Run To Protect Your Eyes

"Run for your life! The sight snatchers are coming!" That sounds like the campy opening line from yet another remake of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (there have been three so far). But it's actually sound medical advice from us to you: Vigorous activity can protect you from the two leading sight-stealers that occur over time: cataracts and macular degeneration.

If you run a little farther than a mile a day (that's about 2,000 of the 10,000 steps you're taking daily anyway, right?), you reduce your chances of age-related macular degeneration by an impressive 36 percent.

Bump that up to five miles a day (you've taken care of your 10,000 steps right there!), and you cut your AMD risk by 54 percent. Push just a little farther, to 5.5 miles, and you cut your risk of cataracts more. (Just don't start exercising this vigorously overnight; begin slowly and build up.)

Not a runner? No worries. Any workout that pumps up your cardio-fitness protects your sight — rowing, biking, swimming, doing weight-training circuits. What you eat also has a big impact. Run up to the salad bar and load up on key sight-saving nutrients: the vitamin C in tomatoes and citrus; zeaxanthin in spinach and bell peppers; and alpha-tocopherol (a form of vitamin E) in almonds and sunflower seeds. Add 900 mg of DHA-omega-3 a day as a supplement from algae, or in fish oil (check the label for "DHA"), or in three 4 ounce servings of salmon or trout a week. That combo — DHA, vitamin C and zeaxanthin — also will keep your joints young when you exercise.

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© 2011 Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.
Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc