The proof a vitamin pill really can help you see better

Millions of people take them in a bid to boost their well-being, but when it comes to dietary supplements i have always been a sceptic.

over the years, i’ve seen so many of these pills or potions hailed as the next big thing, only for them to come to nothing — or even in some cases to make your health worse.

Take beta-carotene. This antioxidant, found naturally in vegetables such as carrots, was very popular as a supplement until a study, looking at whether it could help prevent lung cancer in smokers, found that those taking high doses of beta- carotene were dying sooner than those who weren’t.

one problem with supplements is that once you start taking them, your body sometimes decides you no longer need that substance from your diet, so it stops extracting it from what you are eating.

since your body is so good at compensating, it always seemed to me that unless you’re genuinely deficient in something, supplements are expensive and unnecessary.

That’s why i’ve shunned them, preferring instead to get all the utrients i need from eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.

so you can imagine how dubious i was when asked to take a supplement that would apparently improve my eyesight. And my complete surprise when it actually worked.

it all began with an experiment for BBC2’s Trust Me, i’m A Doctor. We were intrigued by some groundbreaking research at the nutrition Research Centre ireland, at the Waterford institute of Technology, which suggested that by boosting our intake of certain nutrients you can actually make your eyesight better.

THEIR research centres around a part of the eye called the macula. This is the spot near the centre of the retina — the layer of light-sensitive cells at the back of the eye —which is responsible for your central vision.

it is coated with special protective pigments, also known as carotenoids, which act a bit like a sunscreen for the eye and are largely derived from the food we eat. Previous research with supplements focused on people who have age-related macular degeneration (AMD), an eye condition where the light-sensitive cells in the macula start to break down.

it is incredibly common and the leading cause of sight loss in the UK, but there is some evidence that by boosting your intake of these pigments, you may slow its progression.

however, what the irish study (called CREST) discovered was that with supplements you can also improve the vision in people with no existing eye disease.

Basically, even if your eyesight is already good, they say you can make it even better.

Apparently, these macular pigments are not just protective against damage, they also play a role in vision, helping us to see detail more clearly, for example.

And according to the researchers, their levels decrease as we get older. ‘one important thing these pigments do is filter out blue light from the centre of the retina,’ explains John nolan, the professor of nutrition and human health who led the recent trial.

Blue light is famously emitted by electronic devices such as smartphones and tablets, but it’s also given out by energy- saving light bulbs as well as daylight.

‘ This blue light produces damaging free radicals that over time attack the cells in the retina that we use for vision, raising the risk of AMD.

But also, when you’ve got a lot of blue light coming into your eye, it can immediately result in bad vision — like what happens when an oncoming car doesn’t dip its headlights at night.’

in their recent study, published in June in the journal investigative opthalmology & Visual science, half the 105 participants took a daily supplement (the other half took a placebo) for 12 months — specifically, one containing a combination of the carotenoids lutein, zeaxanthin and meso-zeaxanthin.

The first two are found naturally in leafy green vegetables such as kale and spinach, orange peppers, as well as in the yolk of eggs.

Though meso-zeaxanthin may be present in some fish and seafood, it is apparently difficult to get in high quantities in diet and is mainly made in the body itself.

For our experiment we wanted to see whether we could produce the same benefit through food.

Cue ten willing volunteers, all with normal eyesight, who agreed to drink a daily smoothie containing ingredients such as kale and kiwi, for five weeks.

Unfortunately for me (or, if you’d tasted the smoothie, you might say i was fortunate) i was travelling a lot, so for convenience’s sake it was decided that i should take the supplement instead. But first i was subjected to a battery of sophisticated eye tests at City University in london, which are used by pilots, to examine all aspects of my vision and establish my starting point. And this was where i had my first shock.

i’m short-sighted and have worn glasses since i was ten, but once i’m wearing them i’ve never had any problems.

What’s more, i’m a fan of eye-friendly foods. i regularly eat eggs for breakfast and love kale and peppers ( though not usually together).

But when i took these tests — where, for example, you are shown very faint, coloured arrows zooming around and you have to determine which direction they are going in — they found that while my eyesight was generally what you’d expect for my age group (i am 59), my ability to detect the colours yellow and blue was considerably worse than average. it was ‘very poor’. The damage may have been caused by the fact that i was, unknowingly, a type 2 diabetic for several years, until i lost a lot of gut fat through intermittent fasting.

it was worrying, but the real surprise was to come later.

After five weeks of the smoothie diet, our volunteers were given blood tests, which found raised levels of lutein in their blood, but there were no significant improvements in their eyesight.

it’s possible that guzzling these smoothies for a bit longer would lead to more noticeable improvement, but from our brief test period it was too early to say. i, however, had more significant results.

After 12 weeks of taking the supplements, not only were there markedly increased levels of pigment in my eyes — which they measured by shining beams in my eyes to see how well the blue light was absorbed — but i also performed better on almost all the eye tests.

My contrast sensitivity had markedly improved — that is, my ability to see objects that may not stand out much from their background. it’s what helps a driver read a sign in the distance. Better contrast sensitivity means everything looks a bit sharper.

in this respect, i had similar outcome to those who took part in the CResT trial.

But thanks to the cuttingedge testing equipment, the scientists were able to examine extra aspects of my vision which had not been measured in the study participants.

What they found was that my ability to see in twilight scenarios was greatly enhanced — some of my rods (the cells your eye uses when light is low) were functioning as well as a 20-year-old.

And my colour vision had also shown an immediate improvement. My vision had basically improved across the board.

now i can’t say i’ve actually noticed any difference to my eyesight in my day-to-day life. so far it’s just something that’s detectable on very sensitive eye tests.

But i’m told that if i were to continue with the programme for 12 months i might start to notice the changes myself.

it’s also possible that by boosting my macular pigments in this way i will reduce the risk that i will develop macular degeneration, as people with this condition are also thought to have low levels of these pigments in their eyes.

so now i am facing a dilemma. Do i keep taking the supplements, despite my previous reservations? After all, they’re not cheap at around £45 for 90 tablets. And more than that, i don’t really want to take more pills than i have to.

PROFESSOR nolan says that supplementation could be beneficial for people as young as 30. ‘ Because of pesticides and modern farming techniques, food is not as nutritious as it used to be, and we can’t get enough of these carotenoids from a normal diet,’ he says. ‘We’re also living longer and are exposed to more damaging blue light than before.’

But John Barbur, a professor of optics and visual science at City University, who carried out my eye tests, is more circumspect.

‘i’d be tempted to say you could achieve the same results through diet, but if you can’t get the appropriate amount of meso-zeaxanthin through diet, then supplementation could be an option.’ however, though he was ‘surprised’ by the improvement in my vision, he adds: ‘ one would need to carry out a larger trial with more people to prove this has a widespread effect.’

i still haven’t made up my mind about what to do. i’ve made an effort to boost the greens in my diet and i’m slowly working my way through the leftover packets of supplements. What i’ll do when they run out, i’ve yet to decide. But i’m certainly less sceptical about their benefits than i was before.

TRUST Me I’m a Doctor, Thursday september 8, 8pm, BBC2.