We are talking about glaucoma. In this segment, I’m going to talk about three essential minerals you need to know about if you have glaucoma. We’re also going to talk about three essential vitamins you have to make friends with.
Before we talk about the essential minerals, one thing that is really critical if you have glaucoma is to be tested for heavy metals. Why am I saying this? Believe it or not, over 90 percent of patients I see with chronic eye problems have toxic metals in their body. I know you don’t want to hear that. Unfortunately, we grew up in a time when we had leaded gasoline, paint, and pencils, and mercury amalgams. There’s a lot of pollution in our environment, as we all know.
If you have toxic heavy metals in your body, it makes it more difficult for you to absorb and utilize essential minerals. I’m going to talk about three essential minerals you need to be aware of for glaucoma. At the same time, if you have heavy metals, you need to get them removed because the big heavy metals are like a bully on the block. The essential minerals are the tiny guys that the bully pushes out of the body, and they’re not absorbed.
The best way to be tested for heavy metals is the six-hour urine challenge test. You’re given a couple of capsules of a substance which makes the heavy metals soluble, and then they’re collected in the urine over a six-hour time period.
You could be dying of lead poisoning, and your urine and blood will be normal, so don’t be hoodwinked by your family doctor or internist into getting a spot urine or blood test that he tells you is normal. You need to have the urine challenge test. That is the best way to determine if you have heavy metals.
If you do have heavy metals, you need to get them removed. That is a whole other topic of discussion. By far the best way is IV EDTA chelation. You can take it intravenously, rectally, or orally.
The first step is to get tested for heavy metals. If you’re interested, give the office a call at (800) 430-9328. We can give you information on the heavy metal test.
Let’s talk about the three minerals you really need to be aware of if you have glaucoma. The first one is the most important one. This is chromium. There was a study done looking at intracellular chromium in red blood cells. Normal, healthy patients had 279 nanograms per milliliter in their red blood cells. The people who had open-angle glaucoma had 119 nanograms. With this study, it became rather evident that folks with glaucoma have low levels of chromium.
Chromium is also essential for blood glucose metabolism. Most doctors will say you need to take your chromium so your sugar is metabolized well. I have found that many patients who have glaucoma have low levels of chromium, so chromium is something you need to take.
I’ve developed a special nutritional formula called the Optic Nerve Support formula, which I recommend for all glaucoma patients. It has all the ingredients I’m going to be discussing on this radio show for glaucoma. Chromium is a big one.
The second one you need to be aware of is zinc. Zinc is essential for just about every enzymatic reaction in the body. If you’re zinc deficient, you’re going to be in trouble when it comes to your eye and many other enzymatic and biochemical processes in your body.
The scary thing is that I used to routinely test everybody for zinc, but I stopped doing it. I have found that everybody I see who has an eye problem is zinc deficient. A lot of this has to do with the way we’re farming and raising our vegetables. Our soil has become depleted. People are not eating organic. They’re eating processed and preserved food that is decreasing in nutritional value.
There was an interesting study done in the ‘40s. They looked at the nutritional value of food and tested various servings to see how much minerals and nutrients were in each serving. To give you an example, the average serving of spinach in the 1940s had about 250 milligrams of iron. That study was done again in 2012, and the same serving of spinach only had 2.9 milligrams. That’s a 100-fold decrease in nutritional value. That’s the problem we have. Our food just doesn’t have good nutritional value.
Chromium and zinc are two big ones. The next one is magnesium. Magnesium is a great mineral for the nervous system. Magnesium is also really good to help prevent anxiety, fear, and nervousness. In the first segment, I mentioned that stress and anxiety are negative factors that will make your glaucoma worse. If you are taking something like magnesium, it will help protect your nervous system. It will also help your musculoskeletal system, heart, and arteries.
Recently, my blood pressure has been slightly elevated. The medical doctor I go to put me on some extra magnesium. I’m taking 800 mg of magnesium a day now. After beginning to take the magnesium, I am a little bit calmer. My blood pressure has been reduced significantly. Magnesium can not only help reduce that blood pressure, but it can also help reduce your eye pressure if you have glaucoma.
One important point I’d like to make is that if you are taking magnesium, zinc, or chromium, make sure you take it in a chelated form. Do not take it in an oxide form. The oxide form is not readily absorbed in the body. If you’re taking a lot of magnesium oxide, you may get some diarrhea and loose stool. If you’re taking zinc oxide or chromium oxide, it just won’t be absorbed. Make sure you take the chelated. As I mentioned, my Optic Nerve Support formula has all the adequate levels of these important minerals.