Healthy Liver Healthy Vision

The liver is called “liver” because it is a reflection of how well you have lived—essentially, your lifestyle. The liver is your main body organ responsible for distributing and maintaining your body’s “fuel” supply, which is the raw material for your overall health, especially your vision health.

According to Chinese medicine, the eyes are “the windows” of your internal health, especially that of your liver: constant redness in the white of the eyes (dysfunctional circulatory and respiratory system); yellowish skin under the eyes (overactive liver and gallbladder); water-containing bags under the lower eyelids (congested digestive and excretory systems); and lack of luster (congested liver).

Therefore, the liver plays a pivotal role in your healthy vision. The liver serves several important functions in your body that may directly or indirectly affect your vision health:

The liver turns glucose (blood sugar) into glycogen (energy) for storage in your liver. Your glycogen controls the amount of glucose released into your bloodstream, thereby maintaining your blood sugar level. A healthy blood sugar levels prevents the development of diabetes, which may ultimately impair vision.

Your liver regulates your carbohydrate metabolism, which plays an important role in weight control. The liver is a fat-burning organ: it not only burns fat but also pumps excess fat out of your body system. Your liver controls your body weight. Too much fat in the abdominal area may impair your fat metabolism, turning your liver into a “fatty liver” which then becomes a fat-storing organ. A “fatty liver” is an obstacle to any attempt at weight loss, which begins at the liver. If you are obese, you have a much higher risk of losing your eyesight, according to the Royal National Institute for the Blind. For example, too much body fat is one of the causes of diabetes; too much fat may cause oxidative damage to the eye 

The liver detoxifies your body by filtering out excessive waste and toxins in your body through the bile into the gut. For example, it deactivates alcohol, hormones, and medicinal drugs for better assimilation. Alcohol and certain pharmaceutical drugs have been implicated in vision loss

The liver stores glycogen, vitamins A and D, the B complex vitamins, iron and copper.

Apart from the brain, the liver is the most important body organ that affects your vision.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau

Ask Questions About Your Visiition

Life is all about asking questions, internalizing them in your mind, and finding appropriate answers to those questions asked. Asking questions is introspection, which is a process of self-reflection, without which there is no self-awareness and hence no personal growth and development. Asking questions is self-empowering wisdom.

If your vision has deteriorated over the years, ask yourself the questions why and how your vision may have deteriorated. Is it your diet, your lifestyle, or simply not taking care of your vision health, such as doing regular eye exercises? Your questions may trigger a set of mental answers, leading to actions or inactions based on the choices you are going to make from the answers you have obtained. It is the natural habit of the human mind to try to solve problems by making things happen.

According to Lao Tzu, knowing yourself is true wisdom.

“Knowing others is intelligence.

Knowing ourselves is true wisdom.

Overcoming others is strength.

Overcoming ourselves is true power.”

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 33)

“Who you are” determines where you are going, what you are going to do, and what kind of a person you are going to become for the rest of your life. Nobody can answer those questions for you. People can be your mentors or role models; they can provide you with a road map or even a compass; even your doctors may tell you to do this or that. But only you can decide where you are going to turn or make a detour, and this is where wisdom comes in. Only you have the answers to all the questions asked.

Vision plays a pivotal role in how you live your life because how you see the world around you becomes your perceptions, and they are the raw materials with which you weave the fabrics of your life. Click here to find out how to enhance your vision.

You also need wisdom to do the right things in your life. Tao wisdom is the essence in the art of living well, It is the profound wisdom of the ancient Chinese sage, Lao Tzu, the author of the immortal classic Tao Te Ching, one of the most translated works in world literature. The book has been popular for thousands of years due to its wisdom, which is simple but controversial, profound and yet intriguing. To fully understand it, you need to get all the essentials of Tao wisdom. Click here for more details.

Stephen Lau 

Copyright©2018 by Stephen Lau

Macular Degeneration Prevention and Treatment

Often called AMD or ARMD (age-related macular degeneration), macular degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss and blindness in Americans aged 65 and older.

AMD is a degenerative condition of the macula, the part of the retina responsible for the sharp, central vision needed to read or drive. Because AMD affects the macula, you may lose your central vision or reading vision.

