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The Human Lens: A Living Biometric Indicator of Health Status and Successful Aging

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Studies on the Cornea and Lens

Abstract

The human lens is essential for vision, but also a living biometric indicator of health. The environment, a myriad number of ocular and systemic diseases and aging itself, often simultaneously impact upon the health of this living tissue. Yet with few exceptions, twenty first century eye doctors ignore the individual and public health importance of the human lens by describing its state with simple qualitative nomenclature, handwritten drawings, and disposing of this tissue upon cataract extraction. Because the lens maintains intimate associations with health, vision, successful aging, and even individual life expectancy, the authors review in office high tech lens monitoring instruments that can positively impact both individuals and societies. New handheld low tech and high tech cataract monitoring technology enables individualized assessment of progressive incremental lifestyle changes that impact on his/her lens health and mortality. The lens is also useful for identifying our most vulnerable patients—those with the lowest intake of nutrients where broad-spectrum multivitamin/mineral supplementation has shown the greatest efficacy.

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Acknowledgement

This chapter is based on original clinical work supported by the Optometry/Ophthalmology sections of Captain James A Lovell Federal Health Care Facility, DVA-Naval Medical Center, North Chicago, IL, USA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ocular Preventive Medicine, Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center, Chicago, IL, USA

    Stuart Richer

  2. Ophthalmology, Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center, Chicago, IL, USA

    William Stiles

  3. Chicago Medical School, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, Chicago, IL, USA

    Pejman Zargar & Mahsa Rezaei

  4. Optometry, Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center, Chicago, IL, USA

    Theresa Vo

  5. Department of Physics, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

    Richard Bone

  6. Longevinex® Associates, Las Vegas, NV, USA

    Bill Sardi

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  1. Stuart Richer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stuart Richer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Innovative Vision Products Inc., Moscow, Russia, Innovative Vision Products, Inc.,, County of New Castle, Delaware, USA

    Mark A. Babizhayev

  2. Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Truhlsen Eye Institute, College of Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center; Key Laboratory of Protein Chemistry and Developmental Biology of Education Ministry of China, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan, China, Omaha, Nebraska, USA

    David Wan-Cheng Li

  3. Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Oklahoma Center for Neuroscience, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA

    Anne Kasus-Jacobi

  4. Department of Ophthalmology, University of Pristina, Faculty of Medicine, Kosovska Mitrovica, Serbia

    Lepša Žorić

  5. Ophthalmology, Miguel Hernandez University, Alicante, Spain

    Jorge L. Alió

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Richer, S. et al. (2015). The Human Lens: A Living Biometric Indicator of Health Status and Successful Aging. In: Babizhayev, M., Li, DC., Kasus-Jacobi, A., Žorić, L., Alió, J. (eds) Studies on the Cornea and Lens. Oxidative Stress in Applied Basic Research and Clinical Practice. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1935-2_10

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