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Daily vitamin consumption may save eyesight

Taking daily supplements of antioxidant vitamins and zinc could help more than 300,000 Americans avoid vision toss associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) during the next five years, according to a Nov 10, 2003, news release from Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore. Advanced macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in developed countries.

Ophthalmologists and other scientists estimate that there are eight million people in the United States age 55 and older who are at risk for developing advanced forms of AD and could benefit from daily vitamin use. This number includes individuals with an intermediate stage of AMD in one or both eyes or advanced AMD in one eye. This information is the result of a report on the public health implications of the national Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) published in 2001.

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The AREDS investigation examined 4,757 adults between the ages of 55 and 80 who had varying degrees of AMD. Results show that a dietary supplement of vitamins C and E, beta carotene, and zinc lowered the risk of progressing to an advanced stage of the disease by approximately 25% among people at high risk for late-stage AMD and central vision blindness in both eyes. Daily supplements also reduced the risk of vision toss by approximately 19% but had no preventive effects against development of cataracts or for people without AMD or at an early stage of AMD.

The researchers estimate that without treatment 1.3 million adults will developed advance-stage AMD. Among people with intermediate-stage AMD in one eye, the estimated prevalence of advanced AMD within five years is 6.3%. An estimated 26.4% of people with intermediate-stage AMD in both eyes and 43% of people with advanced AND in one eye will develop advanced AMD in five years without treatment.

Many individuals with intermediate-stage AMD do not experience symptoms; however, regular retina examinations performed by an ophthalmologist could identify those in the intermediate stage. The recommended supplements contain 500 mg of vitamin C, 400 mg of vitamin E, 15 mg of beta carotene, 80 mg of zinc oxide, and 2 mg of cupric oxide.

Daily Vitamins Could Prevent Vision Loss Among Thousands (news release, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Medicine, Nov 20, 2003) http://www.hopkinsmedicine .org/Press_releases/2003/11_10_03a.htm[ (accessed 12 Nov 2003).

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Daily vitamin consumption may save eyesight

AORN Journal, April, 2004

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