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Vitamin C for Floaters

Jul 5, 2011 | By Mary Bauer
Vitamin C for Floaters
Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Pixland/Getty Images

Most floaters are the result of changes that take place in your eyes as you age. While they may be annoying, floaters are not harmful. The sudden appearance of a large number of them accompanied by a spark of light, however, may be a warning sign that the aging process has caused damage to the inside wall of your eye and you need emergency medical intervention. Vitamin C will not diminish existing floaters, but it may help slow the aging process that causes them.

Causes

Your eye holds its shape with the aid of a gel-like substance inside, called the vitreous humor. Through childhood and young adulthood, this substance retains its gel consistency, but as you age, it slowly turns to a liquid state. The floaters that you see are most likely little pieces of the remaining gel floating in the liquefied vitreous humor. You don't actually see the gel fragments, but rather the shadows that they cast over your retina. The gel pieces move as your eye moves, so when you try to focus on them, they seem to drift away.

Medical Emergency

Although floaters usually are benign, they can be a symptom of a serious condition. As the vitreous humor turns to liquid starting in the center of your eye, the remaining gel along the inside wall of your eye may collapse inward. If this happens, the gel may pull part of your retina with it. This initial tear may progress to a retinal detachment if the vitreous humor gel flows through the tear and pushes on the retina from behind. If you see a sudden burst of floaters or spots along with flashes of light, contact your eye doctor immediately. Prompt intervention can save your eyesight.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C will not eliminate existing floaters, but its anti-oxidation properties may slow age-related changes in your eye, according to Dr. George J. Brown of Advanced Vision Care at the Brown Center. This important nutrient also can make a significant contribution to your overall eye health. For example, in the 2001 Age-Related Eye Disease Study sponsored by the National Eye Institute, patients with macular degeneration who received 500 mg of vitamin C daily, in combination with vitamin A , vitamin E, beta carotene, zinc oxide and copper, had a significantly lower incidence of their disease progressing to the advanced stage. In addition, in a letter published in the July 23, 2004 edition of the "British Journal of Medicine," optometrist Sydney Bush described photographic evidence of improved retinal blood vessel condition in patients he had treated with high doses of vitamin C. Vitamin C also may help prevent or slow the progression of cataracts through its ability to destroy free radicals, which are the cause of most cataracts. Moreover, vitamin C helps produce collagen, which strengthens blood vessels in the retina, to nourish it and protect it against free radicals.

Treatment

Most eye floaters are benign and do not require treatment. If you experience a retinal detachment, however, you may need surgery. This may include laser surgery, or pneumatic retinopexy, which uses a bubble of gas to push a detached retina back into place so that your doctor can reattach it with a laser. Alternatively, your doctor may perform a cryopexy, a procedure that uses intense cold to form scar tissue behind the retina to hold it in place. If you develop large numbers of floaters that impair your vision, you may elect to undergo a vitrectomy, a surgical procedure in which a doctor removes the vitreous humor from your eye with a hollow needle and replaces it with a saline solution. This procedure, however, is risky because it may lead to cataracts and a retinal detachment.

References

Article reviewed by Jenna Marie Last updated on: Jul 5, 2011

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