Eye vites

Nutrition Action Healthletter, April, 2009

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

To read these words, you need a healthy macula (the area in the center of your retina). Macular degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss in older Americans. Now there's good evidence that taking B vitamins may cut the risk.

Researchers studied 5,200 female health professionals who had at least three risk factors for heart disease or had already been diagnosed with heart disease. (The trial piggybacked on the Women's Antioxidant and Folic Acid Cardiovascular Study.) Half the women were assigned to take a daily combination of folic acid (2,500 micrograms), vitamin B-6 (50 milligrams), and vitamin B-12 (1,000 micrograms) and half took a placebo.

After seven years, macular degeneration was diagnosed in 82 of the 2,600 placebo takers bur in only 55 of the 2,600 B vitamin takers. In other words, the vitamin takers were 33 percent less likely to be diagnosed with the condition.

What to do: It's too much of a leap to conclude from a single study that ali adults should take high doses of B vitamins. However, ask your doctor about taking them if you have a family history or any signs of macular degeneration. To play ir safe, consider limiting folic acid to 400 micrograms a day. A recent study found a higher risk of breast cancer in women who got ar least 1,200 micrograms a day from vitamins and/or fortified foods.

Arch. Intern. Med. 169: 335, 2009,