Vitamin Therapy is Effective Method of Delaying Macular Degeneration

With an annual cost of approximately $100 per patient, vitamin therapy is a cost-effective method of delaying macular degeneration progression, but research indicates it is not widely used among patients with early-stage disease.

Age-related macular degeneration occurs when the tissue in the macula deteriorates. The macula is the area of the eye's retina responsible for sharp vision. Macular degeneration doesn't cause total blindness, but it worsens your quality of life by blurring or causing a blind spot in your central vision.

In 2000, as many as 1.75 million Americans reached the advanced stages of macular degeneration, and macular degeneration is projected to increase substantially by 2050.

Macular degeneration tends to affect adults age 50 and older. Dry macular degeneration, in which tissue deterioration is not accompanied by bleeding, is the most common form of the disease.

"Newly discovered preventive and treatment therapies for macular degeneration offer substantial improvements over past therapies and could potentially offset some degree of future macular degeneration morbidity,” the authors say. Preventive therapies include antioxidant vitamins that could slow the progression of macular degeneration from early to late stages.

Treatments for more advanced forms of the disease include laser and photodynamic therapies and anti–vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) injections, which can prevent growth of excess blood vessels in the eye and thereby improve vision or prevent further vision loss for up to two years.

The study found that the universal use of vitamin preventative therapy alone by all patients with early macular degeneration could reduce visual impairment and blindness by 23 percent.

In contrast, if used alone, anti-VEGF therapies would be expected to reduce visual impairment and blindness by only 17 percent.

"Public prevention efforts should focus on expanding the use of antioxidant vitamins in people with early macular degeneration and ensuring that these patients use the correct dosage," the authors write.

The Age-Related Eye Disease Study showed that a combination of high-dose beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E, and zinc could reduce the risk of progressing from early to advanced macular degeneration by about 25 percent. The second study is underway to determine the potential benefits of lutein, zeaxanthine, and fish oil.

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References:
1. David B. Rein, et al. New Therapies Expected to Help Reduce Future Visual Burden of Age-Related Eye Disease. Arch Ophthalmol. 2009;127[4]:533-540.