Researches show that macular degeneration is one of the main causes for blindness among aging people. As for how to treat macular degeneration, researchers and opticians has done a lot of researches and studies. Through their hard work, they have made some improvements in this field. The following will give some introduction on macular degeneration, its treatment, more important, a new and promising way to treat it by injecting stem cells.

There are two types of macular degeneration, one is dry macular degeneration, and the other is wet macular degeneration. 90% people with macular degeneration are diagnosed of dry macular degeneration, which leads to 10% blindness. While 10% macular degeneration is wet macular degeneration, which is responsible for 90% blindness. Though dry macular degeneration is not as serious as wet macular degeneration, but if not taken good card of, it can turn into wet macular degeneration.

Dry macular degeneration is caused by drusen forming on the eye. People with this kind of eye disease can choose dietary supplements to slow down the possible deterioration from dry AMD to wet AMD, but there are no other treatments. The abnormal blood vessel growth and leakage is the reason for wet macular degeneration. The common treatment for wet AMD is to inject anti-VEGF drugs into eyes, such as Avastin nod Lucentis which can prevent abnormal blood vessel growth and leakage.

Researches for better treatments of macular degeneration have never been stopped as there is increasing number of this eye disease worldwide. With the joining of some pharmaceutical companies and by their hardwork, they have indeed made some improvements in this line. Nowadays, the stem cell treatment is considered to be the most promising to treat this eye disease.

The stem cell treatment is raised by researchers from the University of Washington. The main principle is to use human’s stem cells to regenerate their damaged retinal cells. As we may know, macular degeneration makes some damages to the retina and the retina can not repair themselves. Researches find they can use people’s embryonic stem cells and proteins to make cell growth, and then make these growing cells to become progenitor cells for retinal cells. Therefore, we can inject these cells to the damaged retina, and they can grow into cones, and also rods, and at last into other retina cells.

Nowadays, scientists have made a lot of researches on injecting stem cells to treat macular degeneration. Now they are seeking the way to measure the nerve reactions to see if the vision is improved. Anyway, they consider it is a promising treatment for macular degeneration and it is believed that people with macular degeneration will benefit a lot from stem cell treatment in the near future.

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According to the Age Related Eye Disease Study made by the U. S. Federal government’s National Eye Institute, the risk of developing advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD) can be reduced by 25% for people who take high levels of antioxidants and zinc. Though the AREDS formulation can not treat AMD, it can help people at high risk of advanced AMD with their remaining vision.

So you may wonder to know what and how many antioxidants and zinc should be taken in daily in order to reduce the possibility for advanced AMD. The following will list out the AREDS formula eye vitamins and their daily amounts: The first one is Vitamin C with daily amount of 500 milligrams; Second is Vitamin E with 400 international units; Third is beta-carotene with the amount of 15 milligrams；Fourth is zinc oxide at the quantity of 80 milligrams; and the last is copper as cupric oxide with the amount of 2 milligrams in order to keep copper deficiency anemia away from us, which is caused by taking in high levels of zinc.

Presently, the National Eye Institute is preparing for its Age Related Eye Disease Study 2 (AREDS) and this study is planed to be finished in June, 2013. They have recruited 4000 participants in their study. The main purposes of this study 2 are as following: First, it is said macular degeneration antioxidants, lutein and zeaxanthin, and omega-3 LCPUFAs (DHA and EPA) have some good effects to treat AMD and cataract. And the study will test their treatment ability for AMD and cataract and check if they can slow down the progression of these two eye diseases. The second purpose is to test what it will be if we don’t have beta-carotene from the ARED formulation and its influence on AMD development and progression. The third purpose is to prove zinc’s effect on treating and reducing the progression of AMD. Nowadays, if we want to prove the photographic AMD scales develops from the Age-related Eye Disease Study, we still need some data supporting, so the last purpose of this study is to offer some data to validate this point.

With these purposes, the National Eye Institute are busying at their researches and studies. It is sincerely hoped that they can prove all these points as soon as possible. At that time, people can have more measures to treat AMD and more and more people can take precautions to this eye disease and keep them far away from AMD.

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Age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness among people over 50 years old in industrialized countries. Scientists have found that antioxidants such as carotenoids are helpful in decreasing the risk of AMD. In particular, spinach is one of the best sources of carotenoids, which are considered as normal macular protective pigment (MPP).

UV rays have been long reported to damage eye tissues because they produce free radicals in the eye. What’s more, blue light is particularly harmful to the macula which is the central retina. A common way to fight against these harmful rays is to wear sunglasses with HEV and UV protection. And brown or amber sunglasses are believed to block out HEV most effectively.

In addition to sunglasses, experts also recommend some nutrients for AMD prevention. Zeaxanthin and lutein are two of the powerful antioxidants that have been found in the macular tissue of the retina. Both of the two nutrients protect the photoreceptors against oxidative stress, inflammation and even degeneration.

There are many sources of zeaxanthin, including foods and supplements. Those foods include egg yolks, squash, pumpkin, orange peppers, collard greens, tangerines, romaine lettuce, green beans, spinach and so on. In addition, supplements from various brands such as Eye Promise-Restore are helpful for those who can not get adequate amounts of zeaxanthin from a diet.

Omega-3 fatty acids are also thought to help maintain eye health. The most common way is to consume fish oil extracted from cold water fish such as salmon, mackerel, anchovies as well as sardines. Ordinary people are encouraged to contain certain amount of fish oil in the diet.

Glutathione is an intracellular antioxidant. It can literally prevent degeneration in the delicate photoreceptor cells. This type of antioxidant is a billion more times potent than Vitamin C in neutralizing those free radicals in the eye.

One’s lifestyle is also critical. Obesity and smoking are both thought to increase the risk of severe macular degeneration by 4 times. And regular exercises are usually helpful in maintaining a health life.

more info

·Factors associated with macular degeneration

·Types and treatments of macular degeneration