MacuGuard Ocular Support
Positives
- No dead weight
- Excellent ingredient selection
- Huge dose of saffron!
Negatives
- Not enough anthocyanidins for us
- Uses a prop blend - although less of a problem than with other stacks
MacuGuard Ocular Support Review Summary
All things considered, Life Extension MacuGuard is a damn good vision booster. This review focused on the ‘Ocular Support with Saffron & Astaxanthin’ variant. We believe that this is the definitive version of this extremely popular supplement. They released the original MacuGuard, then a version with Saffron, and now a version with Saffron and Astaxanthin. We don’t see why anybody would buy the older, now redundant versions when this potent stack is available.
MacuGuard contains excellent natural vision enhancers. There’s no dead weight, and the doses are very good. It utilizes saffron; something which very few eye sight boosters do because of the expense involved. The only thing we would improve is the Blackcurrant extract doses. However, this is really splitting hairs. On the whole, this is a solid stack capable of doing everything it says on the bottle!
Where To Buy Life Extension MacuGuard Ocular Support
You can pick this stuff up direct from the Life Extension online store. We always recommend buying direct.
Detailed MacuGuard Ocular Support Review
‘MacuGuard Ocular Support with Saffron & Astaxanthin’ is how this stack is formally known. However, since this version is just the original MacuGuard with two extra ingredients added, we will just refer to it as MacuGuard for the purposes of this review.
After all, MacuGuard has clearly been a work in progress, so we think it is safe to take this stack as the ‘final product’.
To kick things off, who are Life Extension?
These guys are fairly big players in the supplement industry, although most people will have never heard of them. Their online store lists a huge number of products; not all of them their own.
They have a magazine, a newsletter, a loyalty program, and an ever-growing range of products from omega-3 tablets to anti-aging formulas.
So what about MacuGuard Ocular Support?
What is this vision enhancer supposed to do exactly?
In case the name itself wasn’t enough of a giveaway, the primary purpose of this stack is to protect the macula from degradation. Most of you will know how important the macula is for visual performance. Acute Macular Degeneration is one of the leading, preventable causes of blindness.
Many people experience some degree of macular degeneration over the course of their life. As the macula acts as a kind of ‘internal filter’ for harmful blue light, this is quite serious.
Strenghtening the macula, and increasing the macular pigment’s density, has been shown to significantly improve eye sight in numerous ways, as well as decreasing the risk of developing conditions such as AMD, cataracts, and more.
The Life Extension MacuGuard Ocular Support merchant page gives us a more concise overview of all the benefits users can expect from this stack:
- Comprehensive ocular nutrition in a single softgel
- Contains lutein, two forms of zeaxanthin, and phospholipid compounds
- Enhanced with astaxanthin to help fight eye fatigue
- Promotes absorption and concentration of lutein nutrient
- Contains berry flavonoids to support night vision
- Provides an optimal dose of saffron to support healthy vision
That’s a really great list of benefits.
It hits all of the bases that users might be interested in: eye fatigue, night vision, eye health – that’s pretty much everything we think 99% of people could possibly want from a vision enhancer.
Whether you’re a programmer, designer, pro-gamer, golfer, athlete, or someone who wants to protect their eye sight going forward, then this stack seems to have something for you.
The question is – does it really work?
Can Life Extension MacuGuard Ocular Support really do all of these things?
How well does it work? Can it compete with the best vision enhancers on the market today?
Is it safe for long term use? What are the main side effect risks?
Read our full review below to find out. We start off by putting the formula under the micro-scope. We examine the ingredients, the doses, and the known risks. We will finish off by telling you our final verdict on this product; is it right for you or not? Please post all questions and requests in the comments section at the end. We aim to reply within 48 hours.
MacuGuard Ocular Support Formula
Check out the MacuGuard formula:
That is a very good formula on the whole.
We’re immediately struck by the quality of the ingredients in MacuGuard.
There’s no dead weight here at all. Every ingredient contributes to improved vision and eye health in some way. Everything has a role to play.
Many supplements fill their stacks with ingredients that look great on paper; like they’ll really promote good overall health. But if you’re in the market for a vision enhancer, chances are you don’t want an overall health supp – you want something that will actually boost visual performance.
Life Extension MacuGuard exclusively contains ingredients that contribute to better eye health and performance – and that’s a serious benefit in this market.
There is a proprietary blend in the formula.
However, the important ingredients all have their serving sizes next to them, such that we can extrapolate the remaining ingredients’ serving sizes – not exactly, but good enough.
Let’s go through the main strengths and weaknesses of this stack before moving on to the main side effect risks.
Main Strengths
- No dead weight
- High quality ingredients
- Good doses
As we said above, one thing that immediately jumps out at us here is the exclusive use of proven, effective vision enhancers. Unlike so many vision supplements on the market today, there is no dead weight whatsoever.
That means that you are only paying for ingredients that contribute to the goal stated right on the front of the bottle. Many stacks throw in lots of other ingredients, like green tea extract or CoQ10, because they think it makes the stack more extensive. These ingredients sound like they contribute to better overall health, and that’s great, but they don’t contribute to better vision.
We like to minimize the number of substances we take per day, and we don’t want to pay for anything that doesn’t help us reach our goals.
So we really don’t like surplus ingredients, even if they do make the stack appear ‘healthier’.
Life Extension MacuGuard Ocular Support doesn’t indulge in ingredient stuffing. We just get vision enhancer and substances that support good eye health.
The quality of the ingredients used is also worth mentioning.
MacuGuard provides a massive 20mg of Saffron per serving. Saffron is not used anywhere near often enough in today’s vision supplements.
It is incredibly expensive by weight, but that shouldn’t deter so many manufacturers. Saffron has many potential benefits, from improving retina light sensitivity to protecting your eye from free radical damage.
