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VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR NATIONWIDE STUDY ON EFFECT OF ANTIOXIDANTS AND FISH OIL ON AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION
November 20, 2006
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — The UC Davis Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Science is participating in a nationwide study to see if a modified combination of vitamins, minerals and fish oil can further slow the progression of vision loss from age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss in the United States for people over age 60.
Sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, the study, called the Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2, will build upon results from an earlier study, the Age-Related Eye Disease Study. The original study results were released five years ago. That study found that high-dose antioxidant vitamins and minerals (vitamins C and E, beta-carotene, zinc, and copper), taken by mouth, reduced the risk of progression to advanced age-related macular degeneration by 25 percent, and the risk of moderate vision loss by 19 percent.
Lawrence S. Morse, professor of ophthalmology and the principal investigator of the study at UC Davis, said, “The new study is seeking people between 50 and 85 years of age with age-related macular degeneration in both eyes or advanced disease in one eye. They must be available for yearly eye examinations for at least five years. Until we get the results from our latest study, we encourage people with age-related macular degeneration to visit their eye-care professional to see if they need to take a vitamin and mineral formulation. This alone could save many people from vision loss over the next five years.”
Paul A. Sieving, director of the National Eye Institute, said, “Nearly two million Americans have vision loss from advanced age-related macular degeneration, and another seven million with the disorder are at substantial risk for vision loss. In the original study, we found a combination of vitamins and minerals that effectively slowed the progression of age-related macular degeneration for some people. Now, we will conduct this more precisely targeted study to see if the new combination of nutrients can reduce macular degeneration progression even further. This study may help people at high risk for advanced disease maintain useful vision for a longer time.”
The new study will refine the findings of the original study by adding lutein and zeaxanthin (plant-derived yellow pigments that accumulate in the macula, the small area responsible for central vision near the center of the retina) and the omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA (derived from fish and vegetable oils) to the study formulation. The main study objective is to determine if these nutrients will decrease a person's risk of progression to advanced age-related macular degeneration, which often leads to vision loss. Previous observational studies have suggested these nutrients may protect vision.
Age-related macular degeneration damages the macula, the portion of the retina responsible for central vision. The disorder can take two forms, wet and dry. The wet form is caused by the abnormal growth of blood vessels under the macula. This leads to rapid loss of central vision. Wet macular degeneration is more severe than the dry form. The dry form is more common. It occurs when the light-sensitive cells in the macula slowly break down. Untreated dry macular degeneration can progress into the wet form.
For eligibility requirements, how to enroll in the study and other information, go to:
The National Eye Institute is part of the National Institutes of Health and is the federal government's lead agency for vision research that leads to sight-saving treatments and plays a key role in reducing visual impairment and blindness.