The Human Biology in Medical Field

Posts Tagged ‘Degeneration’

by pmarkham

Article by Mark Hermes

by pmarkham

Article by Dr Carlo Rinaudo

Do you suffer from Age Related Macular Degeneration, or know someone who does, then having an understanding of this condition is a must. Knowing about its presentation, typical signs and symptoms, and preventative measures is a great way of avoiding this common condition.

Age related macular degeneration is one of the leading causes of blindness in the elderly population. This eye disease will gradually destroy the sharp, central vision of the eye. This is the main part of your vision. Without the central vision, you will no longer be able to read, drive or perform routine daily tasks.

Macular degeneration affects the part of the eye called the macula. The macula is located right in the center of the retina. The retina is the tissue that lines the back of the eye and it is very light sensitive. The job of the retina is to convert light or images into electrical impulses and send these impulses to the brain.

There are two types of macular degeneration. There is ‘wet age’ and ‘dry age’ related macular degeneration. The type of degeneration you have will determine how fast you can lose your eyesight.

Wet age related macula degeneration happens because blood vessels behind the retina will start to form underneath the macula. These blood vessels have a tendency to leak fluid and sometimes blood.

When the vessels behind the macula begin to leak fluid, this will raise the macula from it’s normal spot. This will damage the macula quickly and loss of central vision will occur. This type of age related macular degeneration is sometimes referred to as advanced age related macular disease.

Dry age related macular degeneration occurs when light sensitive cells in the macula slowly break down. This cell breakdown will cause central vision to diminish, and will usually occurs in one eye only. Over time, the other eye may be affected with dry age related retinal degeneration.

The most common form of age related macular degeneration is the dry form of degeneration, with over 85% of the affected people.

There is no guaranteed cure for wet or dry age related macular degeneration. If you have wet macular disease, laser treatments and injections can slow down the vision loss, but it does not mean that the vision loss will not come back.

If you have the advanced form of dry age related macular degeneration, there is no treatment. If you are not in the advanced stage, your doctor may prescribe specific daily amounts of antioxidants. This formulation is not a cure for dry age related macular degeneration. This specific formulation of antioxidants will not restore your vision but it may slow down the progression of advanced dry age related retinal degeneration.

If you notice any changes in your vision, you should see your eye care professional right away. The sooner you get a diagnosis the sooner you can start treatment.

To find out more helpful tips and information with Eye and Vision Care, be sure to visit the Eyesight Correction and Vision Conditions website.

by pmarkham

Retina is located in the inner layer of the wall of eyeball. It is a kind of transparent membrane. Retina is composed of epithelial layer of pigment and sensory layer of retina. When the diseases occur, epithelial layer and sensory layer can be separated. Generally speaking, the epithelial layer is closely connected with choroid membrane. It is composed of epithelial cells of pigment which can support and nourish the reproduction and restoration of cells in the photoreceptor. According to the modern research, each 100 grams of spinach contains 2.4 grams of protein, 3.1 grams of carbohydrates, 72 milligrams of calcium, 53 milligrams of phosphorus, 1.8 milligrams of iron, 3.5 milligrams of carotene and 39 milligrams of vitamin C. What’s more, the contents of vitamin E, folic acid and trace elements like potassium are also high. The nutrients contained in spinach are relatively balanced, so spinach can effectively improve the physical health of the human body. The experts in America have proved that the substances extracted from spinach can effectively resist oxidation to improve the anti-oxidation for the human body. The flavonoid in spinach can also deal with senile macular degeneration and aging for people. Therefore, spinach can effectively defer the aging for the human body. The research proves that the adequate intake of fruits and vegetables can decrease the risks of getting apoplexy and high blood pressure. This is because the content of potassium is rather high. At the same time, the research proves that the frequent intake of spinach can effectively decrease the risks of getting retinal degeneration by 50%. The aged can eat spinach at least two times a week. The retinal degeneration can cause various eye diseases among the aged. The abundant carotenoid contained in spinach can effectively prevent the hurt caused by the strong sunlight to the retina. In addition, the vitamin C, vitamin E and folic acid contained in spinach can restrain the formation and chronic pigmentation of melanin in the skin so as to prevent the generation of chloasma and age pigment. The spinach can also prevent various diseases for the human body. The nutritional value and medical value of spinach are high. Therefore, people can moderately increase the intake in daily life. However, it is necessary for people to blanch spinach in the boiled water before they eat, as the oxalic acid contained in the food can hurt the human health to some degrees.

