Continued from here ...

The picture is not totally dim, however. This study shows that the aging process actually improves some visual abilities.

Older people appear to be better and faster at grasping the big picture than their younger counterparts.

This has to do with the older brain not inhibiting information. This makes it easier for people of mature years to see the forest for the trees, so to speak. It also, however, makes it harder to concentrate on one thing while ignoring everything else.

(Darn! That's one of my favorite things to do. I'll miss it when it's gone.)

So, what can we do to minimize or forestall the effects of advancing years on our eyes?

Eating fruit should help. This study showed that participants who ate three or more servings of fruit per day had a 36% less risk of the most common form of age-related vision loss compared to those eating less than 1.5 servings.

An antioxidant / supplement combo also looks like it does some good.

The Harvard Health Letter reported in its May issue that a recent government study finding that Vitamin E and other vitamins and minerals may slow progression of macular degeneration "was a success."

The study, called the Age-Related Eye Disease Study or AREDS, was conducted by the National Institutes of Health. Doses used in the trial were 400 international units of Vitamin E, 500 milligrams of Vitamin C, 15 milligrams of beta carotene, 80 milligrams of zinc, and two milligrams of copper.

And this study seems to back up the antioxidant / zinc / beta-carotene, etc. formula for success.

So, with eyes as with the rest of us, it's a good, healthy diet full of fruits and veggies that will do the best for us.

Just for once, couldn't we hear that the solution to a heath issue involved a commitment to quesadillas and cheesecake? I bet if we put it to a vote, the 'eyes' would have it!

(Sorry about that. It's my old vision, you know ... I have to see a joke coming a mile away.)