Can Vitamin D improve your eyesight?

Young Brisbane adults aged between 18 and 25 are invited to participate in a QUT study into the role vitamin D plays in how accurate your eyes are at focussing near and far.

Chih Huang Yang, a PhD student in QUT's School of Optometry, is hoping to attract 60 men and women to his project before the end of October and is offering $10 gift vouchers as an incentive to those who do sign up.

"I am looking for people that are both short-sighted and normally-sighted who can come to our Ophthalmic Laboratory at QUT's Kelvin Grove Campus for at least one 50-minute visit. If they are eligible, another visit will be required," said Mr Yang.

"I need young adults aged 18-25 because that is when our eyes are at their prime level of health and most reactive to experimentation like this.

"The aim of the study is to help increase the understanding of the impact of vitamin D levels on the accommodative function/refraction of the eyes; in other words how well our eyes focus on different distances.

"The initial visit will assess whether the participant in question has suitable levels of vitamin D already and also the right sort of eye function.

"If so they will be required to take 1000 IU vitamin D tablet/daily for 60 days and then return for another assessment visit during which they will have a series of eye tests.

"These include biometric ocular measures using a special instrument which the measures the eye's axial length, central corneal (of the eye's front surface) thickness, corneal refractive power, retinal (light sensing layer) thickness, and pupil size."

Mr Yang said other tests will check on how accurate a participant's eyes can focus at distances of 40, 33, and 25cm as well as the limit their eyes can increase and decrease the focus ability.

"Most of these assessments are routinely used to evaluate the accommodative functions of the eye during eye examinations that many people experience throughout their life. Any discomfort will be very minimal if not non-existant," Mr Yang said.