What is age-related macular degeneration?

AMD does not stand for Advanced Micro Devices.

Well, it does, but not for the purposes of Eyecare.  When it comes to your eyeballs, AMD (or ARMD) stands for age–related macular degeneration, a disease that by the year 2020 will affect more than 3 million people (Source: http://www.nei.nih.gov/eyedata/pbd4.asp)

Often times when I say the words, "you have macular degeneration," my patients shut out anything else I say because they feel like they just heard "you're going blind."  That's not always the case.  Luckily, the worst case scenario is usually the least likely thing to happen. 

To understand macular degeneration, you have to have a concept of how the retina works.

The retinal pigment epithelium (also called the RPE) is the cellular layer involved with removing cellular debris made by the "seeing" layer of your retina.  In some individuals, the RPE degenerates.  This may be for several reasons (research does not overwhelmingly point to one specific reason): genetics, smoking, Sun damage from UV exposure, lack of protective pigments within the retina, poor nutrition and, a combination of all of the above.

Damaged RPE allows cellular debris to build up.  These pockets of debris are called drusen.  This is called dry or "non-exudative" macular degeneration, which can cause poor vision and of itself - you can't "see through the debris,"

The body tries to fix this situation by bringing in new blood vessels in an effort to introduce new cells to the area that can remedy cellular damage.  The clinical term for this is "Neovascularization".  These new blood vessels are unstable and very leaky. When they leak blood into the retina, vision quickly decreases.  This situation is called "wet" or "exudative" macular degeneration and is the more severe/visually debilitating form to have.

The sooner that neovascularization is caught, the more likely  your vision is to be saved.  

It is likely that there will be some decrease in vision after events such as these, but thankfully, thanks to modern medicine, AMD is no longer the death sentence of vision that it used to be!

So, you think you can see well and you don't have to worry about having AMD? WRONG!  You may have ZERO symptoms until neovascularization occurs.  Thus, it is VERY important to have regular eye exams to monitor eye health!  

Make your eye exam today! You'll be glad you did!

If you are in the Asheville, NC area, I would be honored to make sure that YOU do not have macular degeneration!  I want to be your eye doctor.  You can make an appointment with me by visiting www.visualeyesoptometric.com and clicking on Request Appointment.  

Next week we'll talk about prevention of macular degeneration (A topic so big that it deserves it's own post!)

Until then...

~Haley Perry, OD