Fact Check: Can Drinking Carrot Juice repair vision?

Claim: A video on YouTube titled 8 drinks that can protect eyes and repair vision. It goes on to mention that some drinks, such as green tea, orange juice, blueberry juice, spinach, tomato juice, etc., can protect Eyes and Repair Vision. Amoung various claims, it states that one such juice was Carrot juice claiming that hat drinking carrot juice can repair vision. The link to the claim is here.

Fact Check:

The Claim is False.

What are damaged vision and vision defects?

According to the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh,’’ Vision impairment means that a person’s eyesight cannot be corrected to a “normal” level. Vision impairment may be caused by a loss of visual acuity, where the eye does not see objects as clearly as usual. It may also be caused by a loss of visual field, where the eye cannot see as wide an area as usual without moving the eyes or turning the head.” (1) Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that can cause vision loss and blindness by damaging the optic nerve in the back of the eye.(2)

Carrot juice and nutritional benefits:

The carrot (Daucus carota subsp. sativus) is a root vegetable, usually orange in colour, though purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist. Carrot is a root vegetable with carotenoids, flavonoids, polyacetylenes, vitamins, and minerals, all possessing numerous nutritional and health benefits (3) Carrot juice is a relatively rich source of several vitamins and minerals. On average, a serving (200-250 cm3) of industrial carrot juice contains around 18% of the recommended daily intake (RDI) for potassium, 9% for magnesium, 8% for iron, 12% for copper and 14% for manganese. (4)

Can drinking carrot juice Repair Vision?

No, drinking carrot juice does not repair vision. Although it does have eye health benefits, it does not repair vision. This is because once vision is damaged, it cannot be repaired

The raw materials of carrots are richer in beta carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin, etc., which are important nutrients for the retina and visual pigment. (5) Rhodopsin, the reddish-purple pigment in your eye cells that is light-sensitive and aids in night vision, is partly formed by vitamin A.

A study published by Sadaharu Miyazono et. al. it was found that lutein, which may help prevent age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which causes your vision to deteriorate or disappear gradually, is found in yellow carrots. (6)

Dr A. K. Grover, Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, explained, “Carrot juice is a very useful nutritional component which contains carotenoids. The carotenoids are convertible into vitamin A. It is useful for those who have a vitamin A deficiency. However, it has no role in the repair of damaged vision, which can be due to many causes. There can be some diseases which are affecting vision. The role played by carrot juice would be limited only to those with a nutritional deficiency of vitamin A, and that category is fairly limited. Vitamin A deficiency as a cause of blindness in India is now quite rare.”

When presented with the claim, Dr Digvijay Singh, Director, Noble Eye Care Gurugram, told Medical Dialogues team, "Well, it really depends upon what has been the cause of damage. If the cause of damage has been ageing, then the antioxidant effect of carrots can have some role to play. But if the cause of damage to the eyesight has been some other form of trauma, whether physical or related to, let's say, highlight exposure, or related to some form of injury or related to some other deficiency, then carrots on their own can't do much. The various nutrients in carrot juice are beta carotene, lutein, Zia, and xanthine, which are micronutrients, and these have a role to play in the proper functioning of the tier film. In addition to the retina, beta carotene forms vitamin A, which our photoreceptors require. These cells convert the light we see into an electrical impulse the brain can perceive. If this is deficient, you can have problems such as night blindness, dry eyes, cataracts and age-related macular degeneration. So, it does help to supplement carrots, particularly in the form of carrot juice, which is an extract of many carrots. However, one must remember that there are many other nutrients beyond just these that the eye requires; therefore, a holistic, balanced diet is important for proper eyesight. We do prescribe carrots along with a lot of other fruits and vegetables. So, while carrots play a role, they're not the sole solution for maintaining good vision."

The claim is less supported when it comes to vision repair. Carrots contain nutrients that, when consumed in moderation, can help prevent degenerative eye diseases and maintain eye health. However, no scientific evidence exists that carrots can reverse vision loss caused by diseases like glaucoma or refractive errors like myopia or hyperopia.

How does carrot juice impact eye health?

Dr A. K. Grover, Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, further mentioned, “The nutrients, as we mentioned, are precursors to vitamin A, and their role in eye health is confined to providing those nutrients. Eye health depends on many other factors, so the role of carrot juice will be extremely limited. The harm that can happen because of a reliance on carrot juice is that you may not be treating other conditions appropriately, which requires management in different ways. So, this myth should not be propagated. It is a good nutrient, like many other nutrients which are important for eye health and can be good nutrition, but it should not be taken as a be-all and end-all for Eye diseases as reliance only on this can harm the person’s eye health.”

Dr Digvijay Singh, Director, Noble Eye Care Gurugram, also mentioned that " Carrots are important for the eyes because they can contain micronutrients like beta carotene which helps form vitamin A in the body, lutein and zeaxanthin which are antioxidants and all of them have a role to play for eyesight. But eyes require a lot more than just vitamin A. Vitamin A and antioxidants play an important role in the proper functioning of the retina, particularly the rod cells or the photoreceptors, as well as for proper eye surface health of the cornea and of the tear film. Beta carotene in carrots, which gives its orange colour, provides this vitamin A in the body.

Medical Dialogues final intake:

No, drinking carrot juice cannot repair vision. However, it can help prevent degenerative eye diseases and maintain eye health. However, no scientific evidence exists that carrots can repair vision. Hence, the claim that carrot juice can repair vision is false.

REFERENCES:

1. https://ophthalmology.pitt.edu/vision-impairment/what-vision-impairment

2.https://www.nei.nih.gov/learn-about-eye-health/eye-conditions-and-diseases/glaucoma#:~:text=What%20is%20glaucoma%3F,a%20comprehensive%20dilated%20eye%20exam.

3.Mangla Nand Singh, Raunak Srivastava and Dr. Indranil Yadav. Study of different varietis of carrot and its benefits for human health: A review. J Pharmacogn Phytochem 2021;10(1):1293-1299. DOI: 10.22271/phyto.2021.v10.i1r.13529

4.Khomich LM, Perova IB, Eller KI. [Carrot juice nutritional profile]. Vopr Pitan. 2020;89(1):86-95. Russian. doi: 10.24411/0042-8833-2020-10010. Epub 2020 Jan 24. PMID: 32083829.

5. https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/full/10.5555/20183311898.

6. Miyazono S, Isayama T, Delori FC, Makino CL. Vitamin A activates rhodopsin and sensitizes it to ultraviolet light. Vis Neurosci. 2011 Nov;28(6):485-97. doi: 10.1017/S0952523811000423. PMID: 22192505; PMCID: PMC3601037.