Eyesight - vision restored from 20/400 to 20/25 in woman with copper deficiency. lipoic acid, vit d
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https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26828841/
A 47-year-old woman developed severe bilateral visual loss 4 years after a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and 24 years after vertical banded gastroplasty. Her serum copper level was 35 μg/dL (normal, 80-155 μg/dL). She was prescribed elemental copper tablets. Because her methylmalonic acid was slightly elevated, she received vitamin B12 injections as well.
Five weeks later, she reported that her vision had improved and, at 10 months, her vision had recovered from 20/400 bilaterally to 20/25 in each eye. This case highlights the importance of checking copper levels in addition to the "more routine" vitamin levels, such as B1, B6, B12, E, and serum folate in patients with suspected nutritional optic neuropathy after bariatric surgery, particularly if it involved a bypass procedure.
Copper deficiency in rats leads to pathologic features consistent with demyelination in the optic nerves. The pathologic finding of subacute myelooptic neuropathy has been described as symmetric demyelination of lateral and posterior columns in the spinal cord, optic nerve, and peripheral nerves https://raypeatforum.com/community/threads/eyesight-restored-from-20-400-to-20-25-in-woman-with-copper-deficiency.51742/
(doesnt mean its great as a supplement, or to eat very high amounts but it highlights importance of ensuring not deficient / getting a foundation of copper intake / cofactors mobilizing)
Lipoic acid also shown to improve eyesight (different formulation used applied to eye), improved farsightedness and sustained months later in follow up https://www.nature.com/articles/s41433-020-01391-z#Sec16
Most people gained + 2 lines of vision improvement vs +1 for placebo, 22% of people gained +3 lines with 0 in placebo
and oral dosing stopped degeneration and gave some improvement effect (as long as isnt at advanced stage maybe) https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/tjem/240/3/240_209/_pdf(Lipoic acid also helps re-myelinate in 2 weeks at ~400mg - 500mg heq (here in the presence of copper depletion) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1567576923004460
https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S1567576923004460-gr6.jpg
)(maybe best to ensure a few milligrams thiamine intake if using lipoic acid as may be harmful with a thiamine deficiency, i think maybe mixed with s-form due to inhibiting pyruvate further where r-form might not, also might deplete some minerals over time)
Vit D stabilized eye health during degeneration & even slightly improved, only the group where ceruloplasmin raised gained the vision benefits (vit d plays 1 of the roles of copper transport) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9804020/
