Bilberry and eyes.

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.herbs
Subject: Bilberry (Miracle Herb?)
From: BNG.prodigy.com (Alan Guggenheim)
Date: 22 May 1995 01:39:08 GMT

I have read a lot about Bilberry. It appears that it is extremely beneficial to night vision, and visual health in general. According to my readings, RAF WWII bomber pilots took bilberry jam before their bombing missions to improve their night vision. Those that continued to take bilberry products throughout their lives lacked eye and circulatory problems. (Everybody in Finland uses bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) throughout their lives - it's a very abundant berry, picked by the buckets each and every fall by most households. The big disease over here is high blood pressure and arteriosclerosis. -Henriette.) Now I was just told by someone who started taking bilberry for macular degeneration that it may be helping.

Has anyone tried bilberry or know of any cases where it has indeed improved vision? Seems like a winner as a preventative for problems in the future.

--Alan

From: des.ritz.mordor.com (E F)

> Has anyone tried bilberry or know of any cases where it has indeed improved vision?

I started taking billberry a few years ago after reading two different articles in two different health magazines a few months apart from each other. Fortunately I have healthy eyes (except for being nearsighted) but I do a lot of photography and a lot of close work so I wanted to be sure to keep my eyes healthy. I don't take it daily usually only a few times in a week or when I've been straining my eyes for some reason. Basically this is what I have found:

Usually an hour after I take it I notice that my vision becomes clearer. Not remarkably so, but more like some one cleaned my eyeballs for me. Like the difference between looking out an opened window vs. looking through the glass.
I find that I don't get eye fatigue very much any more either. Also with the contacts lenses in my eyes get hardly any of those red blood vessel lines in them.
For night vision I find that sudden bright lights on dark roads aren't nearly as bothersome as they can be. My vision tends to recover very quickly.

Here's an observation that my ex-roomate had that I have never heard of anywhere else though. He found that when taken in conjunction with asprin his migraine headaches would clear up much faster. In a way I guess it makes sense since the billberry does seem to dialate the smaller blood vessels.

Anyway, I am quite happy with using it and people that I have given it too seem to notice a pleasing, though usually subtle, change in their vision.

Regards,

Eric

From: jakiel.crl.com (Jennifer B. Jakiel)

Bilberry works by accelerating the regeneration of retinol purple -- also called visual purple -- which is necessary for good eyesight. Many studies of this herb have been published in European medical journals.

-j