Re: AGEs

Black Grizzly, thanks very much for your appreciation, it is very encouraging.
The posts on turmeric and cataract do look very hopeful.
As to eyedrops, based on the amount of mint in "Isotine" eyedrops, the amount of mint extract should be 0.015%. The mint leaves used to make the extract should not be extracted at a temperature above 40°C, so that the rosmarinic acid in the mint is not decomposed. As to the rest, please discuss it with the Compounding Pharmacy and let us know what they propose.

One of the links you posted was to a cataract eyedrop developed by Prof. Muthu Muruggapan at the University of Massachusetts. The idea behind these eyedrops was to use chemical agents that bypass the need for Alpha-crystallin. The role of Alpha crystallin in the human lens is to come between molecules of Beta- and Gamma crystallin so they do not clump together due to electrostatic attraction, forming a cataract. Now in nuclear cataract, the Alpha-crystallin is shackled to AGEs, and can no longer perform its function of keeping the other crystallins apart from each other. Ideally, we want to break the bonds between the Alpha-crystallin and the AGEs, thereby liberating the Alpha-crystallin. In the eyedrop developed by Prof. Murugappan, however, electrolytes are used to perform the task of keeping the lens clear in lieu of Alpha-crystallin, which goes around the problem. Actually, this built on the previous work of George Benedek at MIT, who developed eyedrops which successfully reversed cataracts in animal models back in 1986. It was Prof. Murugappan's dream to save millions of cataract blind from surgery in his home country of India, and apparently, he finally succeeded in making an eyedrop which could reverse even advanced cataracts very safely. But a few years ago, he sold his invention to the pharmaceutical company Janssen, a subsidiary of the pharmaceutical giant, Johnson & Johnson. Since then, we have heard nothing more, so it looks like his dream will never be realized. Now, let's not be too surprised. After all, Johnson & Johnson make a whole range of expensive IOL lens implants for cataract surgery, which would be completely unnecessary if the eyedrops were to be made available to cataract patients.
In passing, we note that Janssen is also funding the laboratories of, and therefore heavily investing in, Viewpoint Therapeutics (California) who are developing anti-cataract eyedrops based on hydroxycholesterol - a compound unable to break AGE-crystallin bonds which is therefore unlikely to improve cataracts in most people, and therefore unlikely to have any impact at all on the need for cataract surgery.