Antioxidants Won't Stop Age-related Macular Degeneration

Filed in archive Diet , Dietary Supplements and Vitamins , Eye Health , Studies on October 11, 2007

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a degenerative eye disease which is the leading cause of blindness in older people.




While antioxidants have always been associated in the prevention and delay of some serious conditions, especially cancer - because antioxidants scavenge free-radicals thereby preventing the damage they can cause such as contributing to cardiovascular disease and cancer, among others.

That's what is true for dietary antioxidants, those that are found naturally mostly in fruits and vegetables, but in terms of supplementary antioxidants, recent studies have nullified its effects. Supplement form of antioxidants doesn't seem to work in many cases.

Now, according to a new study reported in the British Medical Journal, a diet rich in antioxidant vitamins and minerals does not seem to prevent age related macular degeneration.

Antioxidants (such as vitamin C, vitamin E, various types of carotenoids, and zinc) are thought to reduce oxidative damage to the retina. But the evidence to support the role of dietary antioxidants in preventing macular degeneration remains unclear.

Researchers at the Centre for Eye Research Australia: University of Melbourne came to the said conclusion from the analysis of the role of dietary antioxidants or dietary supplements in the primary prevention of age related macular degeneration.

The antioxidants investigated differed across studies, but when results were pooled they showed that vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, zinc, lutein, zeaxanthin, α- carotene, β-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin and lycopene have little or no effect in the primary prevention of early age-related macular degeneration.

Well, that goes to show that anything age-related such as AMD cannot really be prevented or even delayed. We just have to live healthier in order not to hasten the degenerative condition such as AMD by not smoking (for starters) which increases our susceptibility to AMD.

Find more details from Science Daily and the BMJ Abstract.