If you think you  are destined to have ARMD, age-related macular degeneration, then you thought wrong. Now, you can not only get rid of it, but you can prevent it from happening to begin with.

Macular degeneration is a chronic eye disease caused by a deterioration of tissue on the inside back wall of your eyeball, which is the macula in the center of the retina.

It is the part of the eye that is responsible for central vision. It is often called age-related macular degeneration because it generally occurs in adults age 50 or over. It blurs your vision or causes a blind spot in the central vision necessary for reading, driving, recognizing faces, or doing detail work.

Different Forms Of Macular Degeneration

The most common form of the disease is called dry macular degeneration because it is not accompanied by bleeding.  Wet macular degeneration is caused by blood vessels behind the retina leaking blood and fluid, causing cells to die and creating blind spots.

There are several risk factors that contribute to macular degeneration.  The first one is age, usually occurring in people from 50 on up.  The second one is family history.  Your risk is higher if someone in your family had the disease.

The third one is race.  It is more common in whites than in any other group.  The fourth one is sex – told you it was an x-rated disease – all kidding aside, women are affected more often than men because they live longer.

The fifth one is cigarette smoking.  It doubles the risk and is the single most preventable cause.  The sixth one is low levels of nutrients.  It can cause oxygen damage (oxidation) to the cells.  The seventh one is cardiovascular disease (high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack, coronary artery disease and chest pain).

Factors For Macular Degeneration Prevention

Now let’s look at preventing macular degeneration the risk factors.  We can not help growing older and we certainly can not choose our families, but we can take steps to preserve our eyesight.

The single most preventable risk of macular degeneration is cigarette smoking.  Smoking constricts blood vessels which is certainly not good for any part of the body, but especially the delicate vessels in the eye.  Cigarette smokers have double the risk of developing the disease.

Because women and especially white women tend to live longer than men, they are at a higher risk.  A healthy lifestyle and diet go a long way toward reducing this risk factor.

Low levels of nutrients are secondary to cigarette smoking in the risk pool.  Vitamins A, C, and E are powerful antioxidants that help prevent macular degeneration.   Caroteniods like Lutein and Zeaxanthin help lower the risk of this disease by as much as 43%.  Low blood levels of minerals such as zinc also cause cell damage. Omega 3 fatty acids have a protective effect also.  So, eat your fruits and vegetable, whole grains to get the B vitamins, omega-3 and omega-6 in fish and nuts, and be sure and add dairy products for the calcium.

Good quality sunglasses are a must in the prevention of any eye disease, and that includes macular degeneration. The best ones to buy are wrap around ones with the American Cancer seal of approval.They are required to block at least 99% of UV protection.

An interesting new study from Georgia Tech shows that patients that have macular degeneration, tend to focus on using another part of their visual field to compensate for their central vision loss, and the brain takes up the cause by reorganizing its neutral connections. What is interesting about this study is there is evidence to suggest that the brain can reorganize itself, this is the first study that shows that the brain’s reorganization in patients with retinal disease is directly related to the patient’s lifestyle.

I think that study would encourage people to adopt a healthy lifestyle so that age-related macular degeneration will become non-existent.

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© Evgania Mehler for Unleash Your Vision, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Double Vision, Dry Eye Syndrome, General Vision, Loss Of Vision, Refractive Errors, Visual Quality

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