According to the study’s senior author, Dr. Robert J. Nicolosi, “Two eggs per day is probably all that is needed to maximize blood levels of lutein and zeaxanthin as well as macular pigment optic density (MPOD) status.”  Both lutein and zeaxanthin have been shown in other studies to help lower the risk associated with macular degeneration.

Study subjects were all older adults taking statins.  Their low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol levels were unaffected even when they ate as many as four yolks per day.  Out of the 52 participants in the study, serum lutein increased by an average for 16 percent after the 2-yolk phase and 24 percent after the 4-yolk phase of the study when compared to the baseline.  Serum zeaxanthin increased by 36 percent and 82 percent respectively.  Macular pigment optic density increased significantly after both phases, but only among individuals with low baseline density values.

While these results may indicate a lower risk of dry macular degeneration, there is a current study underway to evaluate the consumption of 12 eggs per week on the progression of dry macular degeneration.  The senior author points out “Although this was only a 5-week study and the 1-year data are not ready for comment, it would seem to me that physicians could consider that those patients on statins, who have early stage macular degeneration, could be prescribed 2 egg yolks per day.”

Dr. Nicolosi also added that “increases in blood levels of lutein and zeaxanthin and MPOD correlate well with the risk for age-related macular degeneration.”

The impact of such nutrients supports other studies that have indicated that the risk of macular degeneration for individuals can be lessened.

Higher trans-fats was associated with an increased development of late macular degeneration.  It was also shown that higher omega-3 fatty acids was inversely associated with early macular degeneration.  The intake of olive oil was shown to be associated witha  decreased prevalence of late macular degeneration.

Trans-fatty acides (TFA) are formed as liquid vegetable fats are hardened through partial hydrogenation.  Trans-fats are typically found in shortenings and processed foods and while originally linked to an increase risk of heart disease, this latest study shows that trans-fats increases the risk associated with late macular degeneration.

Other studies have shown that trans-fats were associated with increased risk of macular degeneration as well.  The first study involved only 261 patients with the eye disease characterized as early macular degeneration.  Trans-fats were shown to be associated with an increased risk of macular degeneration progressing to the late stages of the eye disease in the study.  The second study also sowed that the intake of trans-fats was associated with an increased risk of developing the eye disease macular degeneration.

In this latest study, omega-3 fatty acids were shown to reduce the risk associated with macular degeneration.  Long-chain omega-3 fatty acids are found in the rod outer segments of the retina and the deficiency of omega-3 fatty acids have been suggested to cause the onset of macular degeneration.  Omega-3 fatty acids have also been suggested to help as an antioxidant and thought to help decrease the damage caused to the eye by free radicals.

Olive oil is rich in vitamin E, polyphenols and oleocanthal.  Vitamin E and polyphenols are both powerful antioxidants and oleocanthal is known to be an anti-inflammatory compound similar to ibuprofen.  The latest study has shown that olive oil may be associated with a decreased risk of macular degeneration.

With trans-fats increasing the risk of macular degeneration and olive oil / omega-3 fatty acids shown to decrease risk of macular degeneration, investigators have concluded that a diet low in trans-fats and high in the other fats may reduce the risk of macular degeneration.

Some nutrients rich foods which have been shown through several studies to lower the risk associated with macular degeneration because of their high antioxidants contained in the food include:

Carrots – Eating carrots, especially raw carrots, provides a great source of beta carotene, phosphorous, iodine and calcium.  Beta-carotene is converted to retinol which is essential for vision.

Blue Berry or Billberry – These contain antioxidants known as anthocyanosides, that protect the eyes from cataracts, macular degeneration and glaucoma.  These antioxidants also help improve night vision.

Fish Oil – Contains Omega-3 compounds that have been shown to lower the risk of macular degeneration.

Lutein and Zeaxanthin – Foods rich in yellow-orange pigments are called “carotenoids”.   These foods are typically high in both Lutein and Zeaxanthin, both of which act as anti-oxidants and can remove free radicals.  These have been shown to reduce the risk of macular degeneration.

With nutrient  rich food being shown to have an impact on the risk of macular degeneration, people should be cautious of the foods they eat.  A well-balanced diet, that is rich in nutrients and healthy foods not only protects the eyes, but other parts of the body.  Lower your risk of macular degeneration with a proper diet.

The author of the Vitamin B study, William Christen indicated “This is the first randomized trial to indicate a possible benefit of folic acid, B-6 and B-12 vitamin supplements in reducing the risks of age-related macular degeneration”.  Christen is an associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Data was collected from more than 5,200 women over the age of 40.  These women had reported that they did not suffer from or were not diagnosed with macular degeneration.

