New documentary on the link between vision and cognitive function
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How does nutrition influence both eye health and brain function?
My next guest has dedicated his career to understanding how nutrition influences two of the things many of us fear losing most as we get older are sight and our cognitive function. Professor John Nolan's work has taken him from Waterford to research centres around the world and is now the subject of a new documentary. He joins me now to talk about the links between nutrition, eye health, and the brain. John, good morning. Thank you. Thank you for having me, Dave. Well, thank you very much indeed for coming. Um so your work centers on the relationship between nutrition, eye health, and brain health. How are they connected?
Yeah, remarkably the eye the eye is connected to the brain, we know that. But where does nutrition come in? Uh twenty-five years ago we discovered that patients with a disease called age-related macular degeneration or AMD, they're basically lacking in a nutritional pigment at the back of the eye. It's called the macular pigment, and that's because it's in the part of the eye called the macula. And the important thing about this pigment, David, is it's nutrition based. So we don't we d we're not born with it. We only get it when we're fed our first food from our mother. The clostrum, the first few days of food, is are these nutrients called carotenoids. So basically they're pigments, they're yellow in color, they come from food, and they live in the back of the eye, where if we're lucky and we have them and we have enough of them, they'll protect that sensitive tissue, that retina, from age-related degeneration.
And um, so the discovery that people are lacking in And it was the first part of of of the science that led to many, many years of study and clinical trials.
Okay, so obviously I want to be eating carotenoids. Carotenoids, yeah.
What is the macular pigment and why is it important for preventing age‑related macular degeneration?
I want to be eating those to make sure I don't develop macular gen gen degeneration in in later life. If somebody has macular degeneration, can they can they regain their the th those retina?
Yeah, they can regain the protective pigments. And in in our own studies from Watford, it was a study funded by the European Research Council called the CREST study. We worked with patients with early stage macular degeneration and we gave them these three carotenoids luane, zeaxantin, and mesozyxanthin. You'll never remember those names. But those three pigments, when we gave them to the patients that who had early stage disease, they responded really well in terms of we could rebuild and measure the pigments in the back of the eye. And importantly Their symptoms of the disease got better, so their vision got significantly better. Limits their life. It it destroys it you they lose their central vision, they lose their quality of life.
And you know, if we all live long enough, we'll all have it, unfortunately. So it's it's about adding you know life to years, not years to life, as a good colleague of mine once said. And I I think that's that's crucial. And and we now the good news is though, like you've often heard, eat well, be healthy, and I think that's quite casual recommendation. I think our science has evolved so well now. Yeah, we've been able to identify what's good about good foods, good nutrition, and that we can isolate them and use them to increase these protective pigments.
So
what do I need
to be easing, Jim?
Okay, so um all the good stuff. Eggs for me are a great source of I I'm I'm a big egg fan and I know the cholesterol story, but I'm positive in terms of the the good type of cholesterol. And that yellow that you see in the egg yolk are these exact carotenoids.
Which clinical trials showed that carotenoid supplements can rebuild retinal pigments and improve vision?
Peppers are a great source. My own daughter Bee loves her her her uh peppers and um sweet corn in fact is her favourite. And spinach if we can get these kind of leafy greens, they they have high amounts. of them. And we and I heard earlier in your show talking about the issue with schools and and foo we have a project actually starting it on that and we know like our kids are just miles away from where they need to be. Mm-hmm.
So it has to start very early in our life in terms of how we can increase these pigments.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How does nutrition influence both eye health and brain function?
0:00–1:33
2
What is the macular pigment and why is it important for preventing age‑related macular degeneration?
1:33–3:12
3
Which clinical trials showed that carotenoid supplements can rebuild retinal pigments and improve vision?
3:12–4:31
4
What foods are richest in the carotenoids lutein, zeaxanthin and meso‑xanthin?
4:31–6:41
5
How are low retinal pigment levels linked to poorer cognitive performance and Alzheimer’s disease?
6:41–7:41
6
What supplement products (Remind and Macu Prime) are available to boost eye and brain pigments?
7:41–9:20
7
How was the new documentary on vision and cognition created and why is it important?
9:20–11:22
8
Why should eye‑health nutrition start in schools and early childhood?
11:22–12:24