Age-Related Vision Loss: Preventive Tips

Human eye is the first imaging system, the retina of which is embedded with tone sensitive and color sensitive receptors. There are around 120 million rods and 6 million cones in the retina of each eye. There are separate sets of sensitive cones for the tree primary colors and are termed as red, blue or green receptors. These receptors supply information to our brain about shape, size and color tone of the images. The central part of the retina of our eyes is called mecula that helps us to see the finer details. With ageing comes the age-related vision loss. Eyes are very delicate organ of our body and with the advancing age need extra care and dietary supplements to offset the age-related degeneration. Age-related macular degeneration(ARMD) is a disease of our eyes that causes progressive degeneration of macula. There are two common types of ARMD: 1) Atrophic or dry ARMD causes the thinning of the mecula and affects the majority of patients, 2) Exudative or wet ARMD may be hemorrhagic and is caused by the development of abnormal blood vessels beneath the epithelial layer of retina. These blood vessels may bleed and cause scarring and loss of central vision in old age. Dry ARMD causes gradual vision loss and the risk can be lowered/prevented through regular eye check-up after the age of 55 years. The early detection of ARMD is the key to save our eyes from age-related vision loss. Treatment of both types of ARMD is available in the Eye Departments/Centers of major hospitals worldwide. The risk of developing ARMD could be lowered by regular intake of Vitamin C, E, beta-carotene and zinc supplements.