In the random study, women were assigned to take either a daily combination of folic acid, B-6 and B-12 vitamin supplements or a placebo.  Each year, study participants were required to complete questionnaires and over a seven year period, these questionnaires were used to track adherence to the vitamin supplements.  Also tracked was the development of new diseases.

At the end of the study on the affects of vitamin B supplements on macular degeneration, 55 cases of age-related macular degeneration were confirmed in the vitamin group and 82 cases in the placebo group.

Through the study, patients who took the vitamin supplements were shown to be at a 41 percent lower risk of being diagnosed with macular degeneration.

While the study involved only women, researchers concluded that these findings would probably apply to a more broader range of the aging population.

Christen stated “These findings are the first to suggest a possible early prevention measure,” when talking about the benefits of this study for those patients at a high risk of being diagnosed with macular degeneration.

With an estimated 1.75 million people having advanced macular degeneration and 7.3 million with early stage macular degeneration in the United States alone, the implications of such a prevention or reduction in the risks associated with this disease is enormous.  Currently, there are only a few treatments of macular degeneration, and most of those treatments are for the advanced form of the disease.

In explaining why the B Vitamin supplements may have reduced the risk of macular degeneration, Christen explains “It’s fairly well established that folic acid, B-6 and B-12 can reduce blood levels of homocysteine, so there’s a reason to suspect a possible benefit.”  High levels of an amino acid, homocysteine have been previously linked to a higher risk of developing age-related macular degeneration.

Christen is quick to point out that more research is needed to determine the true benefit of B vitamins for eye health, including more rigourous screening of patients for the existence of macular degeneration prior to the start of another study.

As part of the study into the impacts of running on macular degeneration, 29,532 men and 12,176 women were followed over a period of 7.7 years.  During this period of time, 110 men and 42 women reported being diagnosed with macular degeneration.

Those women and men who developed macular degeneration ran for exercise much less than those who remained unaffected by the eye disease.  When the results of the study were adjusted to account for age, sex, diet and smoking history, it was shown that the relative risk of macular degeneration decreased by approximately 10 percent per kilometer per day.  Those patients who averaged less than 2 – 4 kilomters per day had a 19 percent lower risk of macular degeneration and those averaging 4 kilomters a day had a 42 – 54 percent lower risk to develop macular degeneration.

As a result of these findings, the authors concluded that vigorous exercise such as running is associated with a lower incidence of macular generation.  These findings were independent of weight, cardiorespiratory fitness and smoking.

Hybrid cars operate nearly silent when running on their electric fuel cells making them practically silent. Visually impaired and blind people have traditionally relied on their hearing and on the noise in their environment to provide cues as to what was happening about them. Melanie Brunson of the American Council of the Blind says “Traditionally, people who are blind or visually impaired learn to rely on their hearing and tactile cues to provide them with information about their environment, which they can then use to navigate safely across streets and through other vehicular ways such as parking lots. In doing so, the sound of traffic is their primary focus.”

The American Council of the Blind is pushing the automobile industry and government officials to develop ways to reduce this danger.

To add to this threat, Dr. Karen Gourgey, a member of the American Council of the Blind’s environmental access committe, she has said that this danger is not limited to the blind or visually impaired. “Recent studies have shown that even people who are fully sighted use hearing as well as vision to make street crossing decisions, though they may not realize it. And we haven’t even mentioned children and older people.”

The U.S. Federal Highway Traffic Safety Administration held its first hearings on this issue in early August.

Statistics indicate that approximately 30 percent of adults over 75 have some degree of macular degeneration.  In the United States, more than 1.6 million people over the age of 60 have advanced macular degeneration.

The study conducted by the British researchers and researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary found that people who were overweight were twice as likely to have their macular degeneration progress to the advanced form of the eye disease.  The research from Boston followed 260 patients over the age of 60 during a 4.5 year period.

The study also showed that people who were involved in vigorous exercise at least three times a week had a 25 percent reduction in their risk of having their macular degeneration worsen.

This study demonstrates that to lower the risks associated with this eye disease, people have to lead more healthy lifestyles, especially if they are in a high risk category of being diagnosed with macular degeneration.

The study found that people with high blood pressure had more than 3.5 times the risk of developing retinal vein occlusion than those without it. People with high cholesterol levels had an approximately 2.5-fold higher risk of retinal vein occlusion.

