Nutrition plays a major role in all health outcomes, including the eyes. It is well established that nutrition and lifestyle can cause or prevent non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension, which continue to grow in the U.S. and worldwide. We know these conditions can have serious ocular complications, and of course, we have learned about the role of nutrition in other ocular conditions, such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD). To my surprise, my patients with diabetes and hypertension are not always educated on what to eat and what lifestyle modifications to make to manage their disease.
This is where my passion for nutrition and nutritional education started. I wanted to give my patients the tools they could use to prevent and even reverse chronic conditions. I am fascinated with epigenetics, where our food and lifestyle choices can turn our genes on or off for a particular disease. When patients nervously tell us that they have a family history of eye disease, or their DNA testing showed a mutation in the macular degeneration gene, we can educate them and give them the tools on how to prevent the disease process from ever turning on.
So, I started to educate myself on nutrition, as my passion for wellness and preventative health for my patients grew stronger over the years. I’ve completed graduate-level nutrition courses in the Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine program at the University of Western States, and I am currently completing 1,000 hours of supervised clinical nutritional training, which is required to become a Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS).
Read more: https://independentstrong.reviewob.com/index.php/2022/12/13/more-than-an-eye-exam-how-nutrition-and-lifestyle-can-improve-eye-health/
Source: Independent Strong