The risk factors

The risk factors for macular degeneration are: age over 65 with risk increasing proportionately with age; a smoker with 2.5 times increased risk than a non-smoker; having blue eyes instead of brown eyes (blue eyes enabling the blue-violet sunrays to penetrate deeper into the eye tissues of the retina, and hence a greater chance of developing macular degeneration); a sun worshiper spending much time outdoors

Given that macular degeneration begins much earlier, from youth through the age of 30 years, deterioration accelerates as aging progresses.

The symptoms

Macular degeneration symptoms include the following: outlines of objects becoming blurry and wavy; straight lines becoming crooked; shapes of objects becoming indistinct and steamy; much slower reading speed; a prolonged period of time to adapt when going indoors from a bright outdoor environment; eye examination indicating many solar-aging spots on the retina

The treatment

There is little or no cure once the onset of macular degeneration begins. You can retard it, but there is no cure. Prevention is better than no cure. The key to retina health is to keep the retinal blood vessels open, to avoid buildup of cholesterol, blood clots, and calcification.

Laser treatment can arrest the fast-progressing form of macular degeneration, but does not improve vision or preserve eyesight. Therefore, prevention is always the best option.

Eye nutrition can protect the retina from further damage or deterioration.

Vitamins A, C, and E, and beta carotene, which is a precursor for vitamin A, can reduce the risk of developing macular degeneration. It is therefore important that as you grow older you need mega-doses of nutrients because of poor absorption due to inadequate digestive juices for digestion and absorption.

Zinc can retard the loss of protective melanin pigment of the retina against sunlight damage. In addition, zinc helps the release of vitamin A from the liver. Zinc is an important co-factor in getting vitamin A to the retina. However, it must be understood that zinc in excess of 25 milligrams may lead to deficiency of copper, elevation of LDL (bad cholesterol) levels, cholesterol imbalance—all these may cause further damage to the retina. Adequate zinc, but not too much, enhances the retina health.

Glutathione is another powerful antioxidant to protect retinal cells from ultra-violet-A and ultra-violet-B damage. Selenium and riboflavin stimulate the production of glutathione.

Omega-3 fats can improve vision. However, because they can also cause lipid peroxidation (that is, they turn rancid on exposure to sunlight), you need more antioxidants.

Nutrition should also include bioflavonoids, which are plant pigments with protective properties against sunlight damage. Foods that are rich in bioflavonoids include red onions, red grapes, cherries, and citrus fruits.

In short, your diet plays a pivotal role in retina health, and hence the prevention of macular degeneration.

In addition to diet, give up nicotine totally. Reduce your daily intake of caffeine—if you must drink coffee—because it not only interrupts with retinal blood flow but also increases blood pressure, which is bad for the retina.

Aspirin is a blood thinner. It may benefit blood vessel diseases and prevents blockages of oxygen to the brain. However, too much aspirin may also cause retinal bleeding, which impairs retinal health.

Macular degeneration is an eye disease that can be prevented—or at least deferred if you live a healthy lifestyle. Aging is not the cause of degeneration. Retinal disease is a result of accumulative damage to the retina due to neglect, or abuse, or both.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Alternative Glaucoma Treatments

Glaucoma is a vision disorder that leads to vision loss. It cannot reverse or recover the vision loss. The only thing you can do to prevent any further vision loss by regularly taking your eye drops.  Missing doses may further increase your eye pressure.  

Wash your hands before taking your eye drops. Tilt your head and look up at the ceiling, while using your index finger to pull down your lower eye lid. Squeeze the eye drop into the pocket of your eye; don't close your eye right away. Slowly close your eye, and dab any excess with a wet cloth. 

Having said that, glaucoma may also be treated in a different way in addition to the conventional treatment of using eye

drops. 

Dr. Leslie Salov, M.D., O.D. Ph.D., in his book Secrets for Better Vision, states that most glaucoma patients are highly intelligent professionals who lead very stressful, busy lives. This finding led Dr. Salov to believe that to improve vision or eye health, you need to improve the health of your entire person simultaneously because your body is a set of interlocking systems that affect one another. Given that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, your eyes are only a small part of your whole person. Accordingly, to heal the eyes, you must heal the body first. It is just that simple!

