What is Macular Degeneration?
Macular degeneration is one of the leading causes of blindness in the world. Most often, it’s an age related disease, and is often referred to as Age Related Macular Degeneration. This disease affects over 13 million people in America.
What does it do? Macular Degeneration slowly breaks down the macula, the light-sensitive area of the retina, which gives you sharp and clear vision. Because this is a mostly age related disease, people over 65 years are affected more. However, macular degeneration can, and does affect people at all ages. So it’s a good idea to keep your eyes healthy now.
Macular degeneration causes a slow loss of vision, and often, you’re not even aware of it for a period of time. Here are some sign of macular degeneration:
- You see a fuzzy or blurry area in your central vision.
– Your vision seems fuzzy or blurry.
– Straight lines look wavy to you.
Currently, it is unknown exactly what causes macular degeneration. However, macular degeneration tends to run in families, and smoking and drinking can increase your risk for this disease. Studies have shown that people who smoked more than a pack of cigarettes a day are 300% more likely to lose their vision than people who didn’t smoke.
The best prevention method known is getting enough of the essential nutrients. Vitamins A, C, and E reduce your risk for macular degeneration, and also slow down its progress if you’re already affected. If you are a heavy smoker, this will also increase your chance of having macular degeneration.
Drinking too much alcohol also affects your eyesight. Lutein and Zeaxanthin are carotenes that help reduce you risk for eye health problems. Studies have found that people who drink heavily have less Lutein and Zeaxanthin. So by drinking a lot of alcohol, you’re also putting your eyesight at risk.
High fat intake is associated with an increased risk of macular degeneration in both women and men. By reducing and limiting your consumption of fats can help reduce your risk of having macular degeneration. A healthy, balanced diet that includes more white meat and less red meat, and reducing consumption of whole milk, cheese, margarine, and butter can greatly reduce your fat intake.
Learn how you can naturally improve your eyesight, and begin to see better.
Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/vision-articles/what-is-macular-degeneration-1189689.html
The Aging Eye
Vision changes
With aging, the quality of vision worsens due to reasons independent of aging eye diseases. The area of the pupil governs the amount of light that can reach the retina. The extent to which the pupil dilates also decreases with age. Because of the smaller pupil size, older eyes receive much less light at the retina. In comparison to younger people, it is as though older persons were wearing medium-density sunglasses in bright light and extremely dark glasses in dim light.
To maximize the light entering the eye, make sure that your eye glasses have anti-reflective coating. Anti-reflective lens coatings significantly reduce surface reflectance and allow greater light transmission through the lens. When AR coating is applied to both the front and back surfaces of a lens, the percentage of transmitted light increases to approximately 99% (compared to 90-92% with non-ARC lenses).
Aging causes a dramatic slowing in dark adaptation. Color vision changes cause some reduction of ability to discriminate blues and blue-greens. The yellowing of the lens is believed to be responsible for this effect. The aging lens and cornea causes glare by light scattering, especially for shorter wavelengths. Aberrations of cornea also increase with age, leading to poor vision especially when the pupil dilates as in the dark.
The most aggravating aspect of vision in an older person seems to be the feeling that it does not work as effortlessly or as quickly as it did in younger days. They must concentrate harder and require higher levels of illumination than they formerly did in order to have the same perceptual results.
Lighting the way
Everyone’s vision deteriorates with age, but there are ways to lessen its impact. Good lighting can make the difference between seeing and not seeing for older adults, especially in your homes, stairways, kitchen, living rooms etc. Naked bulbs: These are worst for older eyes, producing a glare that can be disorienting and painful. Task lighting: Light should be focused on the work, not toward the eyes. A good choice is a CFL with electronic ballast that starts up without flickering. Bathroom lighting: Lots of light should be provided overhead and even in the shower, where accidents are particularly common.
