To compare your vitamin supplement go to this Sportmens Edge site.

     Recently in media ads I’ve claimed that antioxidants, and in fact all supplements, have little evidence of providing significantly beneficial health effects. The exception would be for the very under nourished.

     There have been claims that vitamins and supplements can improve everything from your love life to your golf game, and marksman are seeing this as a godsend. Supplements are being made with names like Sportsman’s Edge, Performance, and Mega Man.

     Unfortunately the studies have been quite disappointing, to say the least.  At present, there is no firm evidence that antioxidants and most other supplements provide any meaningful health benefits. See Consumerlab.com. Antioxidants and the eyes may be an exception. You can look at the evidence I've provided and decide. My opinions are clearly stated.

Current State of the Science:

     The most complete and famous study about eyes and supplements is the Age-Related Eye Disease Research Study (AREDS). This study says, "…odds ratios suggest risk reduction for those taking antioxidants alone or zinc alone of 17% and 21%, respectively. The risk reduction for those taking antioxidants plus zinc was 25%." This was true only for  progression of advanced age-related macular degeneration. There is no evidence of prevention.  The FDA, after reviewing this data, said the statistics just do not support the bravado, and D. Seigel published in the Archives of Ophthalmology 120:100, 2002 that the Age-Related Eye Disease Group distorted their findings – even left out one of their test groups. (Duane’s Ophthalmology, 2009 edition, Passage 34, Chapter: Acquired Macular Changes)

     Not waiting for anything adverse to emerge, The National Eye Institute published a news release in 2001 stating, “Scientists found that people at high risk of developing advanced stages of AMD, a leading cause of vision loss, lowered their risk by about 25 percent when treated with a high-dose combination of vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene, and zinc.” 

     It is true that AREDS suggests (their word not mine) zinc and antioxidants reduce risk of loosing vision with advanced age-related macular degeneration. The sample size of about 4000 seems adequate, although an unruly number to monitor for all the variables, and a significant portion of the sample was left out for various reasons, one stating, “…group of participants adds virtually no information to the treatment group.”

    There are those who consider this a definitive study. In fact, Medicare even requires eye doctors to discuss antioxidants.  Still when FDA scientists say the results seem shaky, and many doctors agree – I’m inclined to accept AREDS as contributory, but not definitive. Also, this is only one study. 

    AREDS II is underway. It will take a few years. Maybe the results will be a little more absolute and a little less slanted toward a preconceived hypothesis.

     Of course the supplement industry is loving it. We even have doctors telling normal patients to use zinc and antioxidant supplements saying it probably will help, when the statistical probability suggests otherwise. Still, it has been the only tool we had.  More recently injectable intra-ocular chemo-drugs have been developed that are a much better course if your macular degeneration fits the bill, and not all do.

What to Take for Macular Degeneration:

     The exact formulation used in the ARED study is PreserVision by Bausch & Lomb. If you have the kind of macular degeneration, are a suspect, or you're simply over forty, there is nothing to be lost by using such supplements, save one exception -  smokers. Even though smoking more than doubles the risk of macular degeneration there are indications that high dosages of vitamin A increases the risk of lung cancer in smokers. Bausch & Lomb now makes and alternative for smokers in which lutein is substituted for vitamin A.

     If you are going to take PreserVision, and I recommend it for those who have early macular degeneration or those over forty with a strong family history of macular degeneration, you must take it in the proper dosage of two soft gel capsules a day. It's stated right on the side of the box. A lesser amount is of little benefit.

     Regardless, we now have companies claiming not only cures but enhanced performance from mega doses of zinc, copper, antioxidants and "antioxidant like" additives such as lutein, astaxanthin and lycopene.

     Is it a sham? Well, they are certainly building their claims on suggestion and innuendo. The proof? I don't think it's there. You can make up your own mind.

Dan David, O.D.