Biomarkers reveal how patients with glaucoma may respond to treatment (Vitamin B3 helps)

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. The condition occurs when cells in the eye that help you see (called retinal ganglion cells) start to die.

Currently, all licensed treatments are designed to lower pressure in the eye—also known as intraocular pressure. However, some patients still continue to lose their sight following treatment.

To help doctors better understand who will lose their vision faster, the study asked whether mitochondrial function, measured in white blood cells, is lower in people with glaucoma than those without glaucoma and if mitochondrial function is associated with the rate at which glaucoma patients lose vision.

Mitochondria are the "batteries" inside cells that produce energy for the cells to function. Cells in the eye use a lot of energy.

The researchers assessed 139 participants who were already receiving treatment to lower intraocular pressure and 50 healthy people acting as a control (comparison) group.

They measured how well cells in the blood use oxygen, how much vision was lost over time and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) levels.

NAD is a molecule in the body that helps cells produce energy and is made from vitamin B3 in the diet.

Firstly, the researchers discovered that certain cells in the blood, known as peripheral blood mononuclear cells, use oxygen differently in people with glaucoma.

The team measured how much oxygen these cells use and found that people whose blood cells used less oxygen tended to lose their vision faster, even if they were being treated to lower intraocular pressure.

Additionally, people with glaucoma were found to have lower levels of NAD in their blood cells compared to people without glaucoma. These lower NAD levels were linked to the lower oxygen use in the blood cells.

I can say I have had higher eye pressure, for decades, until this past year.

I went to an ophthalmologist a few years ago and he started me on brimonidine drops, as a preventative. The ones I currently take are 0.1%, twice a day.

I stopped taking the drops for two months to get their effect out of my system, while I used supplements I found from reading studies. I went back in early this year and found the supplements dropped my pressure from 22 to 16 (mm Hg) I told him what I did and he was frustrated with me and had me promise to take the drops, so I did. I also tweaked my supplements a bit more. This last time I went in, my eye pressure was 11, for the first time in my life.

So I literally went from 22 to 11 from the lowest dose brimonidine and supplements, in a matter of months, experimenting on myself.

What am I doing?

I noticed my blood pressure was, strangely, now higher in the prior two years. Part of the changes addressed that, and the rest was specific for my eyes.

Things I've started taking each day that directly affect blood pressure, reduce inflammation, or appear to prevent glaucoma, from what I had taken with high eye pressure:

- 40+ grams of soluble fiber (10 (5 x 2) grams of psyllium (20 minutes before a meal) and 30+ grams of fiber from breads like Sola Bread and Hero Bread)
- 100 - 150 mg of EGCG (green tea extract)
- 22 mg of additional zinc, over the standard amount that was in my multivitamin / multimineral (due to noticing my zinc / copper ratio was not 7.5 / 1) (Keeping total zinc below 40 mg a day)
- Mirtogenol (bilberry and pycnogenol) (twice a day) *
- Black currant extract (200 mg) *
- Saffron extract (30 mg) *
- Ginkgo biloba (120 mg) *
- Citrus bergamot (500 mg)
- Citicholine (250 mg, 2X a day) *
- Endocaylx Pro (supplement)
- Eating mushrooms (oyster, preferred) multiple times a week
- Now have more extra virgin olive oil in place of nearly all coconut oil and butter (saturated fats), from before (still no seed oils)
- Work to correct my posture *
- More activity / walking
- Watch my breathing more (aim to inhale five seconds and exhale over seven seconds), when not moving

* = Done specifically for eyes

These were the major changes from what I had or had not done.

My blood pressure also went down to the lower end of the normal range from the elevated range. It dropped about 30 mm Hg.

I take no other drugs aside from the 0.1% brimonidine drops, for which I use a piece of toilet paper to mop out of the corner of my eyes, after 45 seconds of leaving them in. Brimonidine drops, at 0.2% taken three times a day, can reduce eye pressure up to 20%.

Consider trying out some of what I've done, all without drugs.

The change can be extensive and leave your ophthalmologist quite impressed.

Note I only take the drop in one eye, not both. Just the one with the highest pressure (22 to start).

The other eye has always had 1 - 2 mm Hg less pressure, and it gets 50% of the benefit, of a brimonidine drop, in the other (some sort of sympathetic reaction happens with the brain).

It leaves the non-drop eye 1 mm Hg higher, in the end.

So, to make it clear, I take one drop of brimonidine (0.1%) in only one eye, twice a day, but both get lowered.

My final eye pressures were 11 and 12, two months ago.

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