#823: Dr. Jeffrey Goldberg — Creating Supranormal Vision, Cutting-Edge Science for Eye Health, Supplements, Red Light Therapy, and The Future of Eyesight Restoration

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4.6 • 17.4K Ratings

🗓️ 20 August 2025

⏱️ 105 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dr. Jeffrey Goldberg is Professor and Chair of Ophthalmology and Director of the Byers Eye Institute at Stanford University, a leading scientist in the development and degeneration of the visual system from eye to brain, and a practicing ophthalmologist and surgeon.

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Timestamps:

[00:00:00] Start.

[00:05:30] How do you solve a problem like presbyopia?

[00:08:34] The athletic benefits of training supranormal (better than 20/20) vision.

[00:11:49] Indigenous eye drops and FDA-approved pilocarpine for presbyopia.

[00:14:05] Understanding basic eye anatomy.

[00:17:27] Exploring AREDS 2, CoQ10, ginkgo, vitamin B3, and other supplements for vision.

[00:23:00] Visual training devices and psychedelic-prompted brain plasticity.

[00:25:12] Thoughts on visual training effectiveness and motor action requirements.

[00:28:29] Concussion rehabilitation and visual perception exercises.

[00:32:36] Red light and violet light therapy for myopia and mitochondrial health.

[00:36:07] Vision loss correlation with cognitive decline and depression.

[00:39:36] Presbyopia progression and psychological dependence on readers.

[00:41:15] Cognito Therapeutics headset for Alzheimer's treatment.

[00:46:46] Glaucoma basics: neurodegenerative disease and risk factors.

[00:48:53] Eye pressure variability and diurnal cycles.

[00:50:02] Cannabis effects on eye pressure and compound isolation.

[00:51:47] Stem cell research for vision restoration.

[00:53:09] Anti-inflammatory effects and immune system role in eye diseases.

[00:55:15] Gut microbiome connection to glaucoma in animal models.

[00:58:43] Metabolic syndrome and GLP-1 receptor agonists.

[01:00:50] Microbiome sharing and future therapeutic possibilities.

[01:03:31] Dry eye treatment: preservative-free tears and serum drops.

[01:08:43] Vision screening recommendations and UV protection.

[01:11:22] Full-spectrum light benefits vs. UV exposure.

[01:13:27] Paradigm shifts: irreversible vision loss becoming reversible.

[01:17:18] Convergence of neuroscience advances and biotech investment.

[01:21:58] Miraculous mitochondria: health, transplants, and three-parent babies.

[01:26:24] My family history concerns and metabolic health screening.

[01:29:26] Exercise's biggest gain: going from none to some.

[01:33:03] Clinical trial participation resources and parting thoughts.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs. This is Tim Ferriss. Welcome to another episode of the
0:04.3	Tim Ferriss show. This episode is deeply personal because, as someone who is now in his late
0:09.8	40s, my eyes have started to go for the first time. I've always had 2010 vision, and this is
0:15.4	unacceptable for me. So I spoke to everyone I knew, and good old Andrew Huberman saw a post that I put up,
0:24.1	texted me, said the person you need to talk to is Dr. Jeffrey Goldberg. So guess who my guest
0:29.1	is today? Dr. Jeffrey Goldberg, professor and chair of ophthalmology and director of the
0:34.3	Byers Eye Institute at Stanford University. He has a wide breadth of expertise.
0:40.5	He is a leading scientist in the development and degeneration of the visual system from eye to brain,
0:45.7	and their interventions depending on where you want to go at many points along that chain,
0:50.2	although it's more of a network, I guess, and a practicing ophthalmologist and surgeon.
0:54.8	We dive into all sorts of stuff in this episode, ranging from super performance or supernormal
1:00.6	performance, let's just say for professional athletes, if you wanted to take your vision from
1:04.7	normal or pretty good to unbelievably good for, say, competitive purposes, We talk about that. And we also talk about
1:14.2	repair and slowing the degeneration of the eye, which naturally comes with age. Dr. Goldberg's
1:21.5	research is directed at vision restoration, including neuroprotection and regeneration of the retina
1:26.4	and optic nerve, a major
1:28.2	unmet need in glaucoma and other eye diseases. And we'll define all of these terms in the
1:32.9	conversation. So don't worry. His laboratory is developing novel molecular stem cell and
1:37.1	nanotherapeutics approaches for eye repair. And he is widely recognized for translating
1:41.4	advances in the lab into clinical trials for patients. So from bench
1:46.5	to bedside in some respect. And I really enjoyed this conversation. I took a lot of notes.
1:52.1	There's a lot of actionable detail. So we'll dive right into the conversation, but first,
	...

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