, the resulting area becoming cloudy or opaque. This is called a cataract. Cataract is the leading cause of blindness worldwide, and about 20 million Americans older than 40 have it.

Cataract is usually attributed to exposure to sunlight while not wearing protective sunglasses.[1] But while it is true that even low exposure to UVB significantly increases risk of cataracts, that happens only if you consume a Western-style, junk food diet rich in unsaturated fats and their oxidized products.[2 - 3] Those who consume a more natural diet do not get cataracts even from lengthy sun exposure.[4]

A community based ophthalmic survey was carried out in Leicester. Samples of Asians and Caucasians aged 40 years and over were randomly selected from the patients of four general practitioners and invited to have an ophthalmic examination. Age-related cataract was significantly higher in the Asians when compared to the Caucasians and it was found to develop earlier in the Asians. The significant risk factor for age-related cataract in the Asian Community in Leicester was found to be their strict vegetarian diet.[5]

Animal studies have suggested a role for dietary carbohydrate in the formation of cataracts for many years. However, few published human studies have evaluated associations with carbohydrate nutrition. A study in 1992 showed that sugars also increase cataract risk,[6] and a large recent study has found that any 'healthy' high-carb diet can increase the risk.[7]

Scientists funded by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Boston, Massachusetts. found that the higher the carbohydrate intake, the higher the odds of developing a certain type of cataract among a group of women aged 53 to 73 years. The women in the study whose average carbohydrate intake was between 200 and 268 grams per day were 2.5 times more likely to get cortical cataracts than the women whose intake was between 101 and 185 grams per day. This association was the same whatever the glycaemic index of the carbs eaten. The study concluded that 'These data suggest that carbohydrate quantity, but not carbohydrate quality, is associated with early cortical opacities, and that neither the quantity nor the quality of dietary carbohydrate affects the risk of nuclear opacities in middle-aged women.'

A Japanese team at Shinshu University Graduate School of Medicine also showed that low levels of cholesterol levels in the eyes may raise cataract risk.[8] Normally, epithelial cells form a thin, single layer across the eye lens which maintains the lens's transparency. In eyes with cataracts, the epithelial cells fail to mature normally. The researchers show that a defect in cholesterol production alters proliferation of epithelial cells and contributes to the eye lens becoming opaque. These findings may prove important for people taking cholesterol-lowering medications or for those with defective cholesterol production, they said. It is a finding that may prove important for people taking cholesterol-lowering medications.

And fluoride

One other known cause of cataract is the fluorides used for water fluoridation and toothpastes.[9]

Whichever way you look at it, following current 'healthy' advice is a likely reason for the increase in this condition.

References

[1]. Harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation. JAMA 1989; 262: 380-84.
[2]. Ames BN, et al. Oxidants, antioxidants, and the degenerative diseases of aging. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1993; 90:7915-7922
[3]. Black HS, et al. Relation of antioxidants and level of dietary lipids to epidermal lipid peroxidation and ultraviolet carcinogenesis. Cancer Res 1985; 45: 6254-6259.
[4]. Leske MC, et al. Antioxidant vitamins and nuclear opacities. Ophthalmology 1998; 105: 18-36.
[5]. Das BN, et al. The prevalence of age related cataract in the Asian community in Leicester: a community based study. Eye 1990; 4: 723-6
[6]. Rattan SIS, et al. Protein Synthesis, Post-translational Modifications, and Aging. Ann NY Acad Sci 1992; 663: 48- 62.
[7]. Chiu CJ, et al. Carbohydrate intake and glycemic index in relation to the odds of early cortical and nuclear lens opacities. Am J Clin Nutr 2005; 81: 1411-6.
[8]. Mori M, Li G, Abe I, et al. Lanosterol synthase mutations cause cholesterol deficiency-associated cataracts in the Shumiya cataract rat. J Clin Invest 2006; 116: 395-404.
[9]. Judd GP. Evidence Against Fluoride Continues to Mount. Health Freedom News, November/December 1994, p. 29.