To have healthy vision, even as you age, you must employ not only the sciences of physiology, biology, and chemistry, but also the healing powers of philosophy and even spirituality. This is no exception when it comes to treating glaucoma. In other words, to treat glaucoma, you need to examine not just your eyes, but also every aspect of your life, including your emotional and spiritual health.

The methods of glaucoma treatment recommended by Dr. Salov include the following:

Visualization is the use of guided imagery to direct blood, oxygen, and leukocytes (immunity cells) to the eye through a mental image of a healthy eye. Essentially, your conscious mind controls the involuntary processes that occur automatically inside your body. Specifically, visualization relaxes the muscles in the walls of your canal of Schlemm (circular channel in the eye that collects watery substance between the lens and the cornea). By relaxing these muscles, extra fluid can be excreted to relieve the glaucoma pressure. Without using eye drops with chemicals, visualization can naturally relax eye muscles so that your pupils become small enough to open up the canal of Schlemm to excrete the fluid for eye pressure relief.

However, it must be pointed out that visualization works only when you use it with dedication and consistency. In other words, you have to practice visualization daily and diligently.

Meditation is the art of thinking of nothing to remove everyday stresses and worries. When you are under stress, you body produces chemical changes within your body, which decrease blood flow and oxygen level to your eye. Practice meditation to de-stress yourself.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau

Vision Issues in Your Golden Years

Vision Issues in Your Golden Years

As you get into your golden years (that is 65 and beyond)), you will have noticed the deterioration of your vision. As a matter of fact, vision loss begins as early as in the 30s, and its deterioration accelerates in the 40s and 50s. Now, if you are already in your golden years, you might have much impaired vision, especially they could have been aggravated by your decline in health, such as getting diabetes. Getting older will take its toll on your body in many ways and your eyesight is just one thing that will start to deteriorate with age.

Some of the obvious signs and symptoms of vision deterioration are: difficulty in focusing (slower and less accurate)—a condition known as presbyopia, which is caused by the hardening of the eyes’ lenses; difficulty in seeing either long or short distance objects -- vision conditions that are known as either nearsightedness or farsightedness.

Presbyopia will result in difficulty to read or doing work that requires accurate focus; nearsightedness or farsightedness may require you to wear bifocals or different eyeglasses.

Other problematic issues with vision loss include an increased risk of age-related eye diseases, such as glaucoma, macular degeneration and cataracts. These problems can lead to severe eyesight issues if they are not taken care of immediately.

In your golden years, take extra care of your vision health and eyesight issues to reduce the risk of blindness further down the road. Check your health, especially your eye health, on a regular basis. This may play a pivotal role in preventing further deterioration or even blindness. Prevention is always better than a cure.

Make sure that you have eye tests done at least twice a year and if you start to notice a decline in your ability to focus or see clearly.

To correct your vision problem, many eye doctors and opticians are quick to prescribe corrective lenses or even talk about the possibility of having surgery to fix any vision problem.  The advice here is think carefully before you make a decision.

Consider the use of eye exercises to help correct nearsightedness, farsightedness or presbyopia. Eye exercises are easy and simple to do and you can even do them in your own home. A few exercises each day can really help to improve your vision significantly. However, it is important to be consistent and persevering in your eye exercise regimen (this applies to any physical exercise as well). Curing your vision loss is not an overnight endeavor.

Most vision problems, whether nearsightedness, farsightedness, or presbyopia, have to do with eye stress and strain affecting the shape of the eyes, and hence their capability to focus correctly. Of course, the eyes cannot be relaxed if the body and mind are not. Therefore, it is important to have a holistic approach to vision health..

If you are in your golden years, it is important to have a holistic approach to your health and wellness, which is the wisdom in happy and successful aging.

My book Your Golden Years and Santa Claus shows you the wisdom in happy and successful aging in the golden years. It is a holistic and comprehensive approach to dealing with vision loss and other health issues, as well as changes and challenges, encountered late in life.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau