Green tea extract is used in the new GlaucoHealth supplement

Guardion Health Sciences has launched GlaucoCetin, a supplement shown in a small clinical trial to positively affect the optic nerve cells in glaucoma patients.

Created by Dr Robert Ritch of New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, GlaucoCetin is an enhanced version of parent compound, GlaucoHealth. It appeared to reverse mitochondrial dysfunction in a trial of 28 glaucoma patients, Guardion said in a press release.

The randomised trial involved one group taking the supplement’s combination of curcumin, ginkgo biloba extract, citicoline, coenzyme-Q10, N-acetyl-cysteine, alpha-lipoic acid, grapeseed extract and green tea extract, and the other group a placebo.

Patients were evaluated with visual field testing, OCT and the retinal metabolic analyser, which measures retinal flavoprotein autofluorescence, at one month and three months. Researchers saw no significant changes in visual field or OCT (macular retinal ganglion cell) indices in either group but saw, “…a significant decrease from baseline to one month in optic nerve adjusted mitochondrial flavoprotein fluorescence and its average curve width, which are markers of mitochondrial oxidative stress, in patients treated with GlaucoHealth, but not in those who received the placebo.”