According to the American Optometric Association, people in their early to mid-forties may begin to lose their ability to see clearly at close distances. This condition, known as presbyopia, is the result of the lens inside the eye becoming less flexible. In short, your 20/20 vision may not stand the test of time. Luckily, there are several things you can do that may help keep you out of the dark. Here are a few tips:

• Get your vitamin A. Vitamin A supports retina function, as well as dim-light and color vision, and may help reduce inflammation in the eyes and prevent age-related macular degeneration. Actual vitamin A is called retinol, and while beta-carotene and other carotenoids are not actually vitamin A, they can be converted into vitamin A in the body. Retinol is found in animal products such as liver, shrimp, salmon, beef, eggs, and whole milk. Carotenoids, such as beta-carotene, are found in dark leafy greens, and other colorful fruits and vegetables such as carrots and apricots. Some supplements, such as multivitamins, can also give you a vitamin A boost.
• Turn the lights down low. Use floor lamps and low-intensity light bulbs instead of fluorescent lighting in your home and office.
• Revamp your computer. Make sure your computer has an LCD screen. Position it a little lower than eye level and about an arm’s length away. Reduce glare with an anti-glare monitor or by pulling the blinds down when you’re working on your computer.

Source: Washington Post

Feel like cooking a fillet of fish for dinner? That could be a good idea: US dietary guidelines recommend eating fish two to three times per week. But does eating fish more than a few times per week, say, every day, result in even more health benefits? In an article on NBC News, several experts were interviewed in an attempt to answer that question. And while they found that most people can eat some fish every day, increased fish consumption does pose certain challenges that it is important to be aware of:

• Eating more fish may be hard on the environment. Some experts have suggested that we could drain the oceans of fish by 2050 if everyone increases their fish consumption. And, even if everyone started eating fish just two to three times per week, we’d have to increase fish farming to keep up. Until land-based fish farming technologies become the industry standard, the expansion of fish farming could pose major threats to wild salmon populations and cause further damage to marine ecology.
• Eating more fish may increase mercury levels. Fish can accumulate toxins, like mercury, which are passed on to diners. It’s a serious issue—mercury can cause nervous system damage in adults and developmental problems in babies and children. The amount of mercury in fish can vary depending on what they eat; swordfish are known to have higher amounts, so women who are pregnant or breastfeeding should avoid them, and they are probably not the best choice for everyday eating. Salmon and shrimp may be a better bet because they tend to be lower in mercury.

However, studies do show that eating fish a few times a week may decrease the risk of heart attacks compared to not eating fish at all. In addition, getting adequate amounts of omega-3 fatty acids from fish may prevent cognitive decline in adults and help ensure normal brain development in babies. So, while there’s no definitive answer on whether you should eat fish every day, adding certain small fish and other fruits of the sea like oysters, mussels, and clams to your diet a couple times a week, may be a healthy choice.

Source: NBC News

Following up on previous work showing that antioxidant supplements may hasten the spread of lung cancer, researchers from Sweden found that antioxidant supplements may double the spread of malignant melanoma—the most serious type of skin cancer—in mice. Their findings, published in Science Translational Medicine and reported on by the Wall Street Journal, indicated two ways in which antioxidant supplements might influence skin cancer growth. First, they found that the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC) doubled the rate at which malignant melanoma metastasized, or spread, to the lymph nodes of mice. Researchers also discovered that when NAC and vitamin E (another antioxidant) were inserted into human skin cancer cells grown in lab cups, the cells were better able to invade adjacent tissue. Although this seems like strong evidence against the use of antioxidant supplements, it is important to keep in mind a few considerations:

• While NAC is an antioxidant, it is also an amino acid that has biological effects unrelated to its antioxidant activity. It cannot be assumed that it was NAC’s antioxidant activity specifically that caused the cancer to spread more quickly.
• The researchers do not claim that antioxidant supplements cause cancer. Antioxidants protect healthy cells from free radical damage that has been linked to cancer development in the first place. At most, the study indicates that antioxidant supplements may promote the spread of cancer once it has already developed.
• The study did not look at the effects of antioxidant supplements on humans. It only studied the effects of the antioxidants in mice and in cell cultures. As far as the in vitro (cell culture) findings go, there are many in vitro cancer studies (both beneficial and harmful) that end up not translating to intact animals or to humans.

Source: Wall Street Journal

If you want maximum health benefits, you’ll have to maximize your workout. A systematic review and meta-analysis found that a high level of physical activity significantly reduced the risk of five health conditions: breast and colon cancers, diabetes, ischemic heart disease, and ischemic stroke. Published in the BMJ, the review and meta-analysis included findings from 174 human studies on the relationship between all types of physical activity (i.e., recreation, transportation, housework, etc.) and the risk of at least one of the five health conditions.

Researchers standardized physical activity measures across the studies, converting them into total metabolic equivalent (MET) minutes of activity per week. One MET is defined as the amount of oxygen taken in by a person resting quietly for one minute. The METs for other activities are based on the relative oxygen or energy requirements of the activity. For this analysis, the researchers designated 4 METs for each minute spent in moderate-intensity activity and 8 METs for each minute spent in vigorous activity. Based on this frame of reference, 600 MET minutes per week (the amount the World Health Organization [WHO] recommends for health benefits) equals about 150 minutes of brisk walking or 75 minutes of running, per week. Researchers then compared the MET minutes of activity per week to the risk levels for each of the health conditions. After adjusting for factors like study quality, population size, and gender, researchers discovered that:

• Risk reduction was relative to the amount of MET minutes achieved per week and was highest in people achieving an activity level of 3,000 to 4,000 MET minutes per week. For example, an activity level of 600 MET minutes per week was associated with only a 2% lower risk of diabetes, while 3,600 MET minutes per week was associated with a 21% lower risk of diabetes.
• Compared to getting less than 600 MET minutes of physical activity per week, getting 8,000 or more MET minutes of activity per week was associated with risk reductions of 14% for breast cancer, 21% for colon cancer, 28% for diabetes, 25% for ischemic heart disease, and 26% for ischemic stroke.

Getting 3,000 to 4,000 MET minutes of physical activity per week—about 12 to 16 hours of brisk walking or 6 to 8 hours of running—is much higher than the minimum recommendation by the WHO, and may sound like a part-time job. However, in truth, you don’t have to run a half-marathon every weekend to reach this amount. Instead, you can incorporate different types of physical activities into your daily routine, such as climbing stairs, commuting on foot or by bike, gardening, and vacuuming, and by the end of the week, it should all add up.

Source: BMJ

As collagen and elastin production in the skin decrease with age and oxidative damage, wrinkles are inevitable; however, if they bother you, here are several supplements that have been found in some studies to help reduce the visible signs of skin aging by either targeting skin cells’ energy production or by providing antioxidant activity:

• Coenzyme Q10. In one study, topical application of a coenzyme Q10-containing cream increased cellular energy and boosted skins’ antioxidant capacity.
• Vitamin E. Vitamin E’s antioxidant activity has been found to help protect skin from oxidative damage. If using as a topical preparation, look for vitamin E products containing ferulic acid and vitamin C for optimal protection.
• Vitamin C. This vitamin protects against free radical damage and is integral for collagen formation and maintenance. Vitamin C topical preparations have been shown to increase skins’ collagen synthesis.
• Alpha-lipoic acid. This antioxidant might help improve the appearance of crepe skin (the thin, dry, finely wrinkled skin that results from chonological aging rather than from sun damage) by aiding in the synthesis of new collagen.

Source: BioFactors