Vision loss and age-related macular degeneration
Feast your eyes
So I’ve been keeping an eye out (please pardon the bad pun) for studies and research reports on healthy vision, but it’s been a quiet summer on the ophthalmology front. Then I remembered a major study released last year with some excellent advice about age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Since our readership has grown a bit since the study came out, I decided it was worth revisiting. And when I did some digging to look for follow-up information about that study, I came across a simple and easy AMD test that you can easily perform at home.
As I’ve mentioned before, there are natural supplements that you can start taking today to protect your eyes against the onset of AMD. This certainly isn’t new information but it still bears repeating. In an e-Alert I sent you last October (“Study Proves Supplements can Save your Sight” 10/18/01) I told you about an exhaustive clinical trial called the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) sponsored by the National Eye Institute (NEI). For more than 8 years, researchers tracked 3,597 participants between the ages of 55 and 80 to examine the effect that antioxidant supplements have on AMD.
The e-Alert mentioned above (available on our web site) gives a full accounting of how the study was conducted, so I won’t rehash the details here. Instead I’ll move things along by going straight to the two main conclusions of the research: high levels of zinc and antioxidants were shown to significantly reduce the risk of AMD, and the same supplements (if administered in the early stages of AMD) may also significantly inhibit the total amount of vision loss that would normally be caused by advanced AMD.
The AREDS team recommended that anyone at high risk of developing AMD should consider taking the daily supplements in the same amounts used in the study. Which were as follows:
- Vitamin C – 500 mg
- Vitamin E – 400 IU
- Beta-carotene – 15 mg
- Zinc (as zinc oxide) – 80 mg
- Copper (as cupric oxide) – 2 mg
The study noted that these supplements are not a cure for AMD, and – most importantly for anyone in a high-risk group – the supplements won’t restore vision already lost from the effects of AMD.
So, who is at risk for AMD? As the name of the disorder implies, age is the primary risk factor, with people over the age of 60 being at the greatest risk. Other risk factors include sex (women are more at risk than men), smoking, and a history of immediate family members with AMD.
Doctors at the Medical Center at Duke University advise that anyone over the age of 55 – especially those who are in an additional high-risk group – should include a specific test for AMD as part of a yearly eye exam. But you don’t have to wait to schedule an appointment with your ophthalmologist or optometrist to check for macular degeneration. An organization called Prevent Blindness America has a testing section on its web site (preventblindness.org) where you can print a copy of an Amsler Grid, and then follow a few simple testing instructions. In most cases this test can reveal the early stages of AMD.
The information on the Prevent Blindness America web site makes it clear that this test is not intended to be used in place of a comprehensive eye exam. But if you’re in an AMD high-risk group, it can help confirm that a visit to the eye doctor is in order.
This is one of those e-Alerts that I hope you’ll share with friends and family members – especially those who may be past their 50th birthday. 800,000 new cases of AMD are diagnosed in the U.S. every year, but that number could be lowered considerably if everyone who’s at high risk added a few simple supplements to their regimen. So if you forward this e-Alert to, say, 10 friends, and if they forward it to another 10 people (etc., etc.), age-related macular degeneration might become less of a concern and we can enjoy our later years with clear vision.
To Your Good Health,
Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute
