Why personalized supplementation makes sense

In talking about regulations in my last post, I briefly also went over the development process for a new product in general. This week I want to go into a little more depth about that process by discussing how we produced one of our most popular products, Eye Max.

I typically try to stick to the maxim “less is more” in my life, but with our flagship Eye Max we went the other way at Setu, and—if I may so myself—we outdid ourselves just a little bit.

Our eyes don’t get nearly enough love or care, particularly in the work-from-home, Zoom call age. We challenged our scientists to work on a best-in-class eye supplement that will help combat the consequences of this dramatic and rapid increase in screen usage; one that prevents damage, relieves symptoms of strain, and also provides long term protection.

We often take our eyes for granted, which is worrying because they are often our primary source of sensory information. In a world where there are few professions that allow us to avoid screens at all, it’s vital we do what we can do to keep our eyes healthy, and if possible, make them even sharper and robust.

With that, we go back to the drawing board, so that we can pull back the curtains and show you how we came up with Eye Max.

We started with this question or problem statement: “What are the primary concerns related to eye health today?,” and came up with the following answers, in summary:

• Long term damage to your visual function
• Sensitivity to light and an inability to focus for long periods
• Visual fatigue and floaters, or the sensation of foreign objects moving across the eye
• Dryness, redness and irritation

The problems were clear, and our biochemists then spent hours poring over scientific literature to find the right ingredients to fight all of the above problems. Fortunately for us, they dug deep and found powerful pals to help fuel the fight back against blue light.

The stars of the show are Lutein and Zeaxanthin, sourced and extracted from the deep orange petals of the vibrant genda phool, or marigold. They are potent antioxidants that live and deposit themselves in the back of your eye, forming a protective layer against the high-energy rays of blue light. 20mg of those in there on a regular schedule, and you’re well on your way to better visual function and long term protection. Research also shows that both ingredients help improve your focus and reaction time by increasing the rate at which your brain processes new visual information. So that’s protection AND better daily performance in the bag.

On to the symptoms of visual strain, the dreaded floaters. They are those little disturbing particles that often float past your range of vision, the little dark squiggles that make you think there’s something moving around inside your cornea. In reality, there almost never is. Your eyes are so tired from all that Netflix that they’re sending you a signal of their tiredness. Our proprietary extract of Bilberry, a powerful little berry from the deep wilderness of Northern Europe, fights these signals. It reduces inflammation within the eye, significantly reducing the prospect of fatigue and floaters.

Finally now, addressing dryness. Exposure to screens for long durations with extreme focus and limited blinking can cause sustained dryness. And boy, does it get annoying—have you ever woken up hoping to feel rested but then felt like your eyes were on fire? That’s because they’re not nearly lubricated enough! Eye drops won’t actually do you much good in this situation either, because they’re loaded with hypromellose, a synthetic polymer that can gradually cause dependency and increase long-term dryness.

We looked deep and went rogue on addressing this one, having found a scary sounding but scientifically-proven partner: N-Acetyl Glucosamine. It’s a natural sugar-based derivative and acts as a precursor to Hyaluronic Acid—a potent lubricator of the surface membranes in the body (where it’s used in skincare) and your eyes too!

That’s all those concerns checked off the list, all in one product. It’s a little remarkable, don’t you think? Thank scientists. Good science requires patience, diligence, years of accumulated knowledge and some investigation. At Setu, our team looks at each problem we try to solve holistically—every benefit is broken down into its own problem statement, and we identify a single, clinically-valid nutrient with the right mechanism of action to help resolve it. That makes sense, correct? Go on then, GIVE IT A TRY.