Studies show the benefits of the flower-derived spice.

Recent clinical studies show vision-enhancing benefits of saffron, ProHealth reports. 
 
In recent studies, patients experienced improvement in vision, measured by the ability to see an average of two additional lines on the eye chart commonly used by physicians to test vision. 

Saffron has been shown to protect and prevent the steady breakdown of light-sensitive cells in the center of the retina, the macula. This addresses the root cause of age-related macular degeneration. 

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"I don't really see it as a disability."

Ashlee Thao is a senior at Shawnee Mission South High School in Kansas City, Kansas.

She's also standout musician, playing both the piano and violin, KSMS TV reports.

"Playing the piano and playing the violin can still be extremely visual," Ashlee says. In fact, being blind "amplifies what I am doing."

Ashlee lost her vision to cataracts at the age of 6 months. 

"I don't really see it as a disability," she told KSMS. "I see it, like I said, as a tool."
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Her orchestra teacher agrees. "She's one of the hardest workers that I have ever met," he said.

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Chung Hyeon beats Novak Djokovic, advances to quarterfinals in Australian Open.

Chung Hyeon started playing tennis after a doctor recommended that the green court might help his weak eyesight.

He is now savoring the biggest win of his career against 12-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic, AFP reports.

His trademark thick white-rimmed glasses have earned him the nickname "the Professor."

He models his game on Djokovic, who is his idol, and it paid off on Monday.

Chung is the first player from South Korea to reach the last eight of a Grand Slam.

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Documentary 'Deaf Jam' tells her story.

Deaf Jam is the story of Aneta Brodski's journey into the spoken word slam scene.

Aneta, an Israeli immigrant living in the Queens section of New York City, eventually meets Tahani, a hearing Palestinian slam poet.

The two women embark on a collaboration, creating a new form of slam poetry that speaks to both the hearing and the Deaf.

You can see the trailer here.

Still, there are ways to make charitable donations count.

If you're a middle-class taxpayer, the new tax law passed by Congress​ last year may make it harder for you to support your favorite charities.

That's because the standard deduction has nearly doubled, from $6,350 to $12,000.  For many taxpayers, it may no longer make sense to itemize their deductions -- and that means they may not get a tax break for their charitable contributions.

But there are still a couple of ways to make charitable donations count. In an interview on NPR's 'Marketplace,' Washington Post columnist Allan Sloan offered a couple of suggestions.

Taxpayers over the age of 70 1/2 who have retirement funds are required to take some money out of those funds: the "required minimum distribution." And that money is taxable.

But Sloan suggests that they instruct the fund administrator to divert some of that money directly to their favorite charities. That reduces the amount that's taxed, effectively giving the taxpayer a break.

If you're not old enough to take advantage of this strategy (or if you don't have a retirement account),  Sloan offers the alternative of a donor-advised fund.

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(Sorry, coffee doesn't work.)

A small study published online in the British Journal of Ophthalmology reveals that enjoying “a spot of tea” may help lower your risk of developing glaucoma by 74 percent, Reader's Digest reports.

Researchers reviewed data from health and diet questionnaires of 1,678 people who participated in a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in the United States. Participants were asked about their caffeinated and decaffeinated drinking habits over a 12-month period.

When comparing the data for those who drank caffeinated tea daily to those who did not, it turned out the daily tea drinkers had a lower risk of developing the disease. However, there were no benefits to consuming iced tea, decaffeinated tea, coffee, or soda.

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With cochlear implants, some children still lag behind.

Cochlear implants have improved language learning in deaf children since being approved by the FDA in 1991, but some still lag behind their normal hearing peers.

Now researchers are hoping to bridge that gap with the help of a new tool. In a recent study, brain MRIs were able to predict language learning in deaf children after they received a cochlear implant, Chicago Tonight reports.

Scientists used brain MRIs of normal hearing and deaf children to capture abnormal patterns in children with hearing loss before they received cochlear implants.

The MRIs were used to construct a machine-learning algorithm to predict language development, according to Patrick C. M. Wong, a cognitive neuroscientist, professor and director of the Brain and Mind Institute at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

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