Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 9, 1994 TAG: 9411090071
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Orlando Sentinel
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
People who consume diets rich in dark-green leafy vegetables may significantly lower their risk of developing the leading cause of blindness in people over age 65.
The disease, called age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, can progress slowly or rapidly and wipes out vision permanently.
``Macular degeneration is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the United States and other developed countries, and there is no cure,'' said Dr. Johanna Seddon of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston.
Because people over 65 are the fastest-growing segment of the population, Seddon predicts the prevalence of AMD will continue to rise.
Seddon reported her findings in today's Journal of the American Medical Association. Through questionnaires, she examined the dietary histories of 356 people with AMD and 526 people without it.
She found that those who consumed diets rich in deep-green leafy vegetables had the lowest risks for the disease.
``The greater the intake, the lower the risk,'' she said.
In fact, people with the highest dietary intake had a 43 percent lower risk of getting AMD.
A protective effect was evident even when people ate as little as a half-cup of green leafy vegetables a week, she said. Spinach and collard greens appeared to be most beneficial.
While those who ate lots of the vegetables were spared from blindness, Seddon said people who took vitamin supplements were not, suggesting that specific substances in the vegetables saved the subjects from blindness.
If further work proves that such vegetables have a protective effect against AMD, doctors probably will recommend diets rich in the vegetables as a way to prevent it.
Drs. Susan Hankinson and Meir Stampfer of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston cautioned in an accompanying Journal editorial that, despite the good news, additional research is needed.
However, Maitland, Fla., ophthalmologist Dr. Marc Schwartz said he's not waiting for further studies. He plans to recommend that his patients with good vision start eating more of the vegetables now.
The disease involves irreversible destruction of cells in the central portion of the eye - the macula. This is the part of the retina that allows us to discern fine details, such as the words on this page or stitches on a piece of cloth.
There are two ways in which the disorder progresses.
``There is the so-called wet type,'' explained Schwartz, ``where abnormal blood vessels grow into the retina. We use lasers for this. There is also the dry type. No treatment is available, but we monitor it closely to make sure that it doesn't convert to the wet type, which progresses more rapidly.''
Even with laser treatment, which can destroy the errant blood vessels, vision cannot be restored. While some people with AMD maintain peripheral vision and an ability to discern colors, the rest of the visual field is either blurred severely or not perceived at all.
by CNB