Taking a cocktail of vitamin supplements helped women to reduce their risk of age-related macular degeneration, according to a new study. This may prove to be a simple way of helping people protect their vision as they age.
Taking a cocktail of vitamin supplements helped women to reduce their risk of age-related macular degeneration, according to a new study. This may prove to be a simple way of helping people protect their vision as they age.
A double-blind clinical trial of supplements containing B vitamins was carried out of a group of women with heart disease, or at risk of it. The number of cases of age-related macular degeneration was then recorded during follow up and the vitamins found to have a significant protective effect.
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of vision loss among older people. While there are some new treatment options, these are not suitable in all cases. And little is known on how to prevent AMD, save from quitting smoking. Recent research has uncovered a link between AMD and high levels of the amino acid homocysteine which is also a risk factor for heart disease. Treatment with vitamin B6, vitamin B12 and folic acid are known to lower homocysteine levels. Therefore, could supplementation perhaps help reduce the risk of AMD via reducing homocysteine?
Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, carried out a trail on 5,442 women aged 40 and older who already either had heart disease or who had risk factors for it. At the start, 5,205 of the women were free of AMD. They were assigned to take either a supplement or a placebo. The supplement consisted of 2.5 milligrams a day or folic acid, 50 milligrams a day of vitamin B6 and one milligram a day of vitamin B12. Incidences of AMD were tracked.
Over an average of 7.3 years of treatment and follow-up, 137 new cases of AMD were recorded. Of these, there were 55 cases in the active treatment group, of which 26 were visually significant while 82 in the placebo group developed AMD, of which there were 44 visually significant cases. Therefore, women on supplements had a 34 percent lower risk of any AMD and a 41 percent lower risk of visually significant AMD. The benefit began to emerge at two years of follow up.
This is the strongest evidence so far that B vitamins are beneficial in supplement form in preventing AMD. The protective effect may act through lowering homocysteine levels, though there may also be an antioxidant effect exerted by the vitamins on the eyes.
Copyright 2013 NewsFix.ca
NewsFix Media, LLC
