Macular degeneration is a progressive eye disease that has a wet form and a dry form and it is the leading cause of blindness in people over the age of 55. People with age related macular degeneration can have difficulty reading, trouble driving, and eventually even difficulty recognizing faces.
This eye disease affects a portion of your eye called the macula and if affects your central vision. You may experience a blurred spot or dark circle in your central vision.
The wet form of age related macular degeneration consists of only about 10% of the cases diagnosed each year. About 90% of people are diagnosed with the dry form annually.
Currently there is no treatment to reverse macular degeneration, nor is there a treatment to cure age related macular degeneration.
If you have been diagnosed with the dry form of macular degeneration, then the best hope is to only slow this eye disease from progressing into advanced stages.
You may be able to protect the health of your eyes and reduce the risk of vision loss with proper nutrition through your diet. The challenge is that most people do not ingest the proper amounts of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants through diet alone.
Your eye care specialist may recommend to supplement your diet with a daily eye vitamin to help protect the health of your eyes. The most important items to get through diet or vitamins are beta-carotene, vitamin c, vitamin e, zinc, and copper which were studied in AREDS (Age Related Eye Disease Study). AREDS is the largest completed study to date on age related eye disease, and it was conducted by the National Eye Institute. The study concluded that the aforementioned antioxidants slowed dry macular degeneration and reduced the risk of vision loss.
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AREDS 2 is currently underway and is studying the effects of lutein, zeaxanthin, and omega-3 fatty acids in people with dry macular degeneration.
Lutein and zeaxanthin have shown promise to protect your eye against damaging blue light and may slow the progression of macular degeneration.
Your diet should be high in green, leafy vegetables, spinach, collard greens, with foods high in lutein and zeaxanthin.
AREDS concluded that supplementing your diet with a daily eye vitamin may slow the progression of dry age related macular degeneration.