Anatomic changes
Aging causes laxity and downward shift of eyelid tissues and atrophy of the orbital fat. These changes contribute to the etiology of several eyelid disorders such as ectropion, entropion, dermatochalasis, and ptosis. The higher eyelid skin crease and ptosis may be due to age related disinsertion of the levator muscle aponeurosis, and to involutional atrophy of the orbital fat. The horizontal eyelid fissure shortens by about 10% with aging. With aging a prominent white ring develops in the periphery of the cornea- called arcus senilis. The corneal endothelial cells gradually decrease in number. The vitreous gel undergoes liquefaction and its opacities – visible as floaters gradually increase in number.
Aging Eye Diseases
Cataract: Cataract (‘safed motia’) is a clouding or opacity of the normally transparent lens inside the eye. It prevents the light rays passing onto the retina. The picture that the retina receives becomes dull and fuzzy. The normal process of aging causes the lens to harden and become cloudy (opaque). This is called age-related cataract and it is the most common type. It can occur anytime after the age of 45 years.
Glaucoma: Glaucoma (kala-motia, kala-paani) is a serious condition that involves an elevation in pressure inside the eye caused by a build-up of excess fluid. Left untreated, this pressure can impair vision by causing irreversible damage to the optic nerve and, eventually, blindness.
Macular Degeneration (ARMD): The macula is the part of the retina, which provides us with central vision and allows us to see fine detail, such as recognizing a face, reading, or watching television. Macular Degeneration is a condition in which the macula gets damaged. It is often related to aging, and is commonly referred to as Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD).
Presbyopia: If you have presbyopia, you have the loss of the ability to focus up close that occurs as you age. Most people are between 40 and 50 years when they realize for the first time that they can’t read objects close to them.
Macular Hole: A macular hole is a small break in the macula, located in the center of the eye’s light-sensitive tissue called the retina. A macular hole can cause blurred and distorted central vision. Macular holes are related to aging and usually occur in people over age 60. It is 4 times more common in females.
Diabetic Eye Disease: Retinopathy is usually due to damage to vessels in retina. Retinopathy is usually caused by Diabetes (DM), but is sometimes caused by other diseases such as high BP.
Dry Eye: The most common cause of dry eye is a failure of the glands in your eyelids to produce tears, which often occurs as part of the ageing process.
The real problem of blindness is not the loss of eyesight. The real problem is the misunderstanding and lack of information that exist. If a blind person has proper training and opportunity, blindness can be reduced to a physical nuisance.
www.eyeclinicindia.com
Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/vision-articles/the-aging-eye-1185259.html
Find The Cure With Lutein
Nutritional supplements are plentiful in the local vitamin store and which one is best for you will vary depending on age, medical condition and dietary habits. Lutein is a water soluble carotenoid that possesses anti-oxidant properties. Age related macular degeneration (ARMD) patients are particularly helped by the intake of additional anti-oxidants like Lutein. It is ingested orally and reached the target organs like the retina via the blood stream. The immediate benefit of Lutein is seen in the increase of macular pigment optical density. This improves visual function.
In addition, Lutein aids in the absorption of high energy, short wavelength light that has been shown to act as a catalyst to Macular Degeneration and cataracts. Since both the retina and the crystalline lens are vulnerable to oxidative damage, Lutein an anti-oxidant, is of particular benefit in preserving these structures and thus maintaining better ocular health and vision. The two foods that have the highest quantity of Lutein in them are spinach and kale.
Individuals who have deficiencies in the amount of macular pigment are especially helped by Lutein supplements. Patients with poor dietary habits are likewise encouraged to take Lutein. Visual function is improved rapidly upon consumption depending on the blood level of Lutein. Furthermore, since filtering high energy blue light increases contrast sensitivity, one can also expect an improvement there with additional levels of Lutein.
In short, young healthy individuals who eat well will probably not see many benefits with Lutein supplements. Since it is water soluble excess amounts will be excreted so there is no harm to taking extra amount. In patients who suffer from ARMD, cataracts and other ocular conditions who are older and eat poorly, Lutein supplements are of particular benefit. As always, consult your physician when taking any medications and supplements.
