Jane Hamilton, sixty-eight years old, sat on her front porch steps admiring the pot of purple petunias. Since it had been a while since she checked her eyes, Jane covered her left eye and was pleased that the petunias were as beautiful as ever. Then she uncovered her left eye and covered her right eye, and the petunias disappeared. She could see the pot and surrounding walk and grass, but the petunias were gone. She knew her dry macular degeneration had gone to wet.
Years before, Jane's eye doctor found soft drusen behind her retina. These drusen later evolved into dry macular degeneration. Now Jane has wet macular degeneration and the center blindness that marks this disease.
Soft Drusen Are the Precursor to Age-Related Macular Degeneration
According to The Eye Digest, young people often have hard drusen, which are round yellow lesions with well- defined borders in the retina. These hard drusen are not problematic. It is when the hard drusen become soft that age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is present in the eye. The soft drusen as defined by The Eye Digest are "pale yellow and large with ill-defined margins. In persons over the age of 55 years, soft drusens, particularly those larger than 63 µm (micrometers), are a sign of age-related maculopathy."
AMD is the leading cause of blindness. The problem happens in the retina of the eye and one losses their central vision. The central vision, if lost, prevents people from seeing faces, reading print or watching television. Persons with AMD monitor their vision by using the Amsler Grid Chart. This chart has lines going up and down and sideways, with a dot in the center. Patients view the dot and check to see if the lines around it are wavy. If what they see is a vision change they must see their Retina Specialist as soon as possible because of the chance that the change may lead to blindness.
According to the American Society of Retina Specialists, there are some risk factors you can control including smoking, obesity, high blood pressure and too much fat in your diet, but some you cannot control, such as age, family history, gender (women are more apt to get AMD ),and race (AMD is more common among Caucasians).
Dry Macular Degeneration
Many people get dry macular degeneration. It does not cause severe vision loss. The main problem with dry AMD is psychological, because the patient knows that anytime, their dry macular degeneration can become wet. Dry or wet AMD can affect either both eyes, or just one. At this stage, extra care must be taken of the eyes, such as wearing sunglasses that block blue light (usually with a yellow tint) constantly when outdoors, quitting smoking and taking special vitamins for the eyes. There are several brands in the pharmacy for eye health. As a precaution though, if you ever smoked or continue to smoke, choose a brand that does not contain beta-carotene as the chance of contacting lung cancer can increase with beta-carotene.
Wet Macular Degeneration
Wet AMD is caused by "abnormal growth of leaky blood vessels in the retina, which will damage the retina," according to an AARP October 2005 bulletin. There now is an injection that can stop the leaking, but you must see your doctor as soon as possible.
With 7,000 baby boomers eligible to retire every day, the pharmaceutical companies will have a big enough pool of elderly patients that will make it worthwhile to research for a cure for AMD.
