Two weeks ago, I underwent emergency surgery to repair an extensive “macula-off” retinal detachment in my right eye.
The surgical repair was substantial: a scleral buckle around the outside of the eye, vitrectomy to remove the vitreous and relieve traction, drainage of the fluid underneath the retina, extensive laser treatment, and a long-lasting C3F8 gas bubble to provide internal support while the retina heals.
At my first postoperative examination, the most important news was also the simplest: the retina was attached and looked good.
I’ve now finished the “face-down” positioning phase. The scleral buckle remains in place, the laser-induced adhesions continue to mature, and the C3F8 bubble is gradually shrinking while providing temporary internal tamponade.
In other words, the surgeons have done the structural work – Now the underlying biology and biochemistry get their turn.
Here is the video on YT = https://youtu.be/Of_5m7P947g
Surgery repairs structure. Biology restores function.
This distinction has become one of the most fascinating parts of this experience for me.
Surgery can physically return the retina to its proper location, but that doesn’t mean normal vision immediately returns. My macula was detached, meaning the photoreceptors responsible for detailed central vision were separated from their normal relationship with the retinal pigment epithelium, or RPE, and the underlying choroidal circulation. Those tissues now have to recover.
At the same time, my eye is healing from the surgery itself. Inflammation needs to occur without becoming excessive. Cellular membranes need to be maintained and remodeled. Damaged tissues need to repair. Antioxidant systems need to manage oxidative stress. New proteins and extracellular matrix need to be synthesized.
And the nervous system eventually has to make sense of the changing visual information coming from the recovering eye.
That raises an obvious question for a nutritional biochemist: Can I create a better biochemical environment for all of that healing to occur?
The answer requires some restraint.
There is no supplement protocol proven to restore vision after a macula-off retinal detachment. No combination of DHA, carotenoids, collagen, antioxidants or peptides substitutes for retinal surgery.
What we can do – is make sure the fundamental nutritional and physiological requirements for normal tissue repair aren’t limiting.
That’s the approach I’m taking – and I think about it in three categories:
What we KNOW. What is biologically PLAUSIBLE. And what I’m personally DOING.
Here is what that currently looks like – and here is the full protocol on FullScript (except for the zenith/zephyr, the Olivino, and the TG3 Multi – which have their own links below) = https://us.fullscript.com/s/doctalbott/shop/plans/TXVsdGlQYXRpZW50UGxhbi0xODgyOTc=
1. DHA: supporting retinal cell membranes
What I’m taking: OmegAvail Ultra DHA (Designs for Health)
DHA is particularly interesting because the retina is one of the most DHA-rich tissues in the human body. DHA is highly concentrated in the outer-segment membranes of photoreceptors, where membrane composition is intimately related to normal photoreceptor function.
I’m taking OmegAvail Ultra DHA, which provides approximately 500 mg of DHA plus 100 mg of EPA per softgel.
My rationale isn’t that supplemental DHA has been demonstrated to make a surgically reattached retina heal faster. We don’t have that evidence.
I’m thinking more fundamentally: if retinal membranes are undergoing recovery and remodeling, I want to make certain that DHA availability isn’t a nutritional bottleneck.
EPA also provides precursors for lipid mediators involved in the resolution of inflammation. That’s another important distinction. Healthy recovery doesn’t mean eliminating inflammation. Inflammation is an essential part of tissue repair. The objective is an appropriately coordinated inflammatory response followed by resolution.
2. Macular carotenoids: supporting the tissue that was injured
What I’m taking: ProMacular Defense (Nordic Naturals)
My detachment was particularly consequential because it involved the macula, the specialized region responsible for detailed central vision.
The macula contains unusually high concentrations of three dietary carotenoids: lutein, zeaxanthin and meso-zeaxanthin. Collectively they form macular pigment.
ProMacular Defense gives me all three, with 12mg lutein, 10mg meso-zeaxanthin and 2mg zeaxanthin, along with 2mg astaxanthin.
Macular carotenoids absorb high-energy blue light and participate in the antioxidant defense system of retinal tissue. The retina has an unusually demanding biochemical environment: very high oxygen consumption, abundant polyunsaturated fatty acids and continual exposure to light.
Again, there is an important scientific boundary here.
Macular carotenoids have substantial evidence supporting normal macular biology, but that isn’t the same as demonstrating that taking additional carotenoids improves recovery after retinal-detachment surgery.
For me, this falls into the category of making sure the nutritional environment is favorable while the tissue does its own healing.
3. Protein and collagen: supplying construction materials
What I’m taking: Whole Body Collagen (Designs for Health) and SPORT Plant-Based Protein (Garden of Life)
Healing requires raw materials.
Protein provides amino acids for enzymes, receptors, structural proteins, extracellular matrix and countless other components involved in tissue remodeling.
I’m using Designs for Health Whole Body Collagen, providing approximately 12.5 grams of specific collagen peptides (SCPs), including substantial amounts of glycine, proline and hydroxyproline in the form of branded and research-backed peptides including FortiGel/FortiBone/Verisol).
I’m not taking collagen because I expect collagen peptides to somehow migrate into my retina and repair it.
