Are doctors seeing the preventative eye health potential of carotenoids?

Carotenoids like lutein are well-documented to boost eye health yet the approach of the medical fraternity and some regulators lacks vision when it comes to prevention, says a leading professor in the area.

“It’s a bit of a shame especially in this day and age given what we know and what we can do to prevent disease that we  still train our doctors in general to wait until it is broken and then fix it,” said carotenoid researcher Dr James Stringham, of the University of Georgia.

Dr Stringham entered the debate around combination eye health efficacy with other carotenoids like meso-zeaxanthin and zeaxanthin, noting all had a role to play.

He said recent questions over meso-zeaxanthin safety, “angered him a little as a scientist” as the scientific reasoning behind this was thin.