Posted on 02/13/2008 10:59:53 AM PST by LibWhacker
Former Cork club hurler Jimmy Aherne wept when he was told he would be blind within three years.
The father-of-four -- who is a second cousin to hurling legend Christy Ring -- was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
The condition is cruel, as it has traditionally been untreatable. For decades, thousands of pensioners who lost their sight were simply told they had "old people's blindness" and that nothing could be done for them.
But today, almost 12 months after that shocking diagnosis, the deterioration in Jimmy's eyesight has been halted and his good eye has improved to the point where he has no difficulty driving, watching his beloved GAA sports, or gardening.
"I hurled all my life. I loved being outdoors -- so how could you cope with losing the beauty of the world? How do you cope with knowing what you are going to lose with your sight. All I could do after hearing I was going blind was to go out to my car and cry," he added.
Jimmy's remarkable improvement is due to a revolutionary new treatment which, for the first time, provides a dietary supplement containing the three key ingredients that make up macular pigment at the back of the human eye.
The deterioration in this pigment -- made up of lutein, zeaxanthin and meso-zeaxanthin (MZ) -- has long been suspected to be a key factor in the onset of AMD.
What is unique about the new MacuShield supplement is that it contains MZ, which people suffering from AMD may lack in their pigment.
Incredibly, Jimmy only enquired about the supplement after a neighbour told him about its benefits after watching a TV programme.
Marketed by Johnson Brothers and West Midland Optical, the new supplement was just undergoing studies at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT), where Dr John Nolan is one of Europe's leading experts on AMD.
Jimmy immediately contacted the Tipperary academic directly and pleaded for help -- and the WIT official agreed that he could try a course of the revolutionary new supplement.
Within two months, the first signs were detected that the deterioration in Jimmy's eyesight had slowed, almost to a stop. Within six months, his eye pigment had shown remarkable signs of improvement and, in tests last week, nine months after beginning the treatment, his eye continues to show signs of strong improvement.
The Cloyne man's response has stunned both opticians and researchers alike -- and Dr Nolan is now determined that the message about the importance of diet has to be hammered home.
"This has been a terrible disease for people -- and there is now hope that we can do something about it," he said.
AMD effectively attacks the central portion of a person's vision -- leaving them largely reliant on peripheral images. A person with advanced AMD cannot read, drive a car, watch TV or even fully see the faces of loved ones.
Jimmy's own optician, Helen Flanagan, was also astounded by his response to the treatment.
In the developed world, 50pc of all adult blindness is caused by AMD -- more than three times that caused by glaucoma (18per cent). Diabetes, in contrast, accounts for only 17 per cent of blindness.
In Ireland, 80,000 people have AMD-related blindness, costing the State an estimated €133m each year.
For Jimmy, the transformation has been as remarkable as it has been unexpected.
"It's been fantastic -- I feel great and I don't know where I'd be today if I hadn't contacted WIT," he said.
For MacuShield's developers, remarkable case studies such as that of Jimmy, have been matched by the emergence of a new machine which, for the first time, has made screening for AMD commercially viable for opticians.
"Every time you change your glasses, an optician will screen you for glaucoma. But AMD is responsible for a far greater level of blindness. We're hoping that early detection and the recognition that dietary supplements can help will go a long way to offering people hope," Johnson Brothers' Pat Buckley declared.
Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) are currently preparing another major research project on AMD and are looking for volunteers. Anyone interested in taking part or with general queries about AMD can contact Leighanne Maddock at (051) 845505 or www.wit.ie/mprg. Anyone with queries about AMD dietary supplements should contact Johnson brothers at (01) 4081400.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/gaa/article3421573.ece
Has the Islamic world ever contributed a medical advance to mankind that comes anywhere close to this? Does the Muslim world contribute any medical advances to mankind?
And great and good luck to Jimmy Ahearn
Cricket. I remember watching my father playing cricket with the English community in Istanbul in the 50s. There were more English than Americans and they all went out to a cricket club every month and played cricket two months then softball the third month. Dad got to be the relief hurler. It has the names of the whole crew on it. We kids ran around in the pine trees eating pine nuts at the appropriate time of year and digging spent bullets out of the embankment any time. The place had been an old army shooting range. I have the bat he was presented with when he got orders for home.
Cricket. I remember watching my father playing cricket with the English community in Istanbul in the 50s. There were more English than Americans and they all went out to a cricket club every month and played cricket two months then softball the third month. Dad got to be the relief hurler. We kids ran around in the pine trees eating pine nuts at the appropriate time of year and digging spent bullets out of the embankment any time. The place had been an old army shooting range. I have the bat he was presented with when he got orders for home.It has the names of the whole crew on it.
Anyone find a source for this product in the US? My mother has this condition.
Fine story, Yeh, I once met a Turkish girl on a train, very nice. Thanks for sharing that with us.
I met a Turkish woman on a long visa who was a desk clerk at a condo complex. She was 35 and desperate to find a husband in order to stay here. I spoke to her because she had her name and “Turkey” on her name tag.It turns out she was from my “old neighborhood, Nisantas in Istanbul and I found out that our house is still there but that all the open space in the neighborhood is filled up with apartment buildings and medical buildings now. When I lived there we kids would go out into the sheep pastures that were just beyond the where last apartment building was and the street ended abruptly. We would get fed lunch in a sheepfarmer’s house that to me looked like a pile of boards and tarpaper from the outside but was nice inside with a cookfire in a fireplace on one side and hard dirt floor with rugs. In those days my sister and I could go anywhere our little legs would carry us and when we got spotted by a soldier or a taxi driver who thought we looked lost he would call the consulate and we would get a ride home in a taxi or a jeep. I don’t think an American family can just let their kids go in Istanbul nowadays.
thanks, bfl
No one comes here for stalking, if you all want to talk to the police and pay for all crimes instead of making others the victims of injustices do it; or leave me alone.
If any talking needs to be done, the police can handle it and no one comes here for any abuse. I checked your threads, you don’t abuse other people in this way; you stalked, it is repugnant, you did it for people who should not be seen as anything more than rapists in new mexico, you practise discrimination as well. Sir, please let’s go talk to the police at your earliest convenience.
How on earth do you read abuse in a comment a childhood in Istanbul????
Nice story - but ‘hurler’ is not a term used in cricket! Hurling is very much a game of the Celtic fringe of the British Isles, and is not played in England.
bump for later
Cool stuff!
Now if only somebody would come up with a supplement to keep me from hurling every time I see Obama or Hillary.
The English there called it “hurling.” In softball the equivalent is “pitching.”
Dad got to bowl, I looked up the word, when the other guys didn’t make it to the game. I know nothing of the game except what I could saw and heard when I was less than eight years old. “Hurler” might have just been his word. Dad used to say it that way, anyway. I remember him saying he was glad he was the Relief when the regular “hurlers” didn’t show up. Sometinmes he said there were or were not enough men for a real game. If I were to study the game I would probably learn that a lot of my impressions were not accurate. I was always fascinated by the two guys running back and forth
between the wickets and the upside-down batting. I do know what that flat bat looks like. I have it still in my closet.I had forgotten about it until my stepmother gave it to me when Dad died.
I wonder if Paul Harvey will include this in his commercial advertisement?
LOL!
Get checked for cataracts. Your lenses normally yellow over the years, and one of the symptons of cataracts is double vision. I have had no problem with my artificial lenses; one of the best things that has happened to me, period.
No, I got it from staring at the sun when I was a teenager.
I know, extremely stupid.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.