Age related macula degeneration Archives

Our Eyes. Our wonderful eyes.

Our eyes were designed for rural and forestry living.

We’ve only had electric or gas lighting for one hundred of the millions of years over which we have developed our eyes. Just one hundred years, less than the blink of an eye, no wonder they are serious risk.

Small wonder. Our eyes have to handle huge demands and long hours of artificial light, caused by:-

office and home lighting
shops, arcades, supermarkets and shopping malls
searchlights, spotlights and stage lighting
photograph / camera flashes
ultra-violet lights in clubs
street lighting and vehicle headlights ( and rear fog lights)
television screens particularly bright white light
computer screens, smartphones and tablets
lasers
plus glare from white painted buildings and glass fronts
plus natural hazards from snow glare and glare from lakes, rivers, seas and oceans

Small wonder our eyes can benefit from extra care and attention including extra lutein to supplement the natural lutein in our eyes. The eyes use this as a natural ultra-violet ray protection and for all “blue” light.

An Open Letter to the Macular Society about Lutein v AMD

Looking at my local Macular support group only two out of twelve members had heard of Lutein and both used it successfully. The others, ten people had never heard of it.

Whilst the Macular Society on their web site support the benefits of Lutein, their quote is buried deep in the turgid detail of a report by scientists. I quote:

“Research supports the theory that high macular pigment levels may reduce your risk of AMD or its progression.Macular pigment can be increased by taking supplements with lutein or zeaxanthin or by changing your diet to include more of them.” Macular Society website.

What they don’t say is that 50% of users found that their eyes stopped deteriorating. They do not state that there is no scientific or statistical support for these same benefits being achieved by changing your diet on its own.

It is my contention that our Macular Society is letting our members down and allowing thousands of members to suffer continuing degradation of their sight unnecessarily.

If I was a cynical person I might think that this situation has occurred because of the financial support given to the Macular Society by the suppliers of assistive technologies. They have a strategic need to find more people with deteriorating eyesight. [They sponsor our annual conference and advertise in our magazine.] But may be that’s unfair.

THIS NEEDS TO CHANGE.

I Propose a new policy for the Macular Society:

Draft 2 for Lutein Policy for the Macular Society to consider.

(28^th september 2014)

“The Facts about Lutein

It is a fact that our eyes have Lutein in the macula.

The AREDS (Age related Eye Disease Study) found that people suffering from AMD got relief from further deterioration by taking supplementary Lutein (with Zeaxanthin) in doses ranging from 10 to 30 mg per day. There were no no side-effects observed.

There is also empirical evidence and some early studies showing that Cataracts cease growing when using the Lutein supplement.

There is increasing professional support of the results of using these supplements and some eye professionals are starting to prescribe them.

The Macular Society is pleased to see these developments and will conduct its own study of our members to try to confirm, or otherwise, the effects of the use of these supplements. In the meantime it is upto each person to find out as much as they can and take their own decision. We will conduct our own study and then we hope to endorse its use fully.

The Macular Society

Dated:…….