November 2003

Vitamin use may prevent vision loss in elderly

You may help your older patients prevent vision loss by recommending certain vitamin supplements. According to an article in the November issue of The Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals, vision loss could be prevented in a large population of people at risk for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) if they took a combination of certain antioxidants and zinc supplements.

AMD is the leading cause of blindness for people aged 65 and older and is caused by the deterioration of the retina. According to the article, in 2001, the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) Research Group reported a reduced risk of advanced AMD and its associated vision loss for study participants with some vision loss who were assigned to high-dose supplementation with antioxidants (vitamin C, vitamin E, and beta carotene) plus zinc as zinc oxide, or zinc alone.

On the basis of these findings, the AREDS Research Group recommended that people with the kinds of vision loss associated with the early stages of macular degeneration consider taking the vitamin supplements used in the study.

The study was supported by contracts from the National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md., with additional support from Bausch & Lomb Inc., Rochester, N.Y

Source: The Archives of Ophthalmology (2003;121:1621-1624).

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