What's Actually in PreserVision AREDS3

Aug 3, 20265 min readMedically reviewed

Reviewed August 2026

Five small dishes of supplement ingredients laid out on a wooden apothecary bench

"Read an eye vitamin label the way you'd read a nutrition panel - by what's missing, not just what's there." - Dr. Elena Markovic

1. The Six That Came From AREDS2

PreserVision AREDS3 has fourteen active ingredients. Six of them are the AREDS2 formula, and those six are the only part of any eye vitamin with large randomised outcome data behind it. They are unchanged apart from the zinc.

Ingredient	Dose	What it is there for
Lutein	10 mg	One of the three carotenoids the macula concentrates. The raw material your retina uses to build macular pigment.
Zeaxanthin	2 mg	The second macular carotenoid, sitting closer to the centre of the macula than lutein.
Vitamin C	500 mg	Antioxidant. Part of the original 2001 AREDS combination.
Vitamin E	180 mg	Fat-soluble antioxidant, also from the original combination.
Zinc	25 mg	The one change. AREDS and AREDS2 used 80 mg.
Copper	2 mg	Included in every AREDS formula alongside the zinc.

Lutein

Dose: 10 mg
What it is there for: One of the three carotenoids the macula concentrates. The raw material your retina uses to build macular pigment.

Zeaxanthin

Dose: 2 mg
What it is there for: The second macular carotenoid, sitting closer to the centre of the macula than lutein.

Vitamin C

Dose: 500 mg
What it is there for: Antioxidant. Part of the original 2001 AREDS combination.

Vitamin E

Dose: 180 mg
What it is there for: Fat-soluble antioxidant, also from the original combination.

Zinc

Dose: 25 mg
What it is there for: The one change. AREDS and AREDS2 used 80 mg.

Copper

Dose: 2 mg
What it is there for: Included in every AREDS formula alongside the zinc.

Now notice what is not on that list: beta-carotene.

It was in the original 2001 formula at 15 mg and was removed in AREDS2, after more lung cancers were recorded in the beta-carotene group than in the group without it - 23 cases against 11, concentrated among former smokers.

The National Eye Institute's guidance is now explicit that current and former smokers should avoid formulas containing it. That removal is the clearest, best-supported change in the entire AREDS history, and it is worth checking your own label for.

2. The Eight That Are New

The B complex, in full: thiamin (B1) 3.6 mg, riboflavin (B2) 3.9 mg, niacin (B3) 32 mg, pantothenic acid (B5) 15 mg, vitamin B6 50 mg, biotin (B7) 90 mcg, folate 1,500 mcg DFE from 900 mcg of folic acid, and vitamin B12 1,000 mcg.

The reasoning: B6, folate and B12 lower homocysteine, and higher homocysteine has been associated with macular degeneration in observational research. It is a plausible idea and a reasonable thing to add.

The evidence is thinner than the packaging suggests. It rests on one 2009 randomised trial in 5,205 women - a cardiovascular trial, in women who had no macular degeneration at the start, using 2.5 mg of folic acid, roughly 2.8 times what AREDS3 delivers.

The supporting review article was funded by Bausch + Lomb and describes the role as "emerging" and "potential."

Worth knowing rather than worth dismissing: the B vitamins in AREDS3 are a reasonable bet, not a demonstrated benefit.

3. What The Label Does Not Have

Two ingredients are absent, and both matter more for everyday eye support than for treating diagnosed macular degeneration.

Meso-zeaxanthin

The third macular carotenoid, and the one your body concentrates at the very centre of the macula - the part responsible for reading a price tag or recognising a face across a room.

Your retina makes it from lutein. For roughly one in five people, that conversion does not raise macular pigment at all, no matter how much lutein they take.

These are called retinal non-responders, and the bottleneck sits in the retina rather than in absorption: their blood levels of lutein are usually perfectly good. Taking meso-zeaxanthin directly skips the step.

Astaxanthin

A red carotenoid from algae, in none of the AREDS formulas. Its human research sits in visual comfort and eye fatigue, particularly among people spending long days on screens, rather than in macular degeneration.

In laboratory assays its singlet-oxygen quenching capacity is roughly 6,000 times that of vitamin C - though that is a test-tube measurement, not a claim about what happens in your eye.

