Age-related macular degeneration, which affects an estimated 2.5 million Canadians, is the leading cause of vision loss in people over 55. A condition that damages the macula, which is the bulls-eye section of the retina at the back of the eye, AMD can ultimately rob people of their central vision, which normally allows us to see details like print on a page or a friend’s facial features.
One of the great medical advances in the last few decades was the discovery of injectable medications that can slow the progression of an advanced form of AMD.
Like many treatments, however, these injections aren’t a one and done affair. They typically need to be repeated—starting with a series of three injections a month apart, and then every three or four months, depending on how the eye is responding.
A Good Times reader who has been having these treatments in one eye, wrote to the magazine to ask what would likely happen if she stopped getting these injections. Would she retain the remaining vision in her affected eye? And what were her chances of developing AMD in her ‘good’ eye in the future?
You can learn that and more in my latest (October/November 2022) ‘Your Health Questions’ column for Good Times: ‘Vision Loss and AMD.’
If you’d like to find out more about the specific supplements that can help reduce the chance AMD will progress to a severe stage of the disease, you can do so by searching for ‘AREDS’ on either of the following sites:
My heartfelt thanks to the specialists who generously shared their time and expertise:
- Dr. Phil Hooper, a retina-trained ophthalmologist, associate professor at Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry in London, Ont., and president of the Canadian Ophthalmological Society.
- Dr. Tom Sheidow, an ophthalmologist with the Ivey Eye Institute at St. Joseph’s Health Care London (Ont.).
Image by Harpreet Singh Courtesy of Unsplashb