Find More Retinal Degeneration Articles

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This is a disease of the older generation. One that I had not heard of before my father started showing signs of it. Taking ample amounts of omega 3 may prevent it.

It is a progressive disease that affects your center vision. Centre vision is required to be able to read and drive. The people suffering from this disease need to give up driving, and need a special magnifying glass, which lights up in order to read.

The disease can affect one or both the eyes. It is one of the main cause of blindness in the people who are over the age of 60.

People who are aware of this disease, shudder with fright as they approach 60 years of age. As I am searching for help for my father, I am also aware that the disease is hereditary. You need to look for ways to prevent this disease catching up with you in the later stages of life.

Taking omega 3 supplements in the early ages could help to prevent this disease in the old age.

The macula tissue is present in the middle of the retina. The retina is sensitive to light. The retina’s job is to change light or pictures into electrical impulses and send them onto the brain.

Macular degeneration are of two types.

The first one is known as wet macular degeneration. It is caused by the abnormal growth of the blood vessels behind the retina. The blood vessels are very delicate and can possibly let blood or fluids leak out. This makes the macula to rise out of the normal spot at the back of the eye. When this happens, the damage to the macula is rapid.

The blindness that sets in rapidly, is known as as Advanced Macular Degeneration.

You can watch for early symptoms of AMD by using a chart. This chart has intersecting lines on it. It sort of looks like graph paper. There is a dot in the middle of each intersecting line. If these lines appear wavy as you test them with each eye, covering each eye one by one, then you need to see your eye specialist right away.

The second type is dry AMD. The dry type starts when the light sensitive tissues in the macula slowly break down. Your central vision slowly becomes blurred. As the dry AMD worsens, a blurry spot appears in the central vision. With the passage of time condition gets worse, you could loose your sight in the affected eye.

Drusen is the earliest symptom of AMD. Drusen can be diagnosed by the eye doctor in a routine eye examination when they dilate your pupils. They are yellow spots found under the retina. It is normally found in people over 60 years of age. If there is an increase in the number of these yellow spots or their size, it’s a sign of them possibly developing either type of the AMD ending in loosing sight.

Apart from age, the other risk factors for developing AMD are:

Smoking
Obesity
Race
Family history and gender.

Changes in your lifestyle that could make a difference are:

Eating a good diet of green leafy vegetables and fish
Keeping your blood pressure under control
Maintaining a healthy weight
Regular Exercise. And definitely don’t smoke.

Another change in lifestyle, you could adopt could be to add more Omega 3 to your diet. As mentioned above, include fish in your diet. Not everyone enjoys eating fish. There are a variety of ways to get Omega 3 and a good way to know you are getting enough is to take supplements.

My father is almost blind now. I hope that the disease does not progress any further. We have put him on Omega 3 supplements hoping it will stall the disease. Only time will tell. As for others, try to prevent it before it happens to you.

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Florida is a lovely place where fine climate and many amenities are provided; therefore, people living there feel rather comfortable and the age of the average Floridian is older than almost anywhere else in the U.S. Breathing fresh air and embarking healthy activities everyday, Floridian seem to be far away from diseases. Nevertheless, macular degeneration, a common eye diseases among senior citizens, fifty and beyond, keep them from enjoying their Florida retirement to its fullest.

Macular degeneration is always age related, therefore, it is usually referred as AMD.It can be concluded from its name easily that it is a weakening of the macula. The sufferers would feel hard to view objects in center, but there is no problem in viewing those in periphery. What’s more, objects directly in front become blurry and out-of-focus. As a result, it would seriously affect the patients’ normal lives.

There are two types of macular degeneration, the wet one and dry one.

The dry macular degeneration is more common than the wet one, which occurs in about 10% of cases. The former is chronic, the slow deterioration of the macula, while the latter is caused by an abnormal build-up of blood-vessels in the eye. The rate of blindness of the latter one is of high possibility.

When encountering those conditions, specialists in Florida would advice their patients to keep a healthy diet. Spinach, kale, collard greens and other dark, leafy green vegetables are recommended. Some salt-water fish such as cod or salmon are also advisable, because they are rich in omega-3 fatty acids which performs well in AMD prevention. Besides, some health products, such as antioxidant vitamins and minerals containing zinc, are candidates for the prevention.

However, they should be taken under the guidance of a doctor. Never take them as you wish and like.

