Vitamin E and Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)

AMD is the leading cause of visual impairment and blindness in the United States and the developed world among people 65 years and older. Roughly 30% of the human population 75 years or older has some degree of AMD. As the average life span of humans continues to increase, particularly in the developed countries, the incidence of AMD is expected to nearly double within the next 25 years. What is particularly devastating about advanced forms of this condition is that it involves loss of central vision - affecting abilities to read and see faces. A randomized, placebo-controlled Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) trial sponsored by the National Eye Institutes showed that people at high risk of developing advanced stages of AMD lowered their risk by about 25 percent when treated for 5 years with a high-dose combination of vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene, and zinc. Studies on vitamin E alone have been contradictory at best, with some showing no association between levels of vitamin E intake and progression of AMD