The findings come from an analysis of 21 previously published studies involving 2,916 people with retinal vein occlusion and 28,646 people without the condition. It found that 63.6 percent of patients with retinal vein occlusion also had hypertension, compared with 36.2 percent of people without the eye condition. High cholesterol levels were more than twice as likely to be found in those with retinal vein occlusion as those without (35.1 percent vs. 16.7 percent).

Diabetes also occurred slightly more often among those with retinal vein occlusion than among those without (14.6 percent vs. 11.1 percent).

“Accordingly, we recommend that an assessment of blood pressure and both fasting lipid and glucose levels be routinely performed in adults with any form of retinal vein occlusion,” the authors wrote.

The authors concluded that those who treat patients with hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol should be as concerned with the health of the person’s eyes as they are with the health of the person’s cardiovascular system.

In September 2003, Investigative Ophthalmology and Vision Science reported a study in Rotterdam, The Netherlands demonstrating that high blood pressure may be associated with development of macular degeneration.  Similar studies have also concluded that elevated HDL but not total cholesterol is associated with an increased risk of AMD.  In fact, it was found that the use of statin drugs to treat high cholesterol was statistically significant in the development of advanced agerelated macular degeneration.  This analsys of the data also indicated that the use of these drugs were only linked to the development of the neovasular (wet) form of age related macular degeneration.

It is therefore imperative that people be more aware that all aspects of their health have dramatic affects on a persons well-being.  It is also important for health care professionals to be more aware of the relationships and interaction of various conditions on their patients.

The report showing the lower risk of contracting the eye disease was reported in the April 2008 issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.

Macular degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss and blindness among older adults.  This eye disease is reported to affect an estimated 1.75 to 10 million people in the United States alone.  The report showing that women who had taken hormone replacement theory may be at a lower risk of developing advanced macular degeneration suggested estrogen may play a role in the development of this eye disease.

Diane Feskanich, SC.D, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston and colleagues assessed estrogen-related factors such as postmenopausal use, past use of oral contraceptives, ages at first period and menopause and childbirth history in 74,9996 post-menopausal women in the Nurse’s Health Study.  Between 1980 and 2002, 554 of the women had developed early stage macular degeneration and 334 had developed neovascular macular degeneration.

“Current postmenopausal hormone users had a notable 48 percent lower risk of neovascular AMD compared with those who had never used postmenopausal hormones, although risk did not decline linearly with longer durations of use,” the authors write. “Risk was lowest for postmenopausal hormone users who had used oral contraceptives in the past.”

In contrast, the risk of developing early stage macular degeneration was 34 percent higher in current postmenopausal  hormone users and oral contraceptive was not associated wiht early stage macular degeneration risk.  “The higher risk of early age-related macular degeneration among postmenopausal hormone users was unexpected and in apparent conflict with the observed inverse association for neovascular age-related macular degeneration,” the authors write. Women who had given birth had a 26 percent lower risk of early macular degeneration. (Source: Archives of Ophthalmology. 2008;126[4]:519-524.)

The risks associated with HRT have been well document and researched in the last several years.  These include increased risk of both heart disease and breast cancer.  Women who are in a higher risk category (ie family history of heart disease, breast cancer and macular degeneration) should discuss treatment options with their physicians and determine if HRT treatment may be of use to lower the risks associated with macular degeneration.

Drugs such as Avastin, Lucentis and Macugen work by blocking the growth of problematic blood vessel growth in areas such as the eye when treating macular degeneration or in tumours when treating cancer.  The research by Dr. Ambati suggests that these anti-VEGF treatments may also harm people by blocking the growth of healthy blood vessels in healthy areas of the body.  The growth of such blood vessels is essential for things such as reproduction and healing.

Ambati has indicated that the problem occurs because these man-made molecules are created to target and “turn off” a disease causing gene that don’t function the way many scientists believe they do.  This research casts doubt on the effectiveness of Nobel Prize winning drugs that have been developed to treat both cancer and macular degeneration patients.  “This work really raises a very serious red flg,” Ambata said, when discussing his research.

Drug manufacturers have dismissed the study, even though it was published in the respected Journal of Nature.  The drug manaufacturers have indicated that patients who have taken the macular degeneration drugs and anti-VEGF cancer drugs have been followed for several years and have shown no side effects.  Many of the drug manufacturers responsible for these anti-VEGF treatments have invested billions of dollars in research and are quick to point out that clinical trials have shown no indication of what Dr. Ambati suggests in his research.

Granted that clinical trials have indicated some risks, doctors and eye care professionals should educate both themselves and their patients on the potential risks associated with these macular degeneration drugs.