Actually, prevention is better than treatment, which means that when one enters 50s, they should pay attention to their diets and learn about risk factors concerned, for a small bad habit may constitute an incentive triggering macular degeneration. Therefore, keeping yourself from tobacco and alcohol is necessary, besides, regular eye examinations is helpful as well.

Related Articles:

Causes and treatments for macular degeneration

New discoveries of macular degeneration

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The number of people who want a treatment for a Macular degeneration is very high nowadays. Research says that almost every people have the consciousness for the sickness and thus, they are able to come for an early treatment. On the other hand, the disease is also increasing its roots among a large number of people. The macular degeneration is medically known as age-related macular degeneration or ARMD. Currently, it is also known as SMD or senile macular degeneration. The disease infects the macula, which is an important section of the retina. This is related to the central vision. The central vision is what we see directly. Many times, the disease leads to a permanent loss of vision. The disease can occur due to so many reasons like age, sex, environmental factors, obesity, smoking, pigmentation, the color of the iris etc.

The Macular degeneration symptoms include a blurred eye and a decrease in the central section and a coldness in the vision. In an initial stage, many patients ignore the vision problem and thus the condition goes worsen in a final stage. The person will also have scotomas and blind spots. It indicates a severe loss in the macular function. The straight lines inside the eyes may appear bent; this is medically known as metamorphopsia. Thus, the person suffering with the illness can see a same object in a different color and different shape. The Macula will also have swelling. Many times the patient looks the big object as small one when suffering with the infection.

The other type of Glaucoma is named as narrow angle glaucoma. This is also a major type of Glaucoma, which occurs with as a harassment of sudden eye pain and an increased pressure. The disease can affect the people of any and every age group. The patients eyes can look very red. The eyes can also have holes, especially, around the bright lights. The disease can also result in headache and vomiting. Some people are also born with narrow angles of blood circulation.

This eye sickness is tested through a Tonometry. This test recognizes the force inside the eyes. The physical experts use many types of tonometers. The other test is known as Pahcymetry. This is actually a new type of method to diagnose the thickness of the cornea. Before the test, the doctors insert some drops inside the eyes. Then, he gives a slight touch to the frontal surface of the eyes or cornea. The physical experts also check the visual fields. The other test is known as Ophthalmoscopy. In this test, the doctors utilize an equipment to look on to the pupil directly. Some medications like Timonol, Metipranolol and Carteolol are some of those medications that are given as an oral intake. The drops named as Adrenergic agonists have apraclonidine and dipivefrin in its family. The others are Carbonic anhydrase inhibitors eye drops. This includes brinzolamide and Dorzolamide in its group. Parasympathomimetic agents are also in the group of medicines. The drops that are in the family are isoflurophate, echothiophate, demecarium and Pilocarpine. If the patient is suffering with a sudden occurrence of narrow angle glaucoma, the physical experts usually suggest the Osmotic agents.

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Article by Matt Murren

It has recently been found that new surgery techniques may be able to not only arrest but also boost your vision and provide you with relief from macular degeneration (for both the dry macular as well as the wet macular types).

But first, let’s see the group of people who are generally found to have AMD. Around 1.6 million Americans which are over the age of 50 have been seen to have the later stage of AMD. This figure includes people who are afflicted by geographic atrophy along with those who also have wet or exudative AMD. These statistics do not include the number of people who have been diagnosed with early and intermediate stages of AMD.

Preserving Your General Vision

Surgery involving Thermal Laser Photocoagulation has been practiced from the early ’70′s. There are many who feel that the use of traditional thermal laser procedures for people with wet AMD are still the better choice for people with clear and well-defined extrafoveal or juxtafoveal macular lesions.

Thermal laser surgery seeks to destroy those leaking blood vessels which are growing underneath your retina, and make the macula bulge in your eye, which ultimately damages it and distorts your vision. It is seen that this form of treatment is ideally suited for when these leaking blood vessels have not yet grown under your macula, but are found to be away from the center of your macula. The heat from the focused laser beam tends to destroy surrounding tissue as well, sometimes causing healthy tissue to be lost during the process, causing blind spots. In order to clear the leaking blood vessels found under your macula with the laser, damage would also be caused to the macula along with the leaking blood vessels. Due to this fact, just 15% of wet AMD patients qualify for laser surgery. Due to this fact, it is imperative that there should be early detection of wet AMD.

