Conventional Treatment:
At the present, there is no effective treatment. Some causes of macular degeneration are treated with laser surgery, but the treatment itself may not effectively seal up a leaky blood vessel without at the same time permanently destroying retinal nerve fibers that pass through the area. According to the National Eye Institute, laser treatment can actually worsen vision, and any ability to slow the progression of disease does not appear until at least a year after surgery.
Photodynamic Therapy (PVT) is used now to help seal leaky blood vessels in the retina. This procedure is generally much less damaging than traditional laser treatments in its ability to target abnormal blood vessels, and avoid damaging retinal cells.
Doctors are now using injectable antiangiogenesis drug into the retina for wet macular degeneration. These drugs help prevent the body from growing new blood vessels in the retina which are the ones that leak. Macugen is one of the more common drugs being injected, though Lucentis and Avastin are considered more effective treatment strategies. The best results so far have been in studies using a combination of Lucentis and PVT to help stabilize wet macular degeneration.
Drugs can have potential serious side effects, so the benefits of going on these therapies have to be evaluated with your eye doctor and family.
As always, prevention is the best medicine. Using complementary medicine to try to address the underlying cause of macular degeneration, along with traditional medicine to try to prevent damage on an acute basis, is the best approach to preserving vision both short and long-term. Since less than one-percent of those with macular degeneration have progressed to the point of legal blindness, most are in a position to benefit greatly from prevention.
Complementary Treatment:
Recommended Vitamins, Supplements, Herbs & Other Nutritional Products
Shopping Tips
Macular Degeneration (ARMD-Aged Related Macular Degeneration) is the slow deterioration of the cells in the macula, a tiny yellowish area near the center of the retina where vision is the most precise. This deterioration therefore affects your central vision, the very vision you use for reading, writing, driving and recognizing faces. ARMD causes the loss of central vision. Your peripheral vision is not affected.
