June 3, 2021 — The International Sports Vision Association (ISVA) and MacuHealth have launched “Sports Nutrition for Your Eyes,” a new educational resource on the ISVA website. 

The companies have shared that the resource and downloadable educational flyer were designed to help educate athletes about how proper nutrition can have preventive and protective benefits for their overall wellbeing‚ improve their vision and eye health, and help enhance performance.

“While many athletes may be somewhat knowledgeable about general nutrition, they most likely have limited or no understanding about the importance of consuming certain nutrients that can help keep eyes healthy and sustain optimal visual performance,” says Jarrod Davies, O.D., FCOVD, ISVA vice president of education. “In addition to helping to lower the risk of developing certain eye diseases like age-related macular degeneration and cataracts, research has shown that certain nutritional supplements, when added to a well-balanced diet, can play a role in maintaining or enhancing visual abilities that are important for sports performance.”

“Sports Nutrition for Your Eyes” features authentic examples of visual performance measures that can benefit from proper nutrition and supplementation, offers links to several resources with info on how certain vitamins and minerals can contribute to eye health, and provides advice on what to look for before selecting a supplement. The resource also offers a downloadable PDF that ECPs can post on their website or print for distribution in their eyecare business.

“Although a good diet is certainly beneficial to vision, often targeted supplementation can play an important role in helping athletes achieve their goals,” says Jim Stringham, Ph.D., chief scientific officer at MacuHealth. “Several published studies show that good nutrition, specifically high levels of the macular carotenoids lutein, zeaxanthin, and meso-zeaxanthin, have measurable effects on several parameters of visual performance that can benefit sports performance.”

Also new to the ISVA website is a page on “Introducing Nutritional Supplements into your Sports Vision Practice,” offering tips to help eyecare professionals educate staff on supplements, help patients with easy purchasing and reordering, and more. 

“Optimal sports performance coincides with optimal nutritional support for the visual system,” says Dr. Davies. “A proper sports nutrition plan for the eyes should be an integral part of an athlete’s sports vision training regimen. Incorporating dietary supplements into your practice can improve patient outcomes, increase patient satisfaction, and lead to referrals from happy patients.”

For more information: sportsvision.pro.