Eye Care Blog

Lutein has long been recommended to prevent age related macular degeneration or reduce the risk of this disease. In fact, macular degeneration is the most common disease occurring in macula, which is the central part of the retina and responsible for central vision. And lutein is a powerful antioxidant that plays a critical role in the eyes. The other role of lutein is pigment in lots of plants. As a pigment, lutein makes up the color of many green leafy vegetables as well as other plants.

Age related macular degeneration is now affecting a considerable group of people in the world. To some extent, this eye disease can be effectively prevented because it is caused by external UV rays and blue light. Macular degeneration is a chronic disease that progresses quite slowly. At the very beginning, the macula in the retina becomes thinner and thinner and gradually dries out. In this process, lutein as a natural component of the macula will also thin, causing a lutein deficiency. The shrinkage of the macula usually causes dry macular degeneration. Without early treatment, it will progress into wet form of macular degeneration that is more serious and involves abnormal blood vessel growth. In severe cases, vision loss could happen.

Lutein is an effective inhibitor of harmful rays that potentially cause age related macular degeneration. Degeneration in the macula results from photo-oxidation caused by blue wavelength in the sunlight. The effectiveness of lutein in preventing macular degeneration comes exactly from its capability of absorbing this blue wavelength. In addition, lutein in the eyes can fight against radical rays.

Appreciating the benefits of lutein nutrient, people should also know where to get this substance. Since the macula can not reproduce lutein after one’s birth, the only way is to ask external resources for help. Dark green leafy vegetables such as spinach and lots of fruits are good sources. If one person can not get adequate lutein from daily foods, there are still various supplements available.

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Zeaxanthin is a kind of inborn nutrition of eye. The light reflected by objects will be projected onto zeaxanthin and a picture or imagination is formed. The information of the picture will be transmitted to brain and the objects are seen.

Zexanthiin is located in an area called macular that locates at retina. So there is a common problem that may happen onto macular, called macular degeneration. It is an age-related problem. So it is also called AMD (age-related macular degenearation).

One the main component of macular is zezanthin, a background pigment of eye. Also, lutein is another important substance. And the two substances play crucial role in the health of eye.

After some chemical conversion, the two substances will turn into Vitamin A. if people do not intake sufficient these substance, they may suffer from some horrible problems, as skin-related diseases, eye problems or even death.

Some studies have found that there are some direct connection among some diseases and some nutrients. If people are in lack of carotenoids and some minerals, they may suffer from some serious diseases.

Experts can not tell the specific functions of these minerals or other substances. Though people just need very small amounts of these nutrients, many people have paid little attention to them, especially in their foods.

Some studies have found that there are over 1million suffers of AMD in the U.S. Such disease can be avoided by taking sufficient zaxanthin and lutein. Of course, other nutrients are also important.

Some studies have revealed that AMD is a disease that can be inherited. One may run much higher risk of getting AMD than other common people if his or her parents are suffers of this disease. This may be related with some genes.

For example, it seems that some specific nutrients are not very important for human body. But among the people who are inherited sufferers of AMD, their bodies can not produce these substances automatically. That’s to say there are some defects in their genes.

AMD can also be caused by some bad habits or physical diseases. Obesity, diabetics, dietary fat, etc. can also lead to AMD. Some investigations have disclosed that many American maintain very bad diet habits. For instance, they eat too much fat every day.

However, foods can not provide sufficient nutrients that people need. Some professors hold that people should intake some supplements of lutein and zeaxanthin if they want to keep health in the long run.

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As we grow old, we are prone to a serious eye disease, namely, Macular Degeneration, also called Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). This disease can lead to very serious vision loss with little side vision. Some studies have revealed that choroids Neovascularization is responsible for this problem.

In fact, there are two kinds of AMD, namely, dry AMD and wet AMD.

Dry AMD is the commonest type and many suffers can not realize it until several years later. This is because the worsening process of dry AMD is not easy to detect. But it will erupt some day. Gradually, dry form will become of wet form. So, wet AMD is results of dry AMD.

Wet AMD is relatively less than dry form in the number of suffers. It can lead to much horrible outcomes. Sufferers will suffer from instant central vision loss. Sometimes, two eyes may suffer from differ forms of AMD. And sufferers will have to stand the quick loss of central vision in one eye. Why the wet form is much horrible than the dry form?

There is a tissue layer under the macula through which are some blood vessels. However, once these vessels become fragile, blood will be leaked out. And the blood will cause some damages onto the macula cells. Macula is the part that is responsible for central vision.

