Eye and retina risk with CoV - RVO

Busy, got to run - Methyl donors, pomegranate and understand Retinoid Toxicity - those are my Take Home Tips.

Retinal Vascular Occlusion (RVO), typically is due to blood clots and can cause blindness. It has been associated with CoV injections in a recently published study. See a post by Josh Guetzkow for more information:

New Study Validates CDC VAERS Safety Signal Analysis

Endotoxin can be causal of blindness following mRNA jabs per Geoff Pain, PhD:

Blindness caused by Endotoxin in mRNA Jabs

Potentially related findings - hyperhomocysteinemia was found to increase risk for RVO. See: ‘MEK Inhibitor-Associated Central Retinal Vein Occlusion Associated with Hyperhomocysteinemia and MTHFR Variants’.(Francis, et al., 2020) MEK inhibitors are used as a cancer treatment and some people have to stop the treatment because of Central Retinal Vascular Occlusion (CRVO). Francis, et al., suggest screening patients considering the treatment for hyperhomocysteinemia as it seems to be an associated risk. Treatment with intravitreous anti-VEGF helped the RVO.

Established Facts

• Central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) is a rare side effect of MEK inhibitors.

• MEK inhibitor-associated CRVO may result in permanent drug discontinuation.

Novel Insights

• MEK inhibitor-associated CRVO may be associated with hyperhomocysteinemia, suggesting a potential role for hyperhomocysteinemia screening prior to initiation of MEK inhibitor therapy.

• In this small cohort, MEK inhibitor-associated CRVO was associated with good visual recovery following intravitreous anti-VEGF.

‘MEK Inhibitor-Associated Central Retinal Vein Occlusion Associated with Hyperhomocysteinemia and MTHFR Variants.’ (Francis, et al., 2020)

From another paper on the topic of MEK retinopathy:

“Another molecular pathway commonly affected in malignant melanomas is mitogen-activated protein kinase/ extracellular regulated kinase (MAPK/ERK) also known as MEK pathway.” […] “‘MEK retinopathy’ is an umbrella term used to describe the dose- and time- dependent retinal side-effects observed with MEK inhibitor therapy [5, 6]. MEK inhibitor clinical trials have reported ocular toxicities in 5–38% of treated patients. [7].” (Tyagi, Santiago, 2018)

Pomegranate modulates the MAPK/ERK pathway without causing retinopahyt - that would be my two cents on this topic. Why go blind or get cancer when Mother Nature offers us a bountiful spread of phytonutrient microRNA modulators?

Hyperhomocysteinemia risk involves methylation cycles and methyl donor nutrients.

So, the Willy Wonka “Wait, reverse that”, is to assure adequate methylation support nutrients that can help prevent hyperhomocysteinemia. Elevated homocysteine in the blood or urine frequently means there are varied gene alleles affecting the enzymes or metabolites of the one-carbon and related methylation cycles. Providing additional nutrients critical to the many steps of the cycles can help prevent buildup of cysteine and lack of glycine for glutathione. Those nutrients include betaine, methyl folate and methyl/hydroxy cobalamin, choline, and vitamin B6, possibly the active P5P form.

“A prospective case-control study found that patients with RVO were more likely to have hyperhomocysteinemia compared to controls [7], although some suggest that this is relevant to CRVO and not branch RVO [10]. Homocysteine is both atherogenic and prothrombotic and has been associated with a number of vascular events, including cerebrovascular, peripheral arterial, coronary heart disease, and venous thromboembolic disease [11, 12]. The development of hyperhomocysteinemia has been linked to nutritional deficiencies (particularly vitamin cofactors), chronic medical conditions, smoking, medications (atorvastatin, nicotinic acid, fenofibrate, methotrexate), and genetic defects in the enzymes involved in homocysteine metabolism [11, 12]. It has been proposed that supplementation (particularly with folate) may correct hyperhomocysteinemia, but its recommendation as a preventative measure is unclear.” (Francis, et al., 2020)

Niacin protocol might help too but it isn't specifically a hyperhomocysteinemia recommendation.

