Anti-Aging Lifestyle Helps to Preserve Vision

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), is a major cause of vision impairment among the aging population, affecting one in four people ages 65 and older. Julie A. Mares, from the University of Wisconsin (Wisconsin, USA), and colleagues studied the relationships between lifestyle behaviors of diet, smoking, and physical activity and the subsequent prevalence of AMD.  The team analyzed data from the Carotenoids in Age-Related Eye Disease Study (CAREDS), an ancillary study associated with the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), involving 1,313 women, ages 55 to 74 years, at the study’s start, that aimed to assess the role of carotenoid compounds in age-related eye diseases.  Compared with sedentary smokers who ate lots of fatty processed foods, participants in study who engaged in  healthy lifestyle habits – including regular exercise, healthy diet, and not smoking – were found to have an adjusted odds ratio of 0.29 for developing AMD over a six-year span, translating to a two-thirds reduction in  risk.  The researchers conclude that:  ‘Modifying lifestyles might reduce risk for early [age-related macular degeneration (AMD)] as much as 3-fold, lowering the risk for advanced AMD in a person's lifetime and the social and economic costs of AMD to society.”