A short list of cataract reversal eyedrops

         Cruelly ignored, but NOT forgotten

The whole world believes the eye profession treats all eye diseases.  But although they had the means, they never wanted to treat cataract and still do not want to.  Despite the fact that effective eyedrops had been developed by biochemists around the world since 1980, eye doctors still only want to perform cataract surgery, and destroy the natural lens even though cataracts could have been treated.

Few people are aware that the eyedrops in the list below were ever developed. But don't take my word for it, please look them all up on the Internet. They each clear the lens by different mechanisms. Each of them was a bright ray of hope for humanity. Most of them could have put an end to cataract surgery for good, but one after another, all of them were cruelly ignored. Despite their success in the lab, in animal models or even human trials, none of them were ever offered to cataract patients by the eye profession, as they should have been. Consequently, the only option available today continues to be surgery.

I often wondered whether any of the ophthalmologists appearing in the glowing advertisements for cataract surgery on the Net have had cataract surgery themselves. At least, one rarely hears about it. Probably, they are more reluctant than we are, since they know that a plastic IOL is inferior to their natural eye lens, and they know the risks.

Of course, everybody who is facing cataract surgery would rather avoid it, and clear their vision by treating their cataracts with eyedrops which do not destroy the integrity of their eye. Since many such eyedrops already existed, this means that cataract surgery is an unnecessary operation.

Even if the surgery is successful, all remaining power of accommodation is lost, so if a monofocal IOL is implanted, several pairs of eyeglasses will be needed to cope with near and distance vision. Also, due to the loss of accommodation, multifocal eyeglasses can no longer be used, so there may be trouble going up or down stairways. All this could have been avoided by the eyedrops in the list, which preserve the power of accommodation. As if that weren't enough, surgery carries risks of inferior outcomes and secondary complications.

Yet in the world today, many people with cataracts (around 35 million) do not have access even to surgery. The prior existence of these non-surgical eyedrops therefore also means that 35 million people are needlessly blind. Here is the list:

1. Reduced glutathione - a S=S bond breaker (Japan, 1960)
2. Esters that restore optical clarity (Benedek at al., MIT, 1980)
3. Bifunctional molecules that restore optical clarity "in lieu" of the natural chaperone, alpha-crystallin (Muthukumar, University of Massachusetts, 2017)
4. N-acetylcarnosine (NAC) (Babizhayev, Russia, 1996)
5. Organic germanium (G-132, G-385, etc.) - an AGE solubilizer (Nakamura et al., Kitasato University, Japan, 2000)
6. Lutein - a "surrogate" carotenoid (previously available on the Internet, but no longer)
7. Aldose reductase inhibitors (Kinoshita, 2010, USA)
8. C-KAD - a glycation inhibitor plus chelating agent (Chakshu Pharmaceuticals, 2002, USA)
9. NACA (N-acetylcysteine amide) - a reduced glutathione precursor (Ercal, University of Missouri, 2016)
10. Lanosterol and 25-hydroxycholesterol - "chaperone" stabilizers (Kang Zhang, USA, 2015)
11. Rosmarinic acid - an AGE crosslink breaker (Glikman et al, University of Tel Aviv, Israel, 2018)

This list is not exhaustive.

There are some limitations. Firstly, reduced glutathione works only in about 50% of cases. Next, although NAC can still be bought on the Internet, it is not likely to improve cataract unless combined with a chelating agent such as EDTA, as it was in C-KAD. Finally, lanosterol or other sterols are not likely to work unless some unmodified alpha-crystallin remains in the lens, as there would be in early cataract. But the other agents on this list do not have any such limitations. They reversed advanced cataracts too, and are desperately needed today. Anybody who reads this post and can do something about this tragic situation, please reply.