Tag: ARMD

Preventing Macula Degeneration

Karen Griffith

Age-Related Macula Degeneration (ARMD) is a progressive disease that damages the area of the eye that is responsible for color, clarity and visual details, the macula. If the integrity of the macula is compromised by blood, fluid, or tissue changes the result is blurry and distorted vision. Vision loss can occur suddenly or slowly.

Causes of Macula Degeneration

There are causes of ARMD that are beyond our control and there are causes that we can control.

The Uncontrollable Factors: Age, Family History, Skin and Eye Pigment

The Controllable Factors: Smoking, Diet, Ultraviolet Exposure, Exercise

Of the factors within our control, I’m going to address what we eat.eyes and nutrition

In 2006, the researchers at the National Eye Institute began a study to see if they could improve on the 2001 Age Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS). A list of FAQ is available here . The results of the studies show that taking a supplement with high levels of specific antioxidants and zinc can reduce the risk of progression in people with moderate to advanced macula degeneration. The level of vitamins and minerals in the AREDS2 formula is difficult to achieve from diet and standard multivitamins alone so a dietary supplement is available.

After your eye examination, I may recommend taking a AREDS2 supplement. This supplement is easily found with the other vitamins and supplements in the pharmacy and super market.

I also recommend trying to eat more foods that contain the nutrients in the AREDS2 formula: Vitamin C (500mg), Vitamin E (400IU), Zinc (80 mg), Copper (2mg), Lutein (10mg) and Zeaxanthin (2mg).

  Lutein and Zeaxanthin can be obtained in green leafy vegetables and other foods such as eggs.

Most of us are familiar with Vitamin C, it is in fruits and vegetables, including oranges, grapefruit, strawberries, green peppers and tomatoes.

Vitamin E is fat soluble and found in nuts, sweet potatoes and fortified cereals.

Essential Fatty Acids (EFA) are in fatty fish like tuna, salmon, whole grain foods, chicken and eggs.

Zinc is obtained in extra lean red meat, poultry, liver, shellfish, dairy, whole grains and legumes.

This might sound a bit like the Mediterranean diet. There is ongoing research to see if a heart-healthy diet of plant-based foods, oils, fish, lean meats and whole grains can reduce the development of ARMD. Stay tuned.

I See Smoke

Karen Griffith

A google search looking for “what’s in a cigarette?” produced the list below. Most of the products containing these ingredients earn a special danger or poison label. The substances are not listed on a pack of cigarettes.

Here are a few of the chemicals in tobacco smoke and the other places you can find them (list from the American Lung Association):

Acetone – found in nail polish remover
Acetic Acid – an ingredient in hair dye
Ammonia – a common household cleaner
Arsenic – used in rat poison
Benzene – found in rubber cement
Butane – used in lighter fluid
Cadmium – active component in battery acid
Carbon Monoxide – released in car exhaust fumes
Formaldehyde – embalming fluid
Hexamine – found in barbecue lighter fluid
Lead – used in batteries
Naphthalene – an ingredient in mothballs
Methanol – a main component in rocket fuel
Nicotine – used as insecticide
Tar – material for paving roads
Toluene – used to manufacture paint

How naive am I? I thought all the danger in cigarettes came from the nicotine in the tobacco leaves. I couldn’t understand where all the poisons and toxins on the above list came from. Further googling introduced me to the “additives” in cigarettes. Chemicals are added to the tobacco to flavor and fragrance the cigarette “brand”. There are additives for improving texture and holding the leaves together. I can only assume that burning the tobacco and additives creates more toxins.

 

 

Crying man with cigarette So what does this have to do with eyeballs? Unfortunately smoking contributes to many ocular conditions such as cataracts, macular degeneration, dry eye disease, diabetic retinopathy and retinal vascular occlusions. Fortunately if you quit inhaling the toxic chemicals, the risk of related ocular diseases is nearly extinguished to the non-smoker level.

What is Macular Degeneration?

Karen Griffith 2 Comments

Macular degeneration is a retinal disease which can lead to legal blindness. More specifically, it affects the macula, the portion of the retina important for detailed vision like reading.

There are two forms of macular degeneration: wet and dry. Dry macular degeneration is usually slower in destruction of the macula, causing gradual to little loss of central vision. The wet form is more aggressive and destroys the central vision faster. The wet form is associated with the presence of abnormal blood vessels growing somewhere within the layers of the retina. These abnormal blood vessels can leak and bleed.

ARMD wet before treatment

Dry macular degeneration causes a slower loss of tissue. While there is treatment for the wet form, there is no approved treatment for the dry form.

Drusen (800x533)

Symptoms of Macular Degeneration include blurry central vision and/or distortion. In some cases, there may be blind spots within the central vision. The vision loss in both types is progressive. It is the rate at which vision loss develops which differentiates the wet form from the dry. Remember, wet macular degeneration causes faster and more devastating loss of vision compared to the dry form.

Treatment for Macular Degeneration

There is no treatment for dry macular degeneration. While AREDS (Age-Related Eye Disease Study) vitamins may be indicated for a small subset of macular degeneration patients, it does not improve the condition or vision. The supplements are primarily preventative. There are different formulations of “eye vitamins,” but the contents of the supplement used for the study were 500 milligrams of vitamin C; 400 International Units of vitamin E; 15 milligrams of beta-carotene (often labeled as equivalent to 25,000 International Units of vitamin A); 80 milligrams of zinc as zinc oxide; and two milligrams of copper as cupric oxide. Copper was added to the AREDS formulations containing zinc to prevent copper deficiency anemia, a condition associated with high levels of zinc intake.

Other preventative measures for both types of macular degeneration include not smoking, regular exercise and a healthy diet.

The mainstay of treatment for wet macular degeneration involves injections into the eye with anti-VEGF (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor) medications.

These medications (Lucentis, Avastin, Eylea) attach to the abnormal blood vessels, preventing additional leakage and bleeding. Often there can be improvement in vision.

Early treatment is key to maintaining vision. Regular dilated eye examinations are advised.