Supplementing with saffron has been shown to improve long term macular function in people with AMD, as well as improving visual acuity in the short term.
That’s pretty impressive for a humble spice.
The dose provided by MacuGuard is way more than we really need to see benefits. 20mg has been used in several studies, but there is no indication that this much is necessary to see good results. Life Extension have really gone overboard here, which is great to see!
Main Weaknesses
- That proprietary blend is still problematic
- Not enough anthocyanidins for our liking
These two weaknesses are not enough to make this a poor supplement. They are not serious enough to really put anybody off taking this stack. They simply separate this vision enhancer from the best of the best.
It is a bit of a stretch to consider imperfection a weakness, but that’s how these things work!
Anyway, the use of a proprietary blend still troubles us a lot.
We are told the amount of Lutein and Zeaxanthin that we get in each serving, which is good. This is much better than simply telling us that we get AN amount of these ingredients in a blend. Since these two substances really have a minimum effective dose, we do need to know how much we’re getting.
But the proprietary blend still obfuscates how large the phospholipid serving is, as well as how much of the ‘mixed carotenoids’ we get from each serving of MacuGuard Ocular Support.
We aren’t even told what these ‘mixed carotenoids’ constitute exactly.
We really value transparency on this site. No supplement that fails to reveal every single ingredient dosage and composition will ever be our number one recommended product for its category.
That is a simple rule we laid down when we started this site, and we have no intention of breaking it here.
That is a real shame, because if MacuGuard Ocular Support revealed these aspects of the formula in more detail, it would be in with a shot of being our top rated vision enhancer.
As it stands though, this small area of uncertainty is enough to make us think twice about this otherwise great stack.
We also need to mention the small Blackcurrant Extract serving.
Many top quality vision boosters will use a mix of berry extracts – the best will typically use a combination of Bilberry, Blackcurrant and Raspberry extracts.
They provide these in large doses because of the range of substances these extracts give us. One of the most important is a group of plant pigments called anthocyanins.
Now, the Blackcurrant Extract in MacuGuard Ocular Support is just a concentrated anthocyanin – 2mg of cyanin-3-glucoside, to be precise.
That is to be commended; we like purity and precision.
However, things like Bilberry and Blackcurrant contain huge amounts of different anthocyanins as well as anti-oxidants. We want all of these compounds – as much as possible in fact – to get the most bang for our buck.
So rather than a single substance extracted from blackcurrant, we would actually much rather see a full spectrum blackcurrant extract standardized to provide a certain number of anthocyanins.
A blend of Blackcurrant, Bilberry, and perhaps another anthocyanin and anti-oxidant rich berry would be perfect.
Life Extension have tried to put in as much effort as possible here, and that is to be commended.
But the stack would be better if they’d just stuck to the basics and used a full spectrum extract.
-Does Lutein Really Improve Vision & Prevent AMD?-
Final Verdict – MacuGuard Ocular Support – Yes or No?
This is a solid vision support supplement overall.
It doesn’t contain any real dead weight, no nasty synthetic drugs, or potent stimulants.
It exclusively uses natural substances known to improve visual acuity, prevent macular degeneration, and support good eye health and functionality throughout life.
The ingredients are all of high quality, and they cover a lot of bases.
There are things that we would improve, however.
We would not use such a limited Blackcurrant Extract – a full spectrum extract with a much larger dose is best. Ideally we’d see a number of extracts providing different anthocyanins, anti-oxidants, and polyphenols.
Just 2mg of a specific anthocyanin is not really good enough in today’s market, even though we do appreciate the precision and parsimony.
We would also refrain from using a proprietary blend.
While Life Extension get away with it better than most – they’re clearly not using it to hide something unsavory – it still puts us off spending money on MacuGuard Ocular Support. There’s really no need for it and it really does spoil an otherwise brilliant vision enhancer.
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I came here to see if there were any adverse side effects to life extension macuguard.
While you didn’t really address side effects, I’m assuming that none are known. I have an unrealistic fear of taking any new supplement or medication so before I put the first one in my mouth I want to be sure that it’s safe.
Hi Debbie. Life Extension Macuguard looks safe to us. But the only person who can really allay your fears is a medical professional. Talk to your regular physician before using any new supplements; that way you can proceed without any anxiety.
Hi there, I just wanted to add in that I have tried and used Life Extensions Macuguard, but before they added saffron to the mix. I used it because the doctors wanted to inject a steroid in my eyes to get the retinal swelling down in the back in the shot would have increased my glaucoma. I tried this on a Thursday and went to the doctors on a Monday and he let me know that the swelling went down by 200 points! I was super impressed, in this, as well as the feedback from the woman at the health food store whose husband’s macular degeneration stopped entirely while using this. My theory is it must be the phospholipids because lutein alone has not done this for me.
You’re right, I wish there was more label transparency with Macuguard because I never would have thought of trying it if it wasn’t recommended at the health food store. to me not knowing the concentrations of things made me think it could be a weak product that was just there to take up shelf space. after trying it, I was amazed at the amount of research this company does and have read more on their sites and their catalogs. There were no. Negative side effects I were aware of other than the fact that, I am vegetarian so I bit into the gel cap to extract it, now that was nasty tasting but my eye is more important (I’m thinking the saffron will help the taste now). I am sensitive to saffron, and if you know of another vision support supplement that has been reported to do something similar, I would be super grateful as all of these have switched over to add saffron.
While I’m sure the benefits are saffron are well-researched, my uveitis reacts so it would actually increase retinal swelling as is my experience with things I’m sensitive to. right now my retina is swollen because my immune system I talked it after eye surgery and it has not gone down since.