As far back as I can remember I have had extremely poor night vision. Then as I have gotten older, my overall vision has been in steady decline, and I had simply accepted that I would be needing eyeglasses soon - and real soon. Then about 5 months ago, a friend suggested that I try bilberry extract; I had heard about bilberry many times before over the years, and about how some folks claimed that it had helped their vision, and even allowed some to retire their eyeglasses. I have always been a little skeptical about these types of claims, like peach pits curing cancer, or "Jesus" raising the dead. However, my vision had gotten so bad, that I was almost willing to try anything (“Jesus” aside) that was safe to avoid wearing eyeglasses. So I decided to give bilberry a try.
I took the first dose of bilberry at about 7pm on a Tuesday, the next day I took 3 doses – about every 6 hours. When I awoke on Thursday, I didn’t notice any improvements in my vision. Then that night, my vision started improving, and by the next night, my vision had improved big-time – I was able to see and read words and numbers about five times further than I could that past Monday (things were so bright that I started getting a headache). Then that weekend, I was at home and decided to watch a movie on my HDTV; I turned off the lights, and when the movie started, the colors were so brilliant and bright that it was almost irritating me – my color recognition, was better than any other time in my life, and for the first time since I was in my 20s, I could differentiate between colors like red and orange – I couldn’t even believe the improvements myself. So I decided to buy a new HDTV.
Then about 2 weeks later, one of my fingers that I had lost the feeling in, after I had severely injured it about 4 years ago, started aching and hurting. About a week later, the feeling in my finger was completely restored. And today my hearing is better than it has been in many years – today I almost feel like I have been “reborn.”
I was going to do a post about this stuff back in January, however, I decided to wait and see just how long the effects would last. From what I have read, and from my personal experience, bilberry seems to repair nerve damaged, as well as do other good stuff. For at least the last 10 years or so, I could only read small print like in a news paper, if I held the print about 18 inches from my face (it was like my eyes had a fixed focal point, but the print was still blurry at times). Today however, I can read almost any size print, and the contrast between the print and the paper in simply incredible. I can even read the real small print over a wide range of distance.
I have discovered that bilberry works really great for most of the people who take it; however, it can cause side effects when taking some medications. Bilberry can lower both blood pressure and blood sugar, as it did in my case. But I had started taking it at the same time that I had started taking medication for those same problems. And today I don’t believe that the most severe side effects that I have been having, were being caused by the bilberry, but being caused by one of the other medications that I am taking – so next week I will be changing that med.
I would strongly recommend talking with your Doctor if you are taking medication to control blood pressure, blood sugar or both. However, neither of my Doctors had even heard of it before.
The only brand of bilberry that I have found that actually works is the Natures Way brand – I tried at least 3 other (cheaper) brands, but none of them work at all. I started out taking two of the capsules 3 times a day, which worked just great. I even stopped taking it for a week, and I was still seeing, feeling and hearing about the same. But it was recommended that I continue to take it every day, so I do.
You can read about bilberry here and here.