This previous post of mine, microRNA, elevated homocysteine and is there a role for excess Retinoic Acid? (substack.com), goes into extensive detail, as hyperhomocysteinemia is a genetic risk of my own and something I think I had as a child and adult.

GSH in the lower right corner of the image below, (and in the post) is glutathione which needs the cysteine, not homocysteine, and it also uses glycine freed from betaine in the upper right side of the graphic (you can see B6 is involved in that reaction). See: “Figure 1. Folate-Mediated One-Carbon Metabolism (FOCM)” (One Carbon Methylation Cycle) (Hayden, Tyagi, 2022, Figure 1)

“Folate-Mediated One-Carbon Metabolism (FOCM)” (One Carbon Methylation Cycle) (Hayden, Tyagi, 2022, Figure 1)

The overlapping methylation cycles interact so throwing a wrench in the works anywhere can mess up a whole lot of other things that are linked - like DNA methylation within a cell nucleus. Cancer seems to be a result of the citric acid cycles switching over to fermentation instead. The treatment then is to Willy Wonka it - reverse that and get the methylation cycles rolling again.

Vitamin A and its lack and Retinoic acid and its excess may also be involved in retinal vascular occlusion or other retinal conditions - due to a chronic overconversion from infection/liver injury/ or alcoholism.

Excerpt: Hyperhomocysteinemia is also associated with alcoholism and retinal conditions - however, it, homocysteine, itself, seems to have some protective factors as elevated homocysteine can promote Nrf2, which then helps reduce the elevation of oxidative stress that is associated with excess homocysteine. Homocysteine in alcoholism: (Mani, et al., 2013) In the retina: (Navneet, et al., 2019)

Retinoic acid overactivation is likely happening for similar reasons as occurs with Epstein Barr Virus and ME/CFS. I wrote a long series on that topic. The virus promotes a gene change in the liver to activate vitamin A or carotenoids to retinoic acid or other active retinoids. The active retinoids cause differentiation of endothelial or epithelial cells to a mature form which the EBV (> epithelial) or SARS-COV-2 (> endothelial) virus can infect.

The overactivation of retinoids also increases eye risks because it leaves the liver, body and eyes low in the inactive retinol, vitamin A, which is a physical building block. With no bricks, our house falks apart.

Someone with an overactivation of retinoids problem might be chronically low in inactive vitamin A and chronically elevated in active retinoids and be having negative symptoms related to both problems. Eating a rich vitamin A source might feel good therefore shortly after as the body has some relief of the low vitamin A, but by the next day it will have been converted to the active retinoids which have inflammatory infection fighting effects - and flu like symptoms- puffy and in pain, muscle cramps maybe too.

I have had to figure out these issues in order to improve my own health. I had fibromyalgia like or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome symptoms off and on ever since having EBV/mononucleosis in high school.

Previous posts include:

Nociceptive pain evaluation - "My everything hurt."

When it hurts to chew, even feeling like your teeth are bruising your gums, that equals inflammation. How can hair follicles hurt? How can literally every bit of my body hurt? 😫 Internal signaling by a sudden influx of activated Retinoids sets off white blood cells to fight infection….but where is the infection?

Still lingering from high school? Or just the lingering effects of excess activation of vitamin A from dietary sources? The latter it seems to me. I feel pretty good when I greatly reduce carotenoids and exclude active vitamin A from my diet or supplements on a regular basis. It was only after cutting out most that I consistently felt well enough that an occasional mistake food would cause obvious symptom flair-ups.

If your baseline health is really poor, then it takes a few weeks or months to even reach, feeling pretty good most days now! And that is when retrying a suspicious food can work - if the next day or two has no changes in health, then that food is probably okay rather than a cause of inflammation.

