Complaints & connections · borters.ch
The spot of sharpest vision suffers — reading gets hard, orientation remains.
Also known as: age-related macular degeneration · AMD
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
Wear of the macula (the spot of sharpest vision) — distorted or missing central vision while the outer field remains. Main risks: age, smoking, genetics. In the wet form, injections into the eye can help. Certain nutrient combinations (lutein/zeaxanthin, zinc, vitamins C/E, omega-3) can slow progression (AREDS studies). In the dry form certain nutrient combinations (following the AREDS trials) can slow progression.
A sheet with a grid pattern, each eye on its own, glasses on. Bent lines or a grey patch that is new belong at the eye doctor within days — with the wet form every week counts.
It doubles to triples the risk and speeds up the course. Stopping smoking works more strongly here than any supplement.
Injections into the eye halt the course for many and often even improve sight. But they have to be repeated regularly — keeping the appointments is the actual treatment here.
Dark green leafy vegetables, fish once or twice a week and protection from strong light are among the measures one holds oneself. Certain supplements come into question with the advanced dry form — the eye doctor decides that.
Strong magnifiers, screen readers, text-to-speech and above all very bright, glare-free light make reading possible again, even when the middle is missing. This advice often comes far too late.
In the wet form, injections into the eye block a growth factor and dry up the leaking vessels — they preserve sight and must be repeated regularly. In the dry form there is no such option; there, stopping smoking and the AREDS nutrients count. Sight already lost does not return in either case.
About one in eight people over sixty and nearly one in three over eighty are affected. The dry form makes up around nine in ten cases and advances slowly over years; the wet form can cause a marked loss within weeks — which is why sudden distorted vision is a reason to be seen within days. Injections into the eye are given monthly at first and later as needed; they hold the state, they do not restore it.
Door frames, tile joints, window bars, the lines of a newspaper ripple or have a kink. That is the most important early sign — and it is only noticed with one eye covered.
While reading letters are missing in the middle of the word, faces look smeared while everything around stays clear. The vision at the edge is kept — one does not go blind in the room.
Suddenly the lamp has to be right beside the book, and after going from bright to dark it takes long before anything can be seen again.
If the distortion or the patch clearly increases within days, that speaks for the wet form. It can be treated, and the treatment is time-critical — here days count, not months.
No value detects the illness — examination of the retina and a scan do. Diet does demonstrably play a part, though, and this value reflects it.
The risk factors for the vessels overlap with those for the retina. Smoking is the strongest single factor among them.
Belongs to general supply, not to the diagnosis. For the eyes themselves the regular checks and the Amsler grid count for more than any blood value.
Women are affected more often, partly because of the longer life expectancy. A protective effect of hormone treatment could not be shown in the large studies.
In small studies melatonin was tested for its role in the eye; the results are not enough for a statement. What did work in large trials was a particular nutrient combination in advanced dry form — and stopping smoking.
Lutein and zeaxanthin are the pigments of the macula itself; studied in large trials as a brake on the course.
Tested in the same series of trials; there they showed no additional benefit.
Anthocyanins are traditionally used for the retina; the studies are small.