Is a New Treatment on the Horizon for Eye Diseases?
Eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy may have just met their newest enemy in the form of the humble grape. It seems that the much talked about compounds known as Resveratrol, which is found in red wine and grapes, now has some scientific evidence to back up its ability to inhibit the growth of new blood vessels in the eye. This type of blood vessel growth is associated with the eye diseases like the aforementioned age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.
According to health.yahoo.net research has shown the beneficial effects of resveratrol:
“Previous research has shown that resveratrol can decrease the effects of agingand act as an anti-cancer agent. In this new study, researchers found that resveratrol inhibits harmful blood vessel growth in the eye. They also identified the specific pathway through which the compound achieves this effect and found that specific inhibitors could reverse the angiogenesis-blocking power of resveratrol.
The study appears in the July issue of the American Journal of Pathology”
Of course anything that’s good for the health of your eyes is ultimately good for the health of your body. Health insurance providers such as Blue Cross NC know the importance of overall health and well being, so this study should be of great interest to the Health community as a whole. If you find this study to be interesting that I suggest you do more research on resveratrol, as there have been many very interesting studies done on this one particular compound.
