I read some studies a while back that showed taking a bromelain (pineapple enzyme) supplement on an empty stomach consistently each day will eventually reduce floaters fairly significantly by dissolving them.
EDIT: According the study linked below, roughly 200mg of bromelain taken 3 times per day, and done for 3 months, should give the best results. Most bromelain supplements on the market seem to start at 500mg, so I suppose just one per day should be okay, though it may take longer since it’s not spaced out to keep the dose more constant throughout the day. There is bromelain powder which you could dose out to 200mg, but this stuff has a very strong odor that may be difficult to swallow in a liquid.
Also, don’t take bromelain if you are allergic to Pineapple.
Buying supplements for this harmless a phenomenon is kinda crazy.
Floaters can vary drastically from barely noticeable (like in the meme), to extremely distracting (large black or gray dots floating around in the vision even when reading a book or using a computer), to limiting eyesight almost like cataracts.
In this study, one patient’s eyesight improved from 6/60 to 30/60 due to how severely the floaters obstructed vision.
And bear in mind, one of the physical alternatives to eliminating the floaters has a 7% chance of permanent blindness, whereas a single $16 bottle of concentrated pineapple enzyme can drastically reduce them with little to no side effects, and no chance of long-term harm.
… this sounds absurd to me, at least as stated wrt the enzymes “dissolving” the floaters. Your body does not like foreign proteases floating around. I am also skeptical that the enzymes would survive denaturing and pepsin et al. in the stomach and duodenum (empty stomach or not), get absorbed intact, and somehow not get inactivated by the immune system (again, rogue protease = bad). Not to say that your floaters weren’t reduced (though the brain sometimes will just learn to ignore them) or even that the supplement wasn’t responsible via metabolites. Just, action of an intact enzyme itself seems unlikely. Corrections welcome; I’m going off my gut here and am not a biologist.
I haven’t tried it yet, I was just mentioning the studies I’d come across. You can read this one here, which found that taking 3 pills a day reduced or completely removed floaters in 70% of patients after 3 months, with a B-scan ocular ultrasound and a visual inspection seeming to confirm the results (not placebo).
That study used 95 mg papain and 95 mg ficin enzymes in addition to bromelain, which makes it a bit more effective, but Bromelain alone also seems to work at reducing the floaters from what I’d read elsewhere.
According to the study (I may be interpreting this wrong, but I’ll take my best whack at it), matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) contained within the enzymes are able to reach and pass through the Blood-retinal barrier (BRB), and thus act upon the floaters (collegen).
Furthermore, matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), which belong to the proteinases that could cut and absorb ECM, discorded collagens, and SVOs. In particular, MMP-2 and MMP-9 are primarily found in bromelain, papain, and ficin [57]. Free radical scavenging activities were found in bromelain (MMP-2), papain (MMP-2 and MMP-9), and ficin (MMP-2 and MMP-9). Simultaneously, MMPs could resect proliferative tissues and compromised collagens, which is beneficial for cleaning VH-induced SVOs under oxidase stress [58,59]. The blood-retinal barrier (BRB) consists of the inner and outer components and forms tight junctions between the retinal capillary endothelial cells and pigment epithelial cells that maintains a balanced microenvironment and prevents certain substances from entering the retina. Yang et al. found that MMP-2 and MMP-9 could reduce the tight junction proteins (i.e., claudin-5 and occlusion) and the integrity of BRB [60]. Thus, MFEs may cross BRB after taking and be absorbed by the small intestines.
Wow! I’m really tempted to try this myself. I’ve had bad floaters for as long as I can remember.
I am curious about side effects, though. If these enzymes degrade collagen, that means they could induce or exacerbate arthritis, right?
AFAIK the enzymes only act upon ‘compromised collagens’ which floaters are made up of, not normal collagen in joints. If anything, based on this other study, there is some tentative evidence to suggest Bromelain potentially could be used to reduce the effects of some forms of osteoarthritis due to it being an anti-inflammatory.
From that study:
Bromelain has been used as treatment for a number of disease conditions, in addition to osteoarthritis of the knee and shoulder joints (Table 1). No serious adverse events have been reported with the consumption of either bromelain or pineapples in these studies. Adverse events that have been reported are mainly gastrointestinal (i.e. diarrhoea, nausea and flatulence), but have also included headache, tiredness, dry mouth, skin rash and allergic reactions (not specified).
Should be noted, however, that there was a conflict of interest announced at the end:
Dick Middleton is consultant to Lichtwer Pharma UK Ltd who manufacture bromelain. Steven Hicks was funded by Lichtwer for a post-graduate fellowship from 1998 to 2002.
However, this claim is backed up in the floater study as well:
In clinics, bromelain is used to treat patients with osteoarthritis, sinusitis, and post-operative swelling.
So research seems to indicate that as long as the daily dose is 600mg or lower per day, it should be well tolerated as long as you’re not allergic to pineapple (definitely don’t do this if you are). Even above that, there should be no long-term negative health effects, only potentially acute side effects.
This is absolutely true!
I had a detached
cornearetina (had my cousin proofread) that I had to get lasered back together, which is a “fun” story in and of itself. But after I had this really bad “curtain” is the best I can describe it. Had it for years. Got on a pineapple kick for a little while and it disappeared!I honestly can’t tell you how long it took. I’m actually only just now noticing that I haven’t had it in months!
