Quit smoking,save your vision

There is a saying “the chains of habit are too strong to be broken until it is too light to be felt.”This is the case of millions of smokers round the world.But if you don’t have a new year’s resolution for this year then its high time that you adopt ‘quit smoking’ as one of it.The reason being that smoking is the second most common risk factor for Age related macular degeneration (AMD). Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of vision loss for people over the age of 50 in the Western world. It occurs when the delicate cells of the macula – the small, central part of the retina responsible for the centre of our field of vision – become damaged and stop working. There are two types of AMD: the ‘dry’ form and the more severe ‘wet’ form. Dry AMD is the more common, develops gradually over time and usually causes only mild loss of vision. The wet form accounts for only 10-15% of all AMD but the risk of sight loss is much greater. Because macular degeneration is an age-related process it usually involves both eyes, although they may not be affected at the same time. Children and young people can also suffer from an inherited form of macular degeneration called macular dystrophy, Sometimes several members of a family will suffer from this condition and, if this is the case, it is very important that their eyes are checked regularly. AMD causes progressive damage to the macula. When the macula degenerates, people experience darkness or blurring in their central vision, preventing them from being able to read, drive and recognize faces.

 Dr. Anne Coleman, professor of ophthalmology at the Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA has found that even older people’s eyes will benefit if smoking is stopped.The UCLA study finds that even after age 80, smoking continues to increase one’s risk for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in Americans over 65.This implies that it’s never too late to quit smoking.Their findings were published in the January edition of American Journal of Ophthalmology.The aim of the study was to determine if  age influences the effects of smoking on AMD risk.It involved 1,958 women 75 of whom smoked.The retinal photographs of these women were taken with an interval of five years starting with a baseline age of 78.The researchers then compared the retinal images of women at age 78 and 83.The results clearly indicated that Overall, women who smoked had 11 percent higher rates of AMD than other women their same age. In women over 80, however, those who smoked were 5.5 times more likely to develop AMD than women their age who did not smoke.

“We saw a slightly higher rate of AMD in women after age 80, but the rate was dramatically higher in older women who smoked,” said Coleman. “The bottom line is that AMD risk increases with age. And if you smoke, your risk of developing the disease rises even more.”

Many studies done previously concentrated on younger people less than 75 years of age.But this is the first attempt to demonstrate how smoking affects AMD risk much later in life that is after 80 and above. Cigarette smoking has been hypothesized to increase AMD risk by reducing serum antioxidant levels, altering blood flow to the eyes and decreasing retinal pigments. This study provides yet another compelling reason to stop smoking and suggests that it is never too late to quit,” said Dr. Paul Sieving, director of the National Eye Institute