With blood in the macula, the central vision is greatly influenced and the vision of sufferers is greatly lost. But other parts of the eyes still work, and the side vision is still maintained.

What have caused this disease? It is caused by bad habits. Too much fat in the foods, smoking, lack of antioxidants, etc. are typical reasons for this disease.

More info

Types and treatments of macular degeneration

Factors associated with macular degeneration

Diet and supplements for eye health

Age-related macular degeneration, also known as AMD, is one of the most common eye problems in the world. About six million people are qualified as being at the risk of eyes or suffering from optical affliction in America. People consider it an unavoidable disease and they often feel frustrated about the result, because until recently the treatments for AMD are not very satisfying. Fortunately, there finally come to some tiny delighted news, which is by taking enough antioxidants the AMD problem can be slowed down.

We know most forms of eye diseases are induced by the breakdown of light-sensitive cells in the macular, which is situated at the center of retina at the back of eyes. However, the cause of AMD is due to the loss of eyesight in both center and peripheral part of eyes. Furthermore, there are mainly two kinds of AMD, like wet AMD and dry AMD. Wet AMD, also called neovascular AMD, is caused by excessive fluid under the macular as a result of new blood vessels’ leakage. And dry AMD, is caused by the layer of retinal pigment epithelial cells in the macular becoming too and finally breakdown.

We should thank the optimistic consequence that antioxidants will help in some way to cure AMD. I heard one researcher expressed his regret for not knowing the conclusion earlier. He says if he had known the discovery and began to take antioxidants earlier, he, as well as thousands of suffers, would delay the time of AMD disease attack.

You are suggested to take the antioxidants every day for the sake of your eyes, in the form of common foods, like fruits and vegetables. But the problem is there are not enough dosage of antioxidants in your food you had every day, so sometimes we‘d better to take pills, tablets and capsules to add the dosage. If you are already a high risk suffers of AMD and want to add some antioxidants to your diet, you can begin by taking them in the form of a high potency supplement.

Reference article：

·AMD treatments that are under trials and researches

·FDA-approved treatments for AMD

·Various ways to prevent AMD

For those 200,000 AMD patients within an average year in US, the most effective treatment that approved by FDA is Lucentis. It brings hope to wet AMD patients by stopping and sometimes reversing vision loss, which is a huge breakthrough. Yet another drug that is similar to Lucentis is also under wide discussion, which is named Avastin. But Avastin is much cheaper than Lucentis, so that many doctors recommend Avastin for low-income individuals.

However, Avastin has not received FDA approval for ophthalmic uses. Based on safety issues, Genentech also restricts the sale of Avastin to compounding pharmacies for ocular uses. Both Lucentis and Avastin are owned by this company. Since the FDA has expressed no concern about the Avastin’s off label uses for AMD, many eye doctors argue that Genentech should allow Avastin to be directly sold to both physicians and compounding pharmacies. If only physicians have access to Avastin, doctors at the American Academy of Ophthalmology protest that many lower income people will be deprived of this sight-saving drug. The fact is that Lucentis cost an average of $2,000, while Avastin only needs $150.

During the widely off-label uses of Avastin, this treatment has not been proved to be as effective as Lucentis, or even more effective. No clinical study has made a comparison between the two AMD treatments. The most concern is their price discrepancy. Even if Medicare and other health insurance plans offset parts of the Lucentis expense, it is still much more expensive than Avastin. For example, patients with Medicare may only need to pay a 20% of co-payment for Lucentis, which equals about $400.

Genentech has given explanations about its different policies of the two drugs. Genentech officials say that the high price of Lucentis comes from its special development and its considerable expense of clinical trials. Lucentis is administered in the form of smaller molecules, which are more effective in controlling abnormal blood vessels. The company also claims that they will not conduct new trials for Avastin, since Lucentis has already got FDA approval and is a promising AMD solution. The good news may be that the US government is likely to fund the comparison between Lucentis and Avastin.

While the initial use of Avastin for colon and other cancers was reported to arouse risks of stroke and heart attack, its use for macular degeneration has brought no negative side effects. Most of the doctors are positive about the Avastin’s long-term safety risks. Due to its low price, researchers encourage the use of Avastin. There are also concerns that Avastin may be unable to penetrate the eye’s retina effectively. The undergoing two-year NEI clinical trails may settle down all these controversies.