What does this have to do with the retinas? They need inactive vitamin A as a building block - a brick in a photo reactive wall.

Rhodopsin needs retinol as a component. Phosphorylation of rhodopsin is what helps us adapt quickly to sudden changes between dark and bright. (Lee, et al., 2010)

A crumbling brick wall - in our metaphor the retina is a brick wall and rhodopsin with retinal is a brick that needs to be replenished each time it reacts. No more vitamin A, no more night vision. // Black and white Photo by Richard on Unsplash

How big is the eye risk from CoV injections? Per VAERS data, sizeable. From the Comments “3,692 events reported” for “serious vision-related adverse events” and a total of “48,590 events” included some mention of eye health:

Match Your Batch, Writes The Latest from Match Your Batc…, 23 hr ago

“Searching matchyourbatch.org VAERS records for: (Type: Covid19, Covid19-2) (Manufacturer: Janssen, Pfizer-Biontech, Moderna, Novavax, Unknown) (Symptoms includes (using OR): eye, visual, vision, blur, blind, retina, ocular, optic, ophthal, opthal, optom, diplopia, glaucoma, aura, photop)

48,590 events reported through April 21, 2023

NOTE: VAERS receives reports for only a small fraction of actual adverse events. (Source: CDC)

Adding the condition to search for serious vision-related adverse events ...

VAERS records for: (Type: Covid19, Covid19-2) (Manufacturer: Janssen, Pfizer-Biontech, Moderna, Novavax, Unknown) (Show only: died, life-threatening, permanently disabled, possible miscarriage or stillbirth) (Symptoms includes (using OR): eye, visual, vision, blur, blind, retina, ocular, optic, ophthal, opthal, optom, diplopia, glaucoma, aura, photop)

3,692 events reported through April 21, 2023

Of which: 392 died 10.6% | 989 life-threatening 26.8% | 2,618 permanently disabled 70.9% | 58 possible miscarriage or stillbirth 1.6%

Visualize the results by age, sex, batch number(s), location, days to death, vax date, and more. Read the individual reports.

See more about the tool at matchyourbatch.substack.com

MatchYourBatch.org is intended to provide visual exploration of the CDC's Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) data for individuals, clinicians, researchers, and scientists. At present, only COVID-19 related products can be searched, with the hope of adding all current data available from VAERS.”

Blue light, at modern levels, is bad for eye and overall health.

Also, from the comments - EMF exposure but also the bright blue light of modern life affects our hormones and reduces melanopsin levels, adding to eye and overall health risks. We need more sunshine and less screen light and LED or fluorescent flickering light in our lives. It adds to eyestrain too. Read more: The #1 EMF you've forgotten about - by Roman S Shapoval (substack.com)

The #1 EMF you've forgotten about

Disclaimer: This information is being shared for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use and is not intended to provide individual health guidance.

Reference List

(Francis, et al., 2020) Francis JH, Diamond EL, Chi P, Jaben K, Hyman DM, Abramson DH. MEK Inhibitor-Associated Central Retinal Vein Occlusion Associated with Hyperhomocysteinemia and MTHFR Variants. Ocul Oncol Pathol. 2020 May;6(3):159-163. doi: 10.1159/000501155. Epub 2019 Oct 21. PMID: 32509759; PMCID: PMC7250324. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7250324/

(Lee, et al., 2010) Lee KA, Nawrot M, Garwin GG, Saari JC, Hurley JB. Relationships among visual cycle retinoids, rhodopsin phosphorylation, and phototransduction in mouse eyes during light and dark adaptation. Biochemistry. 2010 Mar 23;49(11):2454-63. doi: 10.1021/bi1001085. PMID: 20155952; PMCID: PMC2853368. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2853368/

(Tyagi, Santiago, 2018) Tyagi, P., Santiago, C. New features in MEK retinopathy. BMC Ophthalmol 18 (Suppl 1), 221 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12886-018-0861-8 https://bmcophthalmol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12886-018-0861-8