B12 is important for eyesight.

There are approx. 40 million blind people in the world today.

The lowest estimate I've seen of vegans is that 0,2% of all people are vegans. I don't think this includes all the lacto-vegetarians that have a problem with lactose and therefore live on a vegan or near-vegan diet without calling themselves vegans, or people who eat vegan food but don't call themselves vegans, but even with only 0,2% vegans, there are 13 million vegans in the world today, most of them in Asia.

According to Wikipedia, 0.6% of the world population were blind in 2002. How many blind vegans would that be, with 13 million vegans in the world - if the rate between blind a nd non-blind people would be the same in vegans as in other people? 78,000 blind vegans. Most of them in Asia.

Blindness is also more widespread among elderly people. Between 50 and 60% of all blind people are above 65 years old. In other words - as we know - a lot of people aren't born blind, but they go blind at some point in life. According to this source, 'some 100 Filipino children go blind every week because of poor nutrition, sickness or as a result of premature births'.

There are 1.3 million people in USA with 'legal blindness' in 1994-1995. If 0.2% of the people who were born blind or became blind were vegans, that would be 2600 blind vegans in US alone (actually more, since there are more people in USA now than it was in 1995). Believe me: if 2600 children of vegan mothers/vegans would have gone blind or been born in USA, we would have heard about it!


Why don't we hear about all the 78,000 blind vegans? Where are they? Maybe they don't exist? If the number of people who go blind or are born blind are lower for vegans (seen in relation to the total number of vegans) than for the average population, that's good news for the vegan diet.

Of course vegans can go blind too, and of course we should eat healthy and ensure we get enough B12.

Most visual impairment is caused by disease and malnutrition - again according to Wikipedia. The problem is that if/when someone stumble upon across vegan who goes blind, it will most likely be reported in some medical journal mentioning his diet, while most meat eaters who go blind or are born blind will not end up in a report with the title 'Meat eater lost his eyesight'.

There was actually one guy, a vegan, who lost his eyesight in 2000. He ended up in The New England Journal of Medicine:

B12 Deficit May Cause Blindness

PARIS--Published in the March 23 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, a 33-year-old man became blind after 11 years as a vegan, a diet consisting of no animal or fish proteins, eggs or milk. It was found that the man's plasma levels of folate, B1 and B12 were low, as well as his levels of vitamins A, C, D, and E. It has been noted that a vitamin B12 deficiency in vegetarians may cause neurologic disturbances, and deficiencies of both B12 and B1 may be responsible for optic neuropathy. The optic neuropathy in this patient was apparently related to these as well as other deficiencies.

The man did not smoke or drink alcohol, and his medical history did not show a genetic predisposition for blindness. For more information, visit www.nejm.com.
I won't comment this report, because it's already been done by several others, eg. here:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...19/ai_65229540
VRG DIETITIAN REVIEWS NEJM LETTER TO THE EDITOR ABOUT BLINDNESS IN VEGANS

French physicians recently contacted the New England Journal of Medicine to report a case of a 33-year-old male vegan who had become irreversibly blind because of damage to his optic nerves. Their report was published in the form of a letter to the editor entitled "Blindness in a Strict Vegan." They attributed the blindness to vitamin deficiencies due to the man's vegan diet, specifically to deficiencies of vitamin [B.sub.12] and thiamin. The man also had deficiencies of folate, vitamins A, C, D, and E, zinc, and selenium. Unfortunately, due to space requirements, more information about the man's diet was not provided in the letter. Apparently the man was not following a typical vegan diet. Vegan diets are generally quite high in folate, vitamin A, and vitamin C mainly from fruits and vegetables, and contain adequate amounts of thiamin and vitamin E, so deficiencies of these nutrients would not be expected.

Certainly, all vegans should choose reliable sources of all nutrients, including vitamin [B.sub.12]. We do not know if this vegan was choosing foods and supplements which are reliable sources of vitamin [B.sub.12]. Additional information about his dietary habits is critical to the research into the true cause of his blindness. It is inaccurate to simply attribute his blindness to a vegan diet.
...or on vegan.com - here.

I think I've seen one other case of eye-problems that apparently was associated with a vegan diet (from the mid-80s), but this vegan wasn't eating fruit or vegetables, only pulses, a diet I've never seen recommended or mentioned by anyone, and definitely not a diet normal for vegans.


If the estimated numbers of vegans are right, and if vegans go blind at the same rate as non-vegans, there are still almost 80.000 blind vegans that to my knowledge have not been reported or mentioned anywhere (It won't surprise me if a handful of other report exist, though). I don't know if the French case above was related not getting enough nutrients, but whatever the reason was for his blindness, it's sad that nothing was done early enough to avoid it.