Dr. Jay B Stockman is a contributing editor for VisionUpdate.net, and a practicing doctor for New York Vision Associates, http://newyorkvisionassociates.com,
Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/vision-articles/find-the-cure-with-lutein-1176365.html
Lutein And Low Vision
Fruits and vegetables have another disease-fighting weapon to offer: Lutein. Studies show this carotenoid prevents and, to some extent, reverses vision loss, immune system problems, cancer and cardiovascular disease. With that in mind, load up your plate with foods high in lutein — carrots, corn, kale, spinach, Swiss chard, collard, mustard greens, red peppers, dill, parsley, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes and red, blue and purple fruits.
Is your vision blurred? I know mine is after sitting in front of the television for a while. In that case, you and I need to eat more lutein-rich foods. A few weeks after consuming more lutein-rich foods or lutein supplements, some normal-sighted people report less glare, improved color vision and sharper vision. This suggests that lutein and its companion carotenoid zeaanthin may save our sight by acting as a shield or filter that helps to absorb harmful light and dangerous molecules, both of which threaten the retinal tissue. Using products for macular degeneration or specialized low vision aids together with lutein helps the most.
Though everyone’s sight could benefit from a diet high in lutein, it can literally save the sight of those who have family histories of macular degeneration and other vision loss problems. If someone in your family has experienced vision loss of sight at an old age, then your high-lutein diet should start long before you reach middle age. In a Houston University study, women with diets high in lutein and zeaxanthin experienced a 19 percent reduced risk of cataracts, while men reduced their risk by 22 percent.
A dietary intake of only six milligrams of lutein per day decreases your chances of developing age-related macular degeneration by 38 percent. Everyone over the age of 50 should be taking lutein supplements. However, if you are already experiencing macular degeneration or other vision problems, a high-lutein diet can still help you save your sight by increasing the density of your macular pigment. Macular degeneration may be stabilized or reversed with nutritional intervention, He later goes on to say, By far, lutein is the number one nutritional treatment for the disease.
Not only will lutein save your sight, it may also boost your immune system and, accordingly, prevent cancer. Healthy people seeking to boost overall immune function should consider consuming 5,000 IU of beta-carotene daily, along with other carotenoids, such as lycopene and lutein. By boosting your immunity, lutein decreases your chances of getting cancer, since development of cancer as a disease is associated with immune system impairment. I know you’ve probably heard this a million times, but just in case you haven’t, I’ll say it again: We all have cancer cells. Cancer cells develop in our bodies all the time, but our immune systems normally remove the malignant cells before they can develop into the symptoms we call cancer. In addition to boosting your immune system, lutein may also fight cancer by both protecting your cells from free radical damage and increasing cell-to-cell communication, thus preventing them from turning malignant.
However lutein prevents cancer, we know it works. People with high-lutein diets at any age decreased their chances of developing colon cancer; additionally, young people with high-lutein diets decreased their chances. Studies show that a diet high in lutein will also decrease your chances of other cancers, including cancers of the lung and breast. Women who have low levels of lutein have a 2.08-fold increased risk of breast cancer, so not eating enough lutein-rich foods can actually harm you.
It’s easy to add more lutein to your diet because it’s found in so many foods. Just refer back to the list you read above. In addition, lutein is seven times more available from vegetables than beta-carotene, Just adding a few more fruits and vegetables to your plate each day may save your sight, boost your immune system, prevent you from developing cancer and reduce your chances of having a heart attack.
How to get more information on low vision products – Ask your Eye MD for a Low vision Specialist. Low vision specialists are licensed doctors of optometry who are trained in the examination and management of patients with visual impairments. A few of them are ophthalmologists with additional training in low vision care. Their services do not offer a cure for the causes of low vision, but they do help the patient learn how to utilize their remaining vision to its fullest potential. Low vision care does not replace the possible need for other treatments such as laser, medication, and surgery.
Low Vision Specialist Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/vision-articles/lutein-and-low-vision-1141128.html