Macular degeneration – what is it?

Macular degeneration is a disease of the retina that occurs when the central portion of the retina, called the macula, is damaged. The macula is responsible for processing central vision in the eye. It controls how we recognize faces or colors, our ability to read, drive a car, and see fine details. It’s super important that we see an ophthalmologist like Dr. Potthoff to watch for the early signs of this progressive eye disease.

Since macular degeneration affects people as they age, it’s often called age-related macular degeneration or AMD (sometimes ARMD). There are two types of AMD, but the most common form is called dry AMD. In fact, 8 out of 10 people with AMD suffer from the dry form. Parts of the macula get thinner with age and tiny clumps of protein can grow and can cause you to slowly lose your central vision.

 

The other form of macular degeneration, wet AMD, is less common but more serious. With this form, new abnormal blood vessels grow under the retina. These vessels may leak blood or other fluids causing scarring of the macula. You lose your vision much faster with wet macular degeneration which, again, is why seeing an eye doctor regularly as you age is crucial. There is no cure for it but the progression can be slowed down if detected early.

I found, in my research about AMD, that there are a couple of interesting diagnostic tests that are sometimes used.  One is called the Amsler grid test and is fairly rudimentary and the other, called optical coherence tomography (OCT) is pretty high-tech. The Amsler grid is a simple test that utilizes a grid with a dot in the middle. You hold the grid 14-16 inches from your eyes and cover one eye. Focusing only on the dot in the middle, you note if any of the lines appear wavy or blurred, if all boxes look square and the same size or not, or if there are any holes or dark areas. This would help to indicate if you have any central vision issues or not.

 

Here at Potthoff Eye Care & Surgery in Traverse City we have a state-of-the-art OCT imaging device. Optical coherence tomography is similar to ultrasound, except it uses light waves instead of sound waves to produce high resolution images of any tissues that can be penetrated by light, including our eyes! With this technology an eye doctor can see each distinctive layer of your retina. It’s used not just to diagnose AMD, but also to aid in the treatment of glaucoma and diabetic eye disease.

As I mentioned before, there is no cure for macular degeneration, but there are injections of medication that can help slow or stop the leaking of the abnormal blood vessels. Injections in the eye? That doesn’t sound like fun but it’s not as bad as it sounds (easy for me to say, right!). An ophthalmologist uses numbing eye drops prior to the injection too minimize pain. It’s quick and I’m told you really only feel a bit of pressure. That’s good to know because it’s worth keeping your vision from deteriorating due to wet macular degeneration!

There are a number of things that increase your risk of getting age-related macular degeneration and one of them, of course, is age. Once you are 50 years and older your risk increases. Other risks include being overweight, eating foods high in saturated fats such as meat, cheese and butter, smoking, being caucasian, and having a family history of macular degeneration.

There’s no way to treat dry AMD but research shows that some nutritional supplements can help slow it down. Those supplements include Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Lutein, Zinc and Copper. We all remember our moms telling us to eat our carrots because they are good for our eyes. Well, it turns out, that is actually true in more ways than one! Carrots, along with foods like corn, peaches, beans, spinach, lettuce, orange juice, and many other foods contain zeaxanthin.  Zeaxanthin is one of the two primary xanthophyll carotenoids contained within the retina, and specifically within the central macula. So, eat your fruits and veggies just like mom told you to when you were a kid, they really are good for your eyes!!!