Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
If you have seen the television commercials about macular degeneration, you’re probably curious about what exactly it is and whether or not it can affect you. Macular degeneration is an eye condition that is the most common cause of irreversible vision loss in people over the age of 65 in the United States. Here is more about this condition in terms you can understand.
The macula is the area of the retina that gives us our clearest central vision. It is a light-sensitive tissue that lines the inner surface of the eye, directly in front the pupil. The macula’s position causes light radiating from objects to fall directly on it when the eye is looking straight ahead.
The center of the macula is the thinnest area of the retina and is the point of maximum vision for seeing detail in people’s faces, reading, watching television, etc.
- Age: About 30 percent to 35 percent of adults over the age of 65 are affected by macular degeneration.
- Smoking: Smoking can cause a two- to five-fold increase for the chance of developing macular degeneration.
- Family History:A two-to three-fold risk of developing macular degeneration exists if there is a history of AMD among parents, siblings or offspring. The risk can increase 100-fold if you are a smoker in addition to having a family history of macular degeneration.
Consider these other factors that can cause you to be more prone to developing macular degeneration in your later years:
- Gender: Females are generally more prone to developing macular degeneration than males.
- Ethnicity: Caucasians are more affected by macular degeneration than other ethnicities.
- Prolonged sun exposure: Recent studies show that prolonged exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays can lead to an increase in the risk of macular degeneration.
- Diet: Recent studies show that a high-fat diet low in nutrients and low in antioxidants predisposes developing macular degeneration.
- Hypertension: Hypertensive individuals are more prone to have macular degeneration than those without hypertension
- Light-colored eyes: Individuals with light-colored eyes are more likely to be affected by macular degeneration,
- Lack of exercise: Regular exercise decreases the risk of macular degeneration
Macular degeneration is deterioration and loss of the normal function in the cells of the macula. It is most likely related to oxidative damage to the delicate cells and nerves found in the macula. The disease is also often called age-related macular degeneration (AMD or ARMD).
Types of macular degeneration
Dry macular degeneration, also known as non-exudative macular degeneration, is a type characterized by development of drusen, an abnormal accumulation of macular waste products that are naturally produced by specialized nerve cells in the eye.
Normally, the waste is removed by a special type of cells located just below the retina, known as retinal pigment epithelium. If these cells fail to keep the macula clean, waste products will begin to collect and accumulate. Drusen can be seen by your eye doctor during a dilated eye examination. It has been thought that drusen may form a barrier against the blood supply the macula, leading to degeneration of rod and cone cells which causes progressive visual loss. Although drusen is present in dry macular degeneration, the macula is not leaking fluid, proteins, cellular debris or blood, hence the term "dry."
Wet macular degeneration is the result of the progression of the dry variety. It has many of the characteristic of dry ARMD, except it also causes the development of new abnormal blood vessels below the macula, as well as the accumulation of fluid and cellular debris (exudates).
These new blood vessels are very fragile and can rupture spontaneously, leading to bleeding below the macula or even inside or on the retina/macula itself. This can cause profound visual loss.
The treatment of wet macular degeneration aims to stop the leaky blood vessels in the eye through a series of eye injections. In many cases, vision does not improve from the injections, but the injections can prevent vision from becoming worse.
Symptoms
Because the macula is responsible for fine resolution and central vision, macular degeneration will eventually cause several symptoms, including blurred central vision, distorted vision and loss of central vision. This interferes with one’s ability to recognize detail in faces, reading, driving, viewing television, etc.
Help and hope for those with macular degeneration
Various studies have been done related to ocular nutrition. A key study, the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS), indicated that a combination of high levels of antioxidants (vitamin C, vitamin E and beta-carotene) along with zinc reduced the risk of AMD by 25 percent for high-risk individuals and reduced the risk of complete vision loss caused by advanced AMD by about 19 percent. Recent advancements in ocular nutrition are showing that adding the proper doses of high-quality lutien, zexanthin, taurine, and omega 3 fish oils to the original AREDS formula may have a more significant effect in reducing vision loss.
Although macular degeneration causes severe central vision loss, many are able to continue to do the things they love through the help of a highly skilled low-vision physician and prescribed specialized telescopic, microscopic, magnifying glasses or electronic devices.
The specialized telescopic glasses can be loosely thought of as miniaturized prescription-based binoculars placed into eyeglass frames. They can be monocular (one eye) or binocular (both eyes).They can be placed in different positions according to the needs of the patient.
Microscopic, or magnifying, eyeglasses combine a patient’s regular eye glass prescription (astigmatism, myopia, etc.) with the amount of magnification needed to see things up close and participate in activities like reading, knitting, sewing, tying flies, etc. They look somewhat different from regular glasses, sometimes utilizing several lenses on each side to provide the adequate amount of correction in order to properly help those with severe vision loss.
In a low-vision evaluation, eye doctors teach the patient how to hold reading material or projects at the proper distance for each of the prescribed lenses. Generally speaking, if a person can read with a magnifying glass, they can read with prescribed magnifying prism eyeglasses or prescription microscopic eyeglasses.
There is also the option of using electronic devices. These can enlarge the size of reading material, but because these devices can be expensive and not always portable, specialized eye glasses are typically the primary course of treatment. Atrained low-vision doctor will prescribe so that a person with macular degeneration can confidently perform their daily activities in a variety of different settings.