When you opt for thermal laser therapy, abnormal blood vessels are removed by focusing a hot beam of light on the retina. The procedure is generally done once, and shows good results. Dr. Ginsburg states that a patient’s vision is not likely to improve, but it also won’t get any worse. This therapy causes scarring, but people are unlikely to notice it. This procedure is ideally suited for patients with leaking vessels which are not in the central region of our retina.

Undergoing photodynamic therapy (PDT) involves using a cold laser to activate the chemical properties of a drug, which has been injected into you prior to the commencement of the operation. This drug tends to stick to your new blood vessels. The drug manages to close off your leaking vessels without causing any damage to your retinal area. With this treatment, more than one sitting is generally required, and there is loss of vision when your doctor shines a laser beam into the eye. Your doctor will also recommend something for the pain you may feel. You will need to do many follow-up visits, and may also need to go in for follow-up Fluorescein angiography tests.

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Macular degeneration is one of the common age related eye diseases. There are a large number of aged people suffering from low vision caused by macular degeneration. The following will give some introduction on the causes, symptoms, and macular degeneration devices to help people maximize the remaining vision, read ahead.

If we want to learn about macular degeneration, we should know macula first. The macula is located in the center part of the retina, which is in charge of the detail vision, such as reading, knitting, driving or other daily tasks. If there is damage to macula by bleeding, a thinning of the tissue, or even a wasting away of the tissue, people will suffer from macular degeneration and can not see detailed information clearly. At the beginning, people may suffer from slight vision loss, if left untreated, finally people may suffer from blindness. Therefore, we can see it is important to have our eyes tested regularly in order to find out the eye problem and treat it in time.

One of the common causes for macular degeneration is due to age factor. When people are at their 40s or 50s, the macula will become weak, and they will have a low central vision. Another cause is the family history, which means if there are family members who have macular degeneration, the other members may also have this kind of eye disease. Besides, there are some people who have the genes which can put them under the risk for developing macular degeneration. For example, people who have high cholesterol, or high blood pressure will be more likely to develop macular degeneration. If we find we have blurred vision or part of vision loss, we should visit our eye doctor immediately to do a complete eye test.

In order to take some precautions for age related eye diseases, we can have some food rich in beta-carotene and Vitamins like lutein and zeaxanthin, however, this can not treat macular degeneration. Instead, we should use some new drugs which have a good effect in resisting against macular problem. Moreover, we can also resort to some devices for help. The aim of the devices is to maximize our remaining vision and help us to see detailed information clearly. Take the telescopic lens as an example, there is a tiny telescope on the lens, when we need to see detailed information, we can look through the telescope lens which can magnify the information, and for other works, we can just look through the prescription glass. It works just like bifocal reading glasses. There are various devices available for macular degeneration, and we can choose the most suitable one according to our eye condition and eye doctors advice.

If you want to know more about vision knowledge, then feel free to visit http://vision.firmoo.com/eye-diseases

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Article by Gordon P Hall

If you want to reduce your risk of macular degeneration, you want more than zeaxanthin tablets, alone can provide, according to recent studies.  Researchers have found that there is a reduced risk of the condition among people that have high circulating blood levels of other carotenoids, too.

The carotenoids are nutrients found in a broad range of brightly colored fruits and vegetables.  Any vegetable may contain very small amounts of each of these nutrients, but only certain ones have been identified as “good” sources.

Beta-carotene is the best known of the carotenoids.  The best source is carrots.  Cooking carrots reduces their nutrient content and, as with all vegetables, the nutrient content varies from one plant to the next. 

What you see on a label of cooked carrots is merely the average content.  It is not possible for food manufacturers to evaluate each bunch, because to do so requires their destruction.  They must be examined on a molecular level; not something that you can do with a carrot and still eat it.

Lycopene is the carotenoid responsible for the red color of the tomato.  It is one of the carotenoids found to be high in blood levels of people that do not have macular degeneration.  It may also reduce a man’s risk of prostate cancer.  So, in addition to zeaxanthin tablets, you should buy some lycopene.

Lutein is the carotenoid found in the periphery of the retina; the light gathering mechanism within the eye.  The macula is a small portion of the retina.  It is the deterioration of the macula that leads to lost central vision in macular degeneration. 

Research indicates that increasing the density of the retinal pigments may reduce the risk of blindness in macular degeneration and improve visual acuity.  Lutein and zeaxanthin tablets are relatively easy to find.  The best dietary source is kale, a relative of the cabbage.

