Wednesday, November 21, 2007 Uncontrolled potency, Part 1 By Zosimo T. Literatus, R.M.T. Breakthroughs
THE good news about antioxidants is that they have been quite popular among consumers today.
The bad news is: over-popularity tends to close our eyes to what these products cannot, contrary to what they claim. It leads to the Tina (“there is no alternative”) mentality, a concept popularized by former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in a speech before a Conservative women’s conference when she was still holding the post. The case in point is that of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
AMD is the most common form of macular degeneration, an eye condition that leads to irreversible vision loss in the US alone.
In this condition, the degeneration process attacks the macula, a small yellowish spot in the middle of the retina that provides the greatest visual acuity and color perception.
The retina is the lining in the back of the eye that receives light patterns from the environment and transmits them to the brain. AMD progressively damages or destroys the part of vision used for reading and seeing fine details, while leaving peripheral vision generally unaffected.
The area of vision loss increases in diameter until you are unable to read or even see groups of two to three words at normal reading distance. AMD usually develops in both eyes, with one eye generally more affected than the other.
Ninety-nine percent of AMD occurs in older people with age of 50 and above.
Causes have been unclear with AMD, except for consistently reported common factors—older age, genetic markers, and cigarette smoking.
New treatments available suits well only to “wet AMD,” the late-occurring form showing in-growth of new blood vessels that bleeds into the spaces beneath the retina, resulting to severe damage to the macula and complete damage to the central vision.
Dry AMD (also known as early form of the disease) shows the macular cells just started wasting away slowly with accompanying gradual loss of sight.
The retina contains high oxygen level. But its constant exposure to light makes it particularly susceptible to oxidative damage. For this reason, many believed that intake of antioxidants, which may prevent degradation of oxygen in retina, can slow down, if not prevent early AMD. And yet, many times, believing is not enough to show that something works as expected.
Next week, we will know if antioxidants can prevent oxidative changes in retina. (zim_breakthroughs@yahoo.com; or 0927-872-3821)