The rationale is broader = I just underwent significant surgery involving the sclera, conjunctiva and other ocular tissues in addition to the retinal repair. Collagen-rich connective tissues are undergoing remodeling, and adequate total protein and amino-acid availability are basic prerequisites for wound healing. The SPORT protein blend is 22-44 grams (one or two scoops) from a combination of pea, navy bean, lentil bean, garbanzo bean (chickpea), and cranberry seed).
These supplements complements rather than replaces my dietary protein intake.
4. Micronutrients: nutritional insurance during repair
What I’m taking: TG3 Multi (TruGen3) = https://trugen3.com/product/tg3-multi/
Tissue repair is metabolically expensive.
Cell division, mitochondrial energy production, antioxidant enzymes, immune activity, collagen synthesis, methylation and protein synthesis all depend upon vitamins and minerals.
My TG3 Multi serves primarily as nutritional insurance.
I’m not trying to megadose individual nutrients. I’m trying to make micronutrient insufficiency unlikely during a period when metabolic demands associated with healing may be elevated.
The formula also supplies additional carotenoids, including lutein, zeaxanthin and astaxanthin, which complement the more targeted macular formula.
5. Polyphenols: managing oxidative and inflammatory balance
What I’m taking: Olivino Essential = https://olivinolife.com
This is where terminology matters.
I’m not trying to suppress oxidation and inflammation.
Both are normal components of healing.
Reactive oxygen species function as signaling molecules. Inflammatory cells participate in clearing damaged tissue and coordinating repair. Trying to indiscriminately eliminate either process would make little biological sense.
What interests me instead is balance and resolution.
Olivino provides a spectrum of plant bioactives, including olive and grape polyphenols, resveratrol and tomato-derived carotenoids.
These compounds are interesting because polyphenols interact with endogenous antioxidant-defense systems, vascular biology and inflammatory signaling rather than simply functioning as molecular sponges that mop up every free radical they encounter.
That’s much closer to how I think about recovery: supporting signaling and resilience rather than trying to shut normal biology down.
6. Peptides and cellular signaling
What I’m taking: ProgenaLen Pro Peptide (Designs for Health)
This is probably the most experimental component of what I’m doing.
ProgenaLen Pro Peptide contains IMG-1, a peptide ingredient I’m using as part of a broader strategy around cellular signaling, metabolic health and inflammatory balance.
I don’t know that this will improve retinal recovery – but there are interesting mechanistic reasons to investigate peptide signaling in tissue recovery, but I’m deliberately putting this in my biologically plausible rather than clinically established category.
Personal experimentation becomes much more useful when we’re explicit about the difference between something supported by direct clinical evidence and something we’re trying because its mechanism is interesting and its risk appears reasonable.
7. Stress resilience and sleep: supporting the recovery environment
What I’m taking: zenith during the day and zephyr at night = https://3waveswellness.com
These aren’t primarily eye supplements – they’re recovery-environment supplements.
I’m using zenith during the day to support stress resilience, gut-brain signaling and metabolic balance. After emergency surgery, disrupted routines, dramatically reduced physical activity and uncertainty about visual recovery, managing physiological stress is part of the larger recovery picture.
At night, I’m using zephyr to support something even more fundamental: SLEEP
Sleep is one of the most powerful recovery interventions available to us. During sleep, endocrine, immune, metabolic and neural processes shift toward patterns associated with restoration and repair.
Zephyr contains ingredients aimed at sleep onset, sleep continuity and sleep quality, along with 3 grams of glycine.
I don’t expect better sleep to magically reattach retinal cells – but I DO expect good sleep to provide a more favorable whole-body environment in which normal healing can occur.
The foundation isn’t in the supplement cabinet – and there’s often a risk whenever we talk about supplements that the bottles become the story. They’re not.
My actual recovery program is much less glamorous:
Sleep. Hydration. Adequate calories and protein. Fruits and vegetables. Omega-3-rich foods. Moderate movement as permitted by my retinal team. Stress management. Following postoperative restrictions. And patience. The supplements sit on top of that foundation.
And there are some things I’m deliberately not doing yet, including aggressive exercise, heavy lifting, sauna and other interventions that impose significant physiological stress while the eye is still in the early stages of healing.
That’s another principle worth remembering: More isn’t always better during recovery.
Sometimes the most anabolic thing you can do is get out of biology’s way.
From structural repair to biochemical recovery
This brings me back to the larger idea behind The Connected Brain.
My retinal surgeon restored the anatomy. But visual recovery requires an enormous network of biological relationships to re-establish themselves: photoreceptors interacting with the RPE, cellular membranes maintaining the right lipid composition, mitochondria producing energy, circulation delivering oxygen and nutrients, inflammatory pathways coordinating repair, antioxidant systems maintaining redox balance, retinal neurons processing signals and eventually the brain interpreting those signals.
No single supplement controls that process. No single cell controls it either. Recovery emerges from the connection, coordination and coherence of the entire system.
That’s why I’m less interested in asking:
“What supplement heals a retina?” – And much more interested in asking: “What biological conditions allow healing to proceed as effectively as possible?”
Right now, that’s the experiment.
The surgeons restored the connection. Now biology and biochemical balance get their turn.