4. Side By Side With Klaris

Per daily serving	PreserVision AREDS3	Klaris
Lutein	10 mg	10 mg
Zeaxanthin	2 mg	2 mg
Meso-zeaxanthin	None	10 mg
Astaxanthin	None	4 mg
Zinc	25 mg	25 mg, as zinc citrate
Copper	2 mg	2 mg, as copper citrate
Vitamin C	500 mg	250 mg
Vitamin E	180 mg	134 mg
B vitamins	Eight	Three: B6 as P5P, folate as L-methylfolate, B12 as methylcobalamin
Beta-carotene	None	None
Built for	People with intermediate or late AMD, on a doctor's advice	Everyday macular pigment support in people without a diagnosis

Lutein

PreserVision AREDS3: 10 mg
Klaris: 10 mg

Zeaxanthin

PreserVision AREDS3: 2 mg
Klaris: 2 mg

Meso-zeaxanthin

PreserVision AREDS3: None
Klaris: 10 mg

Astaxanthin

PreserVision AREDS3: None
Klaris: 4 mg

Zinc

PreserVision AREDS3: 25 mg
Klaris: 25 mg, as zinc citrate

Copper

PreserVision AREDS3: 2 mg
Klaris: 2 mg, as copper citrate

Vitamin C

PreserVision AREDS3: 500 mg
Klaris: 250 mg

Vitamin E

PreserVision AREDS3: 180 mg
Klaris: 134 mg

B vitamins

PreserVision AREDS3: Eight
Klaris: Three: B6 as P5P, folate as L-methylfolate, B12 as methylcobalamin

Beta-carotene

PreserVision AREDS3: None
Klaris: None

Built for

PreserVision AREDS3: People with intermediate or late AMD, on a doctor's advice
Klaris: Everyday macular pigment support in people without a diagnosis

Two honest notes on that table. Klaris carries less vitamin C and less vitamin E than the AREDS doses - it is not an AREDS2 formula and is not a substitute for one your eye doctor prescribed. And it uses fewer B vitamins, in their active forms, rather than eight.

What it adds is the third macular carotenoid and astaxanthin, neither of which appears in any AREDS formula, with zinc at 25 mg as citrate - a form that is better absorbed and gentler on the stomach than the zinc oxide most eye vitamins use.

5. Frequently Asked Questions

AREDS3 contains eight B vitamins: thiamin (B1) 3.6 mg, riboflavin (B2) 3.9 mg, niacin (B3) 32 mg, pantothenic acid (B5) 15 mg, vitamin B6 50 mg, biotin (B7) 90 mcg, folate 1,500 mcg DFE from 900 mcg of folic acid, and vitamin B12 1,000 mcg. The rationale is that B6, folate and B12 lower homocysteine, which observational research has associated with macular degeneration. The main trial behind that idea used 2.5 mg of folic acid - about 2.8 times the amount in AREDS3 - in women who did not have macular degeneration when they started. The B vitamins in AREDS3 are a reasonable hypothesis rather than a demonstrated benefit.

No. Astaxanthin is not in PreserVision AREDS3, and it was not in AREDS2 or the original AREDS formula. It is a red carotenoid from the algae Haematococcus pluvialis, and its human research base is different from lutein's: it sits mainly in visual comfort and eye fatigue, especially among people doing long screen sessions, rather than in macular degeneration. In laboratory assays its singlet-oxygen quenching capacity is roughly 6,000 times that of vitamin C, although that is a test-tube measurement and does not translate directly into an effect in the eye. Klaris includes 4 mg of astaxanthin alongside the three macular carotenoids.

Beta-carotene was removed because it was linked to a higher rate of lung cancer in smokers and former smokers. The original 2001 AREDS formula contained 15 mg of it. When the AREDS2 trial tested removing it, more lung cancers were recorded in the beta-carotene group than in the group without it - 23 cases against 11 - and the excess was concentrated among former smokers. The ten-year follow-up reinforced the finding. The National Eye Institute's guidance is now explicit: current and former smokers should take the AREDS2 formula and avoid the original formula containing beta-carotene. No current AREDS formula, including AREDS3, contains it.

Still have questions? Contact us.

6. References

Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 Research Group. Lutein + zeaxanthin and omega-3 fatty acids for age-related macular degeneration: the AREDS2 randomized clinical trial. JAMA. 2013;309(19):2005-2015.
National Eye Institute. AREDS/AREDS2 Frequently Asked Questions.
National Eye Institute. Nutritional Supplements for Age-Related Macular Degeneration.
PreserVision. AREDS3 formula information for eyecare professionals.
Christen WG, et al. Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(4):335-341.
Poteet J, Koetting C, Vakharia PS. Ophthalmol Ther. 2025.
Nolan JM, et al. CREST Report 1. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2016;57(7):3429-3439.
Nishida Y, et al. Quenching activities of common hydrophilic and lipophilic antioxidants against singlet oxygen. Carotenoid Science. 2007;11:16-20.

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About the author

Dr. Elena Markovic, MD

Neuro-ophthalmology, 20+ years in clinical practice

Dr. Markovic reviews every Klaris article for medical accuracy. Her clinical focus is age-related vision change, macular pigment and the nutrition behind both. Read Dr. Markovic’s full profile.