AMD-AGE RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION

AMD, Age-Related Macular Degeneration, is a disease of the part of your eye where the lens focuses the images you’re looking at in the back of your eye. This area is called the macula. This focal area is very dense with cones and supportive neural structures.

As the disease progresses, dark areas begin to form in your central vision, where patches of cones get broken down. The cones and supporting media deteriorate and lose their function with this condition. The result of this breakdown is the loss of vision in that area.

Cones are the cells that sense color and transmit this data through a neural pathway that eventually enters parts of your brain, where it gets processed into images. Areas of AMD are visible to ophthalmologists and are associated with a yellowish fat called drusen.

AMD TYPES:

There are two basic types of ARM, Dry and Wet.

Early Dry AMD is usually an early-stage disease with little or no vision loss. Diagnosis of early-stage AMD reveals by small drusen spots scattered around the macula. The average onset of this disease is in those over 50. Drusen is a warning sign of more to come.

AMD usually advances slowly, and without an eye exam, most people don’t know they have it. As the disease progresses into mid-stage AMD, visual problems might or might not appear. If they do, it usually shows up on an Amsler grid. See one here: Amsler-grid. (You should be doing this test.)

The above link allows you to download an Amsler grid and use it yourself – the download includes instructions. If, while using the grid, you see broken or distorted lines and possibly blank or dark areas, you need to see an eye doctor as soon as possible.

WET AMD:

Dry AMD can eventually end up as wet AMD. Wet means that not only have parts of your macula succumbed to degeneration but so have the tissue and blood vessels underlying your macula. Ophthalmologists quickly see this bleeding, and they’ll begin treatments to slow down progression.

It should go without saying that you should get your eyes checked annually, and this is especially true if you’re in mid-life or older.

AMD Stats:

If you live past 75, you have a 30% chance of getting AMD:

As of right now, there is no cure for AMD, but there are treatments to slow down its progression, and there are also treatments for Wet AMD. There is no drug or treatment known to reverse AMD.

Fortunately, most forms of AMD are of the Dry variety. Still, roughly 1 in 10 cases of dry AMD will develop into the Wet type and will require injections into the eye by a qualified ophthalmologist.

Upon diagnosis of early-stage AMD (or any stage of AMD), you’ll start the following vitamin combination: preservision.com. This group of vitamins slows down the progression of AMD and maybe block the onset of Wet AMD.

Now What?

The usual advice is to eat a balanced diet, get adequate exercise, and stop bad habits like smoking, excess alcohol, and stuffing down junk food. You probably know these already, but I will elaborate a little more.

I’m not going to waste your time on smoking. You know it’s terrible for your overall health, so just quit. If you’ve left the habit, don’t start back up. Get help if you need it, but stop smoking.

The picture is not so clear on alcohol. Moderate drinking does not appear to be a problem with AMD. But regardless of what you read, there is no “right” amount of alcohol – it is always hard on your liver. Different people, different sex, and different size make it hard to estimate a reasonable amount of alcohol consumption – use your common sense when drinking.

I can’t do much about your weight and diet in a single paragraph, so this will be the subject for the rest of my post.

Before moving on, brush up on the following posts:

Losing weight and staying healthy: HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT FAST.

On healthy eating habits: DIET OMYGOALS AND PURPOSEFUL EATING.

A basic and straightforward exercise program: BEGINNER WORKOUT TRIAD FOR OMYS.

Here’s a reading homework assignment: amazon.com. This book is by Chris Knobbe, MD. In his book, he writes about the likely causes of AMD in western diets. I cannot possibly hit on everything Knobbe says, so I recommend you read his book. My statements from here on out are gleaned from this important book.

(Other than reading his book, I have no connection with Dr. Knobbe or Amazon. I do not make money if you buy this book.) 

History of AMD in America:

Before introducing hydrogenated seed oils like Crisco© (hydrogenated cottonseed oil) and before the end of the Second World war, Western diets did not include seed oils as cooking fats. Sugar was not ubiquitous in our diets then, and there were few fast food outlets – aka “junk food” restaurants.

Most cooking and frying were done with butter and lard. People used sugar to sweeten coffee and pastries. Obese people were rare, and type II diabetes was not a disease. AMD was also rare. Authors of “old” ophthalmologists’ textbooks only briefly mentioned it.

Even though Crisco© had been in use for quite some time, it wasn’t until after WWll that other refined seed oils came online. Corn oil was the most common and had the distinction of having a lot of polyunsaturated fat. This type of fat was rare in the western diet. Citizens had been used to saturated fat as their primary source of cooking oils.

But after WWII, western diets changed drastically…

Without a war to fight, food became cheap and plentiful. Among other crops, the US government subsidized the production of corn and sugar, flooding the agricultural markets for these commodities.

The glut of these (and other commodities) products and their by-products became integrated into the Western diet, and this dilution of nutrition erased the traditional American’s eating habits.

So everything “diet” changed, and so did the population eating it. No, it didn’t happen right away. The now-standard American diet (SAD) took almost thirty years to show its ugly side. It takes time to decay, rot, and die. Eating a crappy diet is like smoking. Nobody dies from smoking a pack of cigarettes, and you’re OK if you keep smoking – for a while anyway. Same with poor diets.

So, where are we now?

Well, we’re looking for a treatment or a cure. We have a treatment for wet AMD, and we have a vitamin package for both wet and dry AMD. But what about preventing it in the first place or stopping it before it worsens?

The vitamin package I mentioned earlier might help prevent it from getting worse, but are there any other things that might help?

First, let me say that there will probably never be a magic pill or a breakthrough treatment for AMD short of growing new eyeballs in a lab and installing them in your eye sockets. Growing new organs is, of course, science fiction and wishful thinking.

But However:

Here’s a list of things to avoid like the plague and maybe slow down the advancement of AMD:

• White flour.
• All types of sugar, especially fructose.
• Refined polyunsaturated seed oils like corn oil and soybean oil. Read labels, make a list and avoid them all. The double bond between carbon atoms in polyunsaturated oils is like an unlocked door to a burglar. Lots of things can enter – lots of things you don’t want.
• Deep-fried foods. These are usually cooked in seed oils.
• Foods with lots of sugar, like sodas and candy, sweetened desserts.
• Especially avoid pastries made with white flour and lots of sugar. Doughnuts, cookies, and cakes are examples here.
• Most junk foods, which, by the way, can include any or all of the above.

All of the above things and more can contribute to AMD’s advancement. Try to eat things nature provides. This food includes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and animal products, including organs like the liver and kidneys.

[Note: I will have more to say about white bread in a future post.]

Finally, follow the advice of the great Jack LaLane:

“If man made it, don’t eat it.”

OMY1

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