Herbal Bilberry Improves the Visual Function in Patients with Normal Tension Glaucoma (NTG)

By Kyle J. Norton


Visual functions refer to how well the eye and visual system function.

The visual system, on the other hand, forms part of the central nervous system with a function that requires for visual perception, including receiving, processing and interpreting visual information before passing them to the brain.

Common visual problems of the eye are refractive errors, including nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, and presbyopia.

According to the statistic provided by the World Health Organization, globally, approximately 1.3 billion people live with some form of vision impairment. In the distance vision perspective, 188.5 million people have a mild vision impairment, 217 million have moderate to severe vision impairment, and 36 million people are blind.

Visual impairment has been found to affect most people in advanced age. Aging not only affects the normal function of eye tissues decreases but also increased the incidence of ocular pathology.

Dr. Loh KY, the lead scientist said, "The most common causes of age-related visual impairment in the elderly are presbyopia, cataracts, age-related macular degeneration, primary open angle glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy".

And, "Untreated visual impairment leads to physical handicap, increased incidence of fall, depression, social isolation, and dependency".

Bilberry is a species of low-growing shrubs in the genus Vaccinium, belongings to the family Ericaceae, native to Northern Europe.

The plant berry has been used as herbs in traditional medicine for the treatment of acute and chronic diarrhea, gastritis, gastric ulcer, and duodenal ulcer, enterocolitis, ulcerative colitis, anemia, cystitis, kidney disease, and psoriasis, diabetes, etc.

Researchers on finding a natural ingredient for the treatment of glaucoma compared the effect of GBE and anthocyanins found abundantly in bilberry on visual function in patients with normal tension glaucoma (NTG).

The retrospective analysis was carried out by a chart review of 332 subjects (209 men and 123 women) treated with anthocyanins (n=132), GBE (n=103), or no medication (control, n=97).

The mean of treatment in the follow-up duration, anthocyanin, and GBE treatment duration was similar approximately in the range from 6-59 months.

According to the logarithm of the minimal angle of resolution best-corrected visual acuity (logMAR BCVA), anthocyanin treatment for all eyes improved from 0.16 (±0.34) to 0.11 (±0.18) logMAR units (P=.008), and HVF mean deviation improved from -6.44 (±7.05) to -5.34 (±6.42) (P=.001) compared to GBE treatment, the HVF mean deviation improved from -5.25 (±6.13) to -4.31 (±5.60) (P=.002).

These results suggested both anthocyanins and GBE improve the visual function in some individuals with NTG.

Taken altogether, bilberry processed abundantly bioactive compound anthocyanoside may be considered a functioning remedy for the improvement on visual function in patients with normal tension glaucoma (NTG), pending to the validation of larger sample size and multicenter human study.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

References
(1) Ginkgo biloba extract and bilberry anthocyanins improve visual function in patients with normal tension glaucoma by Shim SH1, Kim JM, Choi CY, Kim CY, Park KH. (PubMed)
(2) Natural therapies for ocular disorders, part two: cataracts and glaucoma by Head KA. (PubMed)
(3) Age related visual impairment in the elderly by Loh KY1, Ogle J. (PubMed)