Attenuation of the onset and progression of age-related vision impairments by reducing oxidative stress and inflammation by micronutrients

The major eye diseases refractive error, cataract, age-related macular degeneration (ARMD), glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy can lead to blindness without an early intervention. The treatments include eye glasses for refractive error, surgery for cataract, and medications for glaucoma and ARMD. These therapies do not address oxidative stress and inflammation that contribute to these eye diseases. Therefore, supplementation with antioxidants could be useful. However, administration with single or multiple dietary antioxidants with or without carotenoids (zeaxanthin and lutein), and omega-3-fatty acids, produced no benefits or only modest benefits in certain eye diseases. The problems associated with such antioxidant’s approaches were identified, and potential causes for not producing optimal benefits were presented. The major objectives are to show that enhanced oxidative stress and inflammation contribute to the age-related major eye diseases. This review presents rationales for using a comprehensive mixture of micronutrients containing dietary and endogenous antioxidants, vitamin D3, and carotenoids such as lutein, zeaxanthin, astaxanthin, all B-vitamins, and minerals Zn and Se for simultaneously reducing oxidative and inflammatory damage. Since elevated levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) are found in the wet ARMD and diabetic retinopathy, this mixture has ingredients, which reduce VEGF levels. Supplementation with this micronutrient mixture may delay the onset and progression of major eye diseases, and may improve the effectiveness of standard therapy.