In addition to the carotenoids, there are pigments known as curcuminoids.  They are found exclusively in the spice plant turmeric.  Studies are underway concerning the benefit of turmeric extracts for reducing the risk of various age-related diseases, including Alzheimer’s, arthritis and heart disease, as well as to treat several different kinds of cancer.

So, if you want to lower your risks of all kinds of age-related diseases, not just macular degeneration, you need turmeric, too.  My suggestion is this.  Instead of buying turmeric, beta-carotene, lycopene, lutein and zeaxanthin tablets, look for a multi-nutritional supplement that contains all of them.  You’ll spend less and get more.

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The diagnosis of macular degeneration is becoming increasingly more common due to patient awareness, physician access, groundbreaking improvements in treatment, and the relentless graying of the population exponentially increases the percentage of the population at risk for this condition. Thus, macular degeneration is a formidable challenge to patients, their doctors, and our society as the costs for delivering state-of-the-art care increase.

Macular degeneration, also called age-related macular degeneration (AMD or ARMD) or the now discarded term senile macular degeneration (SMD), describes a variety of pathologic but extremely common conditions that affect the macula (a portion of the retina of the eye) and, therefore, central vision. Central vision is what you see directly in front of you rather than what you see at the side (or periphery) of your vision.

Macular degeneration is caused when part of the retina deteriorates. The retina is the interior layer of the eye consisting of the receptors and nerves that collect and transmit light signals from the eye into the optic nerve, then to the brain for interpretation as our sense of vision. The macula is the central portion of the retina and is responsible for detailed vision and color vision, the vision we use to read, thread a needle, sign a check, or recognize faces. The macula is a highly specialized part of the nervous system and the eye in which the photoreceptors that react to light stimulus and the neurons that interpret and transmit these signals are precisely organized and densely compacted. It is the macula that allows humans to see 20/20, or an eagle to spot a small rodent on the ground hundreds of feet below.

Nutritional Supplements:

Zinc can, at high doses, cause anemia in some patients as well as exacerbate the symptoms associated with Alzheimer’s. As will be demonstrated later in this chapter, it may be prudent to cut back on the amount of Zinc from the amount used in the controlled study.

Beta-carotene is a substance made from plants that the body can convert into Vitamin A. It also acts as an antioxidant, an immune system booster, helps cells reproduce normally, protects the photoreceptors against free radicals, and enhances night vision. Other members of the carotene family are beta-carotene’s cousins, zeaxanthin, lutein, and lycopene. However, unlike beta-carotene, most of these nutrients do not convert to significant amounts of Vitamin A.

Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin that functions as a powerful antioxidant. It is critical to make collagen, the glue that strengthens many parts of the body, such as blood vessels. Vitamin C also plays an important role in wound healing. This vitamin also aids in the formation of liver bile and helps to fight viruses and detoxify alcohol and other toxic substances.

Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant that protects cell membranes and other fat-soluble parts of the body. In addition to Vitamin E’s benefit for the eyes, two studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine show that both men and women who supplement with at least 100 IU of vitamin E per day for at least two years have a 37-41% drop in the risk of heart disease

Lutein (loo-teen) is a carotenoid found in vegetables and fruits. Lutein acts as an antioxidant, protecting cells against the damaging effects of free radicals. Chances are you’re not getting the lutein you need because most Americans simply don’t eat enough vegetables rich in lutein. A recent survey of eye doctors indicated that 91% believe that lutein promotes eye health and can be beneficial in treating AMD. A recent study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health found that people who ate the highest amounts of leafy green vegetables like kale, collard greens, and spinach had a 57% lower risk of developing AMD than those who ate these foods the least. In an AMD study published in the Journal of the American Optometric Association, it was shown that a diet rich in spinach may help stop AMD and even reverse some of the effects of the disease.

Find powerful herbal remedies Eye Health Care.

Taurine is an amino acid found naturally in egg whites, meat, fish, and milk. High concentrations are found in the heart muscle, white blood cells, skeletal muscle, and central nervous system. In the retina there are two binding proteins specific to taurine. Intracellular concentrations are higher in the retina than in any other region derived from the central nervous system.

The other method of treatment involves Laser Surgery in which a physician uses a laser to target the specific blood vessels that are problematic and causing trauma to the macula. However, it should be noted, that many patients will not qualify for laser treatment, and more importantly, the laser treatment is invasive and can and often does lead to permanent scarring in the area of use, which causes a permanent loss of vision in that particular region. There are nutritional supplements that may aid in limiting the damage to the macula. These should be used in conjunction with Anti-VEGF treatments not as a alternative.