Vitamin D Could Make Your Kids Eyeglass Free

Vitamin D Could Make Your Kids Eyeglass Free

From Alternatives Newsletter Spring 2010

It’s not uncommon to see young children wearing eyeglasses and it’s not what professionals would consider a serious medical condition.  It’s certainly no fun, though, for kids who value their freedom.  Nearsightedness, which is mostly due to myopia, is to blame for this.  But what if you could prevent myopia by adding vitamin D to a child’s health plan?

Vitamin D Could Make Your Kids Eyeglass Free

It’s not uncommon to see young children wearing eyeglasses and it’s not what professionals would consider a serious medical condition.  It’s certainly no fun, though, for kids who value their freedom.  Nearsightedness, which is mostly due to myopia, is to blame for this.  But what if you could prevent myopia by adding vitamin D to a child’s health plan?

Those with myopia see near objects clearly, but objects in the distance appear blurred.  When myopia occurs, the eyeball is too long, or the cornea is too steep, so images are focused in the vitreous inside the eye rather than on the retina at the back of the eye. 

Mainstream eye care professionals most commonly correct myopia through the use of corrective lenses, such as glasses or contact lenses.  The condition may also be corrected by refractive surgery, but that does come with risks and side effects.

As far back as the 1930s and 40s, Dr. Arthur Alexander Knapp demonstrated that a lack of calcium and vitamin D caused that same type of eye condition.  His pioneering research also revealed that nutrients would stabilize and even reverse myopia in adults.  (His research, however, did not determine how these results would affect young children.)

“Since then, nutritional experts have surmised that vitamin D could have these same healing effects on children’s eyes,” said Dr. Patricia Ryan, Alternatives’ founder.  “Some nutritionists even go so far as to say that calcium and magnesium, along with vitamin D, taken during pregnancy could actually prevent myopia in children.  There are also theories that this same trio of vitamins and minerals could even halt and reverse that eye damage,” she noted.

Sunlight has always been one important source of vitamin D.  “But I have found that vitamin D levels in my patients are low even in the summer,” Dr. Ryan said.  “The problem is not one of lack of sunshine, but the fact that the liver cannot convert vitamin D to an active state that can provide these patients with the nutrients they need to keep their eyes as well as their bodies healthy.”

Vitamin D supplementation already has shown positive results preventing other diseases, according to Dr. Ryan.  “Research among 12,000 new mothers in Scandinavia revealed that newborns given 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily for their first year of life had 80 percent less incidence of Type I diabetes 18 years later.*  That’s why the value of this vitamin shouldn’t be underestimated not only to maintain healthy eyesight but for overall health and well-being,” Dr. Ryan said.

To learn more about the effects of vitamin D, contact Alternatives at 827-9450. 

*Hypponen E., Laara E, et. al. “Intake of vitamin D and risk of type 1 diabetes: A birth-cohort study.” Lancet 2001; 358: 1,500-1,503