Retinitas Pigmentosa - A Frightening Vision Degeneration Problem Slowed With Vitamins and Possible Microchip Cure.

Many of you may never had heard of Retinitas Pigmentosa (RP) it is a rare inherited disorder (1 in 3700 people) where the retina (the light sensitive membrane on the inner back surface of the eye) progressively degenerates causing eventual blindness. Conventional medical opinion is that nothing can be done but there are complementary approaches which can achieve a more positive outlook.

Vitamin A – Professor Dr Eliot Berson of Harvard Medical School believes that the degeneration can be slowed by 20% per year by using vitamin A and he has worked on this over the last 20 years. In treating adults with typical retinitis pigmentosa – he uses vitamin A palmitate/DHA supplementation in capsule form over a two year period. He and his colleagues have also been responsible for the discovery of several gene mutations which cause retinitis pigmentosa and for the development and treatment of laboratory models simulating this condition. His research continued with slowing the rate of progression of retinitis pigmentosa and recording the disease course through molecular genetic analyses. He works with the Electroretinography (ERG) Service attached to the Berman-Gund Laboratory at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and patients can come for diagnosis, prognosis, and the start of vitamin A therapy if appropriate.

If you feel that you want to self-treat because you have no access to his facility you can take 15,000iu vitamin A per day and evidence suggests that you can prolong your eyesight by up to 10 years. However, if you do this you must not take vitamin E at the same time otherwise it will reduce the amount of vitamin A available to the body.

Your diet should include natural sources of vitamin A – add liver and milk but not carrots because although they contain carotene it will not be used by the eye. Your diet, however, will not give you sufficient vitamin A. Berson’s research using patient questionnaires showed that those taking sufficiently high doses of vitamin A preserved their sight for longer.

Don’t be tempted to take vitamin A in doses higher than mentioned as in excess it causes serious problems and does nothing to further improve your eyesight in the long-term.

There are remedies that claim to be based on traditional Chinese medicine but I can find no bonafide clinical trial information and the herbs used have no known history of dealing with this problem. They are also very expensive and if you use them it is at your own risk and some of these have a troubled reputation.

There are also some Ayurvedic Herbal Treatments available that have a better reputation but most use herbal combinations that I am not familiar with and consequently, I can make no recommendations. It may, however, be worth seeking a consultation with an Ayurvedic practitioner, to discuss what is currently available.

Looking forward to a more technological approach, initial research in the USA and clinical trials in the UK, Germany and Hong Kong is approaching fruition to produce a light-sensitive microchip retinal implant that contains 1500 mini electrodes that will stimulate the neural pathways and transmit visual images to the brain. The intention is that this will give better vision to those with macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. Apparently, the images will be slower to form than natural eyesight but will enable those who are blind to see again. I have not seen any final reports on this yet but it must be worth keeping up to date. Apart from these trial results, which are very encouraging, it is some way from a final product and currently only gives rudimentary vision – but some vision is better than blindness. As I hear more I will update this article.