Behind blue eyes – Evidence for ocular nutritional supplements on the Scandinavian market

Abstract

Nutritional supplements for eye health are very popular, but the size of the market makes it difficult to grasp for the clinician. To guide patients and clinicians in the subject it would therefore be valuable to have a list of available products and their content. The purpose of this study was to investigate the ocular nutritional supplements available on the Scandinavian market and how their doses relate to current evidence. A list of nutritional supplements for ocular health available on the Scandinavian market was compiled by structured internet searches, and the products and their contents were compared with current evidence and legislated upper tolerable levels. Out of 104 products on the Scandinavian market, only two products reached the Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 (AREDS2)-formula at the recommended dose. One additional product reached the same formula if the recommended dose was exceeded. As only two nutritional supplements for ocular health on the Scandinavian market reached the AREDS2-dose at recommended dose, clinicians offering such substances need to have knowledge not only about the substances but also of the doses. In the future it would be welcome if the health claims for nutritional supplements were based on placebo-controlled intervention studies, to avoid ineffective products.