14 DAY TRIAL // German investigators with the Institute of Experimental Ophthalmology at the University of Munster say that they recently had great success in treating a condition called nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) with a class of natural chemicals that occur within the human body.
NAION is one of the leading causes of vision loss globally, so making any kind of strides in the effort to cure it could potentially have repercussions on millions of people, AlphaGalileo reports. The team used 60 test subjects for their experiment, and treated them with corticosteroids.
The compounds were added to the conventional treatment for this type of neuropathy. The team noticed a significant improvement in vision, both short- and long-term. The most beneficial results were recorded in patients who received the steroids soon after their first symptoms started.
NAION affects an average of about 2 people in 100,000, but its incidence increases proportional to age. The new study offers some hope for new mitigating measures aimed at preventing its inevitable conclusion. Details of the work appear in the latest issue of the journal Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience.