I feel like I'm doomed to suffer the same problem. Is there anything I can do to prevent it? Paul: you're correct. My father didn't "go blind" either, as he could see shapes/forms, but coudn't recognize faces and such, but that limited his lfestyle tremendously.
By the way - thank you to each of you who responded. I really appreciate it. Not prevent, no.
Improve your chances, yes.
Good nutrition, especially including the dark green vegetables, Broccoli, Brussels sprouts , spinach...
keep up the levels of eye-specific anti-oxidants.
If you hate the above, tablets and capsules are available to supply the lutein etc.
Avoid excessive exposure to UV and IR radiation: use decent quality sunglasses.
This is good general advice for all, not just those with a family history of dry ARMD. But unless its known there is a type that affects your family at a particularly early age, this is not necessarily a problem of heredity. There are only two options: live long enough to get ARMD, or don't live long enough to get ARMD.
Optometrist, retired. When you were little, or littleish, you took a magnifying glass, and went outside and used sunlight focused with the lens, to start a fire. They gave you your fire-starter-with-sunlight badge, yea.
Taking 3-5 square inches of sunlight and focusing that light on a spot, makes it so there's enough energy at that spot to burn something, start a fire.
We have this set of lenses in the eye, or a lens system made up of the cornea with it's surface tear film to make things all nice and smooth, and the lens inside the eye. Together they focus light on a spot, the macula, the center of the retina.
And we see 'clearly'. For us, clear. For an eagle, not so good, but ok. Not only that those poor humans not fly, they can't see either!
So we spend all our lives focusing light onto our macula and are surprised that after 70 years we've cooked the thing!
Why didn't we cook it when we were in our 20's. Well, we did. But our blood supply to the back of the eye, to the choroidal vessels beneath the macula, the retina, have such a high blood flow, (the most in the whole body per tissue weight), that we cool the retina fairly efficiently. We also get rid of those toxic molecules or radical molecules like super-oxides or super-peroxides or other 'toxic' reactive entities. Since we get rid of them before they cause any damage, we do well. But as our plumbing gets rusty, as we get older and our blood vessels get clogged up and that can slow down the flow of blood through them. As tissues oxidize, and get harder and not so bendable, the toxic molecules stick around longer.
And when they stick around, instead of a nanosecond, but a whole millisecond, or about 10,000 times longer, those radicals cause damage to the retinal pigment cells. As the basement membranes get firmer, or less elastic, and transport gases such as oxygen and CO2 slower, damage is done.
Then, we react to the damage. We either react by growing new blood vessels in where the retina says it's not getting enough oxygen or whatever, or the cells just die or atrophy. The growth of vessels to fix the problem... that's the wet kind. The atrophy, the dry kind.
So anything that contributes to arteriosclerosis will increase the chances that one will have macular disease... sooner. Take a look at the do this and don't do that... notes. Anything that makes us clog things up, either with smoking radicals, or increased fat, or diets not rich in this or that, make us age sooner, make our hearts react sooner, give us strokes...plumbing problems.
Since YOU react to those influences according to your heredity, you will react sooner or later to the same insults the rest of us have. Me, I'll react in a similar way as I have the same body type as my father who had very bad macular disease. He never went blind, just couldn't see. He could walk around without falling over stuff or stepping off curbs, but where he looked... wasn't there, just a spot of no vision. So he looked just next to what he wanted to see, and that gave him the best 'view' of whatever it was.
He didn't suffer though. He never had the suffers. He never suffered from his stroke or his heart attack or his lung disease, or his broken back which just hurt like..unbelievable pain, he just worked his way through those problems as best he could, while he could.
You may get macular disease, you may not. I see this problem all day, every day. Some people respond to the treatments, some not so much. No one goes blind. Sunlight can lead to an earlier onset of macular degeneration. Buy yourself a pair of NoIR sunglasses and wear them religiously while outside during the daytime. The 'NoIR amber 10% filters 100% of uv, blue light, and IR- http://noir-medical.com/noir_amber.htm
Really, any pair that's listed under 'infared protection' instead of 'uv protection' should do the trick.
But yeah.. macular degeneration may still happen to you. But it is a condition you can cope with and compensate for, with things like bioptic lenses for driving, a CCTV for reading, and a white cane for safer mobility as your vision progresses. If it happens, just take it all one thing at a time and remember that you're living through it. What you need to understand is, if this condition is inherited, you may not be able to avoid it. I'm really sorry if that's the case.
Maintaing eye health is important anyway though, so by doing these things you may lessen the risk:
Don't smoke - Smoking causes harm to the tissues of the eye. Research has confirmed the direct, harmful effects of smoking on eyesight, particularly in the development of cataracts and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). We also know that smoking can make diabetes-related sight problems worse. Cigarette smoking increases free radicals which accelerate ageing and alters the body鈥檚 ability to absorb or extract necessary vitamins and minerals from food. Smoking reduces appetite which may result in a poor diet. Poor nutrition also has an adverse effect on eye health. Passive smoking, that is not smoking yourself but breathing in other people鈥檚 smoke, is almost as harmful as smoking yourself. While cataracts are treatable and therefore do not lead to blindness, they remain a major cause of sight loss in the UK. Treatment options for AMD are limited and smokers do not only double their risk of developing AMD, they also tend to develop it earlier than non-smokers. It has been shown that stopping smoking can reduce the risk of macular degeneration developing.
Have a healthy diet - A balanced diet, with plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables is good for your eye health. Eating a diet low in saturated fats but rich in omega 3 fats and micronutrients derived from green leafy vegetables, fruit, fish and nuts may help prevent and slow down the progression of AMD and age-related cataracts.
Don't become obese - Obesity is increasingly being discussed as a risk factor for sight loss. Recent research suggests that obesity may put someone more at risk of developing an eye condition which can cause sight loss, including AMD, cataracts and retinal vein occlusion. In addition, obesity significantly increases the risk of developing diabetes and with it, diabetic retinopathy. Further research is now needed to gain better understanding of the links between obesity and these eye conditions.
Don't look directly at sunlight - It has been suggested that eyes can be damaged by continuous exposure to intense sunlight. Many studies show that prolonged periods of sunlight exposure are a risk factor for the development of AMD. The sun鈥檚 rays have been linked to the development of cataracts. For this reason it is very important to reduce exposure of the eye to sunlight. Sunglasses that offer good protection from all angles, are recommended. These not only protect the eye from direct sunlight but also from scattered or reflected light that can enter the eye from above, the sides or below. Wearing a hat with a good brim can decrease eye exposure to light by 30-50 per cent.
Also, Vitamins A, C and E prevent this. These vitamins can be found in many different sources of fruit and vegetables such as oranges, kiwis, grapefruit, dried apricots, tomatoes, peppers, raw carrots, green leafy vegetables including kale and spinach, green peas, green beans and brussel sprouts. They can also be found in nuts, seeds, dairy products and eggs.
Basically - Refrain from smoking, eat a healthy balanced diet, don't look at the sun and take vitamin supplements if possible.
Hope this helped. |
