Macular Degeneration

Macular degeneration, an age-related condition, is when older adults suffer a loss of vision in the center of their visual field because of damage to the retina. It is the leading cause of vision loss and blindness in Americans 65 and older. Macular degeneration has become a more prominent issue than ever before because of the increasing amount of people living longer. This disease is also genetic, as parents may carry a macular degeneration gene that passes down to their child.

Dry and Wet Macular Degeneration Forms

Macular degeneration can occur in both "dry" and "wet" forms. Dry degeneration is the beginning stage and is usually simply the result of aging. This can be diagnosed when drusen, which appear as off-yellow spots, begin to form around the macula. The macula is the visual field connected to the retina, which communicates sight. It is possible to help prevent this from developing by ensuring enough eye vitamins are being taken; this will reduce the risk of early development by 25 percent.

Wet macular degeneration only occurs in 10 percent of dry degeneration sufferers. When this occurs, new vessels are growing beneath the retina, which can leak blood. Because the eyes are very sensitive, this leakage easily damages and often kills the retinal cells, creating blind spots in vision. "Classic" wet degeneration, which affects the majority of sufferers, is when the leaking and scarring of the cells have clear, obvious lines beneath the retina. This sort of wet degeneration causes the most severe vision loss while its counterpart, "occult" degeneration, has scarring that is not quite as pronounced, with vision loss not as troubling.

Symptoms and Effects of Macular Degeneration

It may be difficult to tell at first when macular degeneration is developing, because it begins as a gradual and painless vision loss. It is rare when the vision loss is sudden. Signs of the degeneration are usually caught by an optometrist who, if he or she feels is necessary, may request taking a quick test using an Amsler grid. This grid shows a black graph pattern and is a very effective way to test the central vision.

Macular degeneration can come with troubling effects once it has developed. It may lead to legal blindness and thus the inability to drive. It may even advance far enough to render a person unable to recognize faces or read by sight. For others, however, the disease is manageable. The consumption of omega-3 fatty acids has been found to slow down the progression of early degeneration. If taken along with low-glycemic index foods, this can slow down the progression of advanced degeneration.

Treatment Options

When it comes to treatment, unfortunately there is no direct cure for this condition; as such, no treatment will likely exist that will fully restore the already lost vision. However, as previously mentioned, it is entirely possible to slow down the progression and development. For sufferers of advanced wet degeneration, Lucentis is an FDA-approved treatment that inhibits certain proteins called vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF, that are believed to help along the growth of those new, problematic blood vessels. In a clinical trial, vision improvement was significant.

A more recent treatment than Lucentis is Macugen, which directly attacks the VEGF. This treatment is also FDA-approved. However, a significant amount of patients who participated in a clinical trial for this treatment experienced discomfort and other side-effects.

The first drug therapy that was FDA-approved for wet degeneration is known as Visudyne. This is only available for suffers of classic wet degeneration. The procedure involves the injection of the drug into the arm and then shining a low-energy laser into the eye. The drug is activated by the light, producing a chemical reaction that destroys foreign or strange blood vessels. Contrary to popular myth about the horrors of lasers, this procedure is virtually painless.

For everyone, even though macular degeneration can become a problem for sufferers who develop the disease, it is still entirely manageable. There are many different options available to help either slow down the progression of the degeneration or even partially restore vision.

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