Monday, August 6, 2007

Zeaxanthin: Not For Eyes Only

A study published in a recent Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences suggested that low levels of specific plasma carotenoids, zeaxanthin and lycopene, were linked to the lowest levels of cognitive function in 589 people.

Tasnime Akbaraly, PhD., lead study author wrote, "To our knowledge, this study is the first that investigated, in a healthy elderly population, the relationship between cognitive performance measured by five neuropsychological tests and the different plasma carotenoids: the xanthophylls (lutein zeaxanthin, beta-cryptoxanthin) and the carotenes (lycopene, alpha-carotene, trans-beta-carotene, and cis-beta-carotene).

Dr. Akbaraly went on to say, "Low levels of two specific plasma carotenoids, lycopene and zeaxanthin, were associated with poor cognitive functioning in a highly educated community-dwelling elderly study population."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting! Wasn't there also a recent positive result study done on grape seed extract and cognitive function in the elderly?

Those of us over the age of 60 with dementia or Alzheimer's in our family history are most interested in these studies.

Anonymous said...

I take the Macula Complete and it has 4mg of Zeaxanthin. Should I be be ordering more Zeaxanthin and if so how much should I take?

Anonymous said...

What's up with zeaxanthin?

I've heard that no one except ZeaVision can sell more than 4 mg of zeaxanthin without being sued by that company.

Do you know anything about this nonsense? I have AMD. I take Macula Complete and 8 extra mg of Zeaxanthin4 every day, although I had to figure it out from myself, since you people were no help and my doctor doesn't know crap about nutritional medicine.

My eyes are stable and have been for over two years.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Sniderman,

Your comments are interesting and I'm so delighted to hear that your macula is stable.

You are right about ZeaVision. We cannot risk infringing on ZeaVision's zeaxanthin patent by suggesting our customers take zeaxanthin over and above the 3 and 4 mg in Oculair and Macula Complete respectively.

On the other hand, you can decide for yourself how much to take, and the physicians who recommend zeaxanthin supplemention can certainly use their medical judgement to recommend the amount they deem the most efficacious.

We work fairly closely with Dennis Geirhart, PhD, the owner of ZeaVision and the scientiest who holds the patent on zeaxanthin-he puts his money where he mouth is and funds much needed zeaxanthin clinical studies.

We have no ax to grind with him.