The antioxidants vitamin E and lipoic acid help slow the loss of vision associated with the sight-robbing disease known as retinitis pigmentosa, according to a recent study.15

A degenerative eye disease, retinitis pigmentosa involves a genetic mutation that affects the low light-sensing “rod” cells in the eye’s retina, leading to gradual loss of night and peripheral vision. Later, the surrounding “cone” cells of the retina, which detect bright light and color, may also die, which may result in complete blindness. Currently, there is no effective medical treatment for retinitis pigmentosa.

Scientists hypothesized that high levels of oxidative stress in the retina may cause the destruction of the cone cells following damage to the rod cells. To determine whether antioxidants can prevent this vision-robbing effect, they administered vitamin E, vitamin C, or lipoic acid to mice with a form of retinitis pigmentosa. In test subjects that received vitamin E or lipoic acid, nearly 40% of cone cells survived, nearly twice the cell survival rate seen in the vitamin C and control groups.

Vitamin E and lipoic acid may thus offer protection against the vision loss associated with retinitis pigmentosa. This finding lends further support to a growing body of evidence linking antioxidants with improved eye health.

—Robert Gaston

Vitamin D supplements reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer by nearly 50%, reports the American Association for Cancer Research.20 The fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States, pancreatic cancer is rapidly fatal, and surgical treatment is often not effective.

Scientists who analyzed data from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study and Nurses’ Health Study—which examined the long-term health and dietary practices of more than 120,000 men and women—found that people who consumed 400 IU of vitamin D daily demonstrated a 43% reduced risk of developing pancreatic cancer. Adults who consumed up to 150 IU of vitamin D experienced a 22% reduced risk of pancreatic cancer.

Until now, avoiding cigarette smoking has been the only strategy known to help prevent pancreatic cancer. This exciting development suggests that vitamin D may represent a crucial nutritional strategy for reducing the risk of pancreatic cancer. Scientists are planning additional studies to investigate whether vitamin D may help reduce pancreatic cancer mortality.

—Elizabeth Wagner, ND

A recent report suggests that fish oil may save more lives than cardiac defibrillators.21 Consumption of omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil is associated with a reduced risk of fatal heart rhythms, or arrhythmias.

To estimate the potential public impact of raising dietary intake of omega-3 oils using fish oil supplements, scientists performed a computer simulation of Americans, utilizing past medical data. Based on this model, they estimated that raising omega-3 levels would save 58 lives per 100,000 Americans each year, equivalent to a 6.4% reduction in total deaths, largely due to the prevention of sudden cardiac death in apparently healthy people.

Far fewer lives would be saved by defibrillators, which are devices that deliver an electrical shock to correct a fatal, irregular heartbeat. Even if automated external defibrillators (portable devices that can be used by laypeople to shock someone in cardiac arrest) were present in every home and public area, the devices would only lower the annual death rate of a community by an estimated 1%. Implantable defibrillators would lower the cardiac death rate by 3.3%, approximately half the death rate reduction that could be achieved with fish oil supplements. However, since roughly half of adults who suffer from sudden cardiac death exhibit no warning signs before the fatal event, most would never be candidates for implanted defibrillators.

By preventing fatal heart rhythms, fish oil supplements may represent a safe, effective means of preventing sudden cardiac death in adults.

—Elizabeth Wagner, ND