Dear Health-Conscious Friend,

For once it seems mainstream is throwing their conventional thinking out the window and actually publishing natural treatments! And what better way to start than by telling us how to prevent age-related vision loss!

Rachael Jeffery reveals this study today!

In the name of good health,

Taryn Strugnell
Managing Editor of Nutrition & Healing

P.S. Peyronies disease is painful! And any man who's ever had to suffer through this would gladly "go under" to treat it. Dr Wright tells us what it is and how to treat it without surgery...

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Supplements could help protect your sight
Rachael Jeffery
Editor of Daily Health

Many of the signs of ageing just make us feel old - greying hair, deepening 'laughter lines', mild forgetfulness. But without question, one of the most debilitating - and daunting - conditions we face as we get older is age-related macular degeneration or ARMD, the leading cause of vision loss and blindness for those 65 and older.

The fear and helplessness associated with deteriorating vision is something that too many of us have to face. Now a recent study is providing some hope, along with a protocol that may halt or slow ARMD's progression.

The disease is just as the name suggests: The degeneration of the macula, which is the centre part of the retina. The macula is responsible for fine, detailed vision, and as it deteriorates, your field of vision narrows until you can't see anything at all. This usually happens gradually, maybe taking many years before reaching total blindness. But for those who have it, it can be a frightening path to follow - particularly since mainstream medicine offers virtually no way to halt it.

Needing glasses or bifocals doesn't mean you have ARMD, or that you're at a greater risk of developing it. In some ways, however, it could actually help you, because a regular check up with your optometrist should include ARMD screening. Up until now, early detection hasn't been much help, since doctors didn’t have anything to recommend. But research is revealing some hope for those with ARMD.

The study, which appears in the Archives of Ophthalmology, shows a regular supplement programme including antioxidants and zinc could reduce the progression of AMD by as much as 25%. The study specifically monitored people who already showed signs of ARMD and found evidence that this combination of supplements could stop or slow the path of this disease.

This is not exactly a 'discovery' in alternative medicine circles. Forward-thinking doctors have been talking about the relationship between nutrition and vision for years. But this is the first time that a large scale, randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trial in a mainstream medical journal has supported the theory. It's a big step in support of supplements - and a big step forward in ophthalmology.

Here are the details: The Age-Related Eye Disease Study (called AREDS for short) began enrolling participants in November 1992 and continued recruiting until January 1998.

They tracked 3,597 participants until the end of the study in April 2001. On average, they studied the participants for 6.3 years, with vision exams every six months while they participated in the study. All of the participants were between the ages of 55 and 80, and equally divided between men and women.

The group was divided into categories depending on the state of their vision at baseline (for example, Category 4 patients already had ARMD at the beginning of the study, while Category 2 patients showed only borderline ARMD characteristics).

All categories were randomly assigned one of the following regimens: daily supplementation with antioxidants (500mg vitamin C, 400IU of vitamin E, 15mg beta carotene); daily supplementation with zinc (80mg of zinc oxide and 2mg of cupric oxide); a combination of both antioxidants and zinc at the prescribed dosages; or placebo.

To measure the effects of the supplements, the researchers compared ARMD progression among each of the four groups. When compared with people in the placebo group, the antioxidant group had a 17% lower incidence of ARMD progression. Folks in the zinc group reduced their risk an impressive 21%. But those who took antioxidants AND zinc lowered their risk a full 25%.

The study didn't assess the supplements ability to prevent the development of ARMD in the first place. But there's reason to believe that it could help, and for most people, there's little risk in following the study's supplement plan.

All of these supplements are very safe at the dosages used in the study; you may even already be taking some of them to address other issues. You should talk to your doctor before starting any supplementation programme, but for most people, this combination of antioxidants and zinc is an easy, relatively inexpensive way to fight off ARMD and retain your sight.

Treating Peyronie's disease, naturally!

Q: My doctor told me the only way to treat my Peyronie's disease is surgery. Is there anything natural I can try before I go under the knife?

Dr. Wright: For those readers not familiar with this condition, Peyronie's disease occurs when the tissue along the shaft of the penis thickens, making erections curved and painful.

While mainstream medicine often resorts to surgery to treat this problem, SSKI works to relieve it naturally and non-invasively. SSKI stands for saturated solution of potassium iodide, you can apply this liquid directly to the affected area.

Contact Health Works to get SSKI on (011) 325-5168.

For more natural sexual health advice click here!