In 2001, researchers reported they had found a reduced risk of advanced
age-related macular degeneration and vision loss for test subjects who had been
given high-dose antioxidant supplements -- vitamins C, E and beta carotene -- as
well as zinc or zinc oxide.
In Monday's report, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in
Baltimore tried to estimate how many people in the United States alone would
benefit from increasing supplement use.
They concluded there are 8 million Americans at least 55 years old thought to
be at high risk for the problem. If all the people at risk took the supplements
used in the earlier study, more than 300,000 of them would avoid advanced
macular degeneration and any associated vision loss during the next five years,
the study said.
"If even half of the individuals at high risk for (the condition) were
identified and compliant with the recommended supplement, it is likely that more
than 150,000 individuals would avoid vision loss for some time," said the study
published in the November issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology.
"These data suggest that the recommendation of such a supplement for these
individuals should have a major impact on them as well as on the public health,"
the authors concluded.
In an editorial commenting on the study published in the same journal, Lee
Jampol, a physician at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
in Chicago, said the supplements should be used "only in patients with
intermediate or advanced age-related macular degeneration."
"What about patients who have a strong family history of macular degeneration
or who for other reasons believe that they are at risk for the disease and wish
to take the (supplement) formulation prior to the development" of intermediate
or advances cases of the problem, he asked.
"It appears appropriate to eat a diet rich in fruits and (especially green)
vegetables, to supplement with a multivitamin and to undergo periodic ophthalmic
examinations for the development of" the condition, he added.