I googled and there’s evidence of this working so I will try this out.
did you know that there’s a direct correlation between the decline of Spirograph and the rise in gang activity? Think about it.
If only we encouraged kids to do Spirograph a bit more.
which Trent Reznor aptly critiqued on that one appropriately titled album
What
What about The Upward Spiral?
No
Polaris always got my back
Mine are so bad, eye wish there was a way to reset.
I had a detached retina which involved (spoiler for those that don’t like to read about eyes)
Tap for spoiler
Having the fluid removed and replace with gas. My eye was out of action for months, going through all the stages of gradually refilling itself. I had to stay mostly lying down for a week. For a while I had an effect like looking over the surface of water. Later, a big bubble that distorted vision.
Oh also, I was forbidden to go to high altitude because the pressure change could cause damage.
But after all that, just a few occasional floaters. My other eye still had lots of “tethered” floaters that seem to still be attached like seaweed strands.
So it can be done but you would go through a lot to get there.
I’ve heard that people do get that done just for the floater problem.
My dad had this done and his knees don’t hurt from gout anymore. His diet changed dramatically too. Zero meats. It’s been a while so I am allowed this one gag about my dad! He was such a great guy and I miss him very much. IE he is D I D dead, so he is in a sense vegan like myself.
All seriousness aside, he did get detached retinas and the vitrious liquid in his eyeball replaced. We could see the bubble and his eyes changed from brown to green. My coworker too had a lens op where they also replaced the stuff in the eye.
Oh. Well, I haven’t seen any changes like that. Yet. Still time, I guess.
And also seriously, I didn’t get any eye color change. I also had lens replacements a few years ago, but that didn’t involve a vitrectomy, so I still had floaters at that point.
When I went to a new opthalmologist recently, that asked about my eye health history. It took about 45 minutes!
Hopefully my ophthalmologist will be surprised.
I see what you did there.
Oh hey it’s my old buddy Squiggly! I hope it’s doing okay.
Is that the Crystalline Entity?
Oh good it’s not just me right? Right?…
Bro has the power of the Tessaract and the Tetragrammaton on his side.
Me with my HPPD lmfao
Can someone explain?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinogen_persisting_perception_disorder
Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD) is a non-psychotic disorder in which a person experiences lasting or persistent visual hallucinations or perceptual distortions after using drugs.[1] This includes after psychedelics, dissociatives, entactogens, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and SSRIs.[2][3] Despite being a hallucinogen-specific disorder, the specific contributory role of psychedelic drugs is unknown. Symptoms may include visual snow, trails and after images (palinopsia), light fractals on flat surfaces, intensified colors, altered motion perception, pareidolia, micropsia, and macropsia.[3] Floaters and visual snow may occur in other conditions.[4][5]
All these comments about eye floaters and I’m wondering who has floaters in the form of sacred geometry
I mean I’ve got a cube but that’s it
My eye cells shed fractals.
Lmao the one in the middle is very much a floater, figured the rest was a joke but HPPD is a thing.
I do in some sense, but it doesn’t present like eye floaters in the traditional sense though they are projected into my vision.
I have High-Production/Complex Concept->Shape Synesthesia
Listed as the most-complex type on the linked page. https://www.thesynesthesiatree.com/2021/02/concept-shape-synesthesia.html?m=1
That’s the visual noise when you close your eyes.
Huh, that might explain why my vision has been weird for a while and the eye doctor couldn’t find a physical cause. My last shroom trip was super intense and not pleasant at all.
If you look at the sky or something bright and uniform in colour, you can often see floaters in the inside of your eyeball. They also move as you try to look at them.
I would suggest not looking though, because once you know there their some people get bothered by it.
once you know there their
You’re mocking us, aren’t you
There there. Their there’s, they’re there to mock us indeed. There they are.
I wood never!
Floaters aren’t geometric shapes, though. That looks more like visual hallucinations.
The tails of mine form a cube in my visual static when I close my eyes
Many people don’t get them till they start approaching middle age. Like everything else that relates to the body, enjoy the good quality vision while you can
My first thought was fractal visiuals from mushrooms.
Do you not notice the gunk that floats inside the fluid within your eye? There’s no possibility that the cells in your eyes never shed.
It makes sense to me why there are so many obliviously ignorant people in this world; you have this shit inside your eyes, impossible to miss, access to the sum of all human knowledge in your hand, and yet you still must ask for someone to fucking spoon-feed you the information to you.
Well now I Know what it means…but in my Eyes they look quite different and the Terminus “always” is not the one i would chose. But its fine i undestand now.
Sorry for coming off rude to you, im just frustrated with my own level of stupidity and simply projecting it onto you.
The one in the middle is a floater. The ones on the top right and bottom left are psychedelic fractals that are very much not floating around in people’s eyeballs.
You know that ‘access to the sum of all knowledge’?
Maybe you could use that and learn that not everyone gets them and it’s by no means a universal experience. Even people who do have them may not ever notice them due to the size, so by definition will be impossible to miss for some people.
You could also read sites on how not to be irrationally angry while you’re at it.
Looks like mushi.
