The Efficacy Of Treatment Of Age-Related Macular Degeneration With Antioxidant Supplementation.

Age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) is the leading cause of new cases of blindness in the United States for people over the age of 65 years. In people over the age of 75 years, it is estimated that ARMD is present in 33% of this population. (1)
These probably do not reflect the true percentage of patients with this disease since it has been estimated that patients lose approximately 80% of their photoreceptors before one line of Snellen acuity is lost. The disease is often classified into one of two categories. There is the non-exudative (dry-atrophic) form which occurs in approximately 90% of patients afflicted with ARMD and is considered to be the more stable form of the disease.
The exudative (wet-neovascular) form occurs in the remaining 10%
of patients, however, according to the Framingham Eye Study, 79%
of the patients with ARMD and visual acuities of 6/60 or worse
had the exudative form. (2) Because this segment of the
population is steadily growing, the visual consequences to a
large number of people will be enormous, representing a major
public health problem. It is estimated that 7.5 million adult
Americans will have vision loss secondary to ARMD by the year
2020. (3) There have been many articles and studies done to
determine if supplementation with an antioxidant/vitamin/mineral
therapeutic approach is beneficial in managing and/or preventing
ARMD.