Macular degeneration has been long viewed as yet another one of the “age related” eye diseases. And while as usual the establishment doesn’t seem to take much interest in some of the other potential causes and prevention options, possible cures at least look promising.
Here, an NPR blog health article discussing stem cell treatments:
Scientists are reporting the first strong evidence that human embryonic stem cells may be helping patients.
The cells appear to have improved the vision in more than half of the 18 patients who had become legally blind because of two progressive, currently incurable eye diseases.
The researchers stress that the findings must be considered preliminary because the number of patients treated was relatively small and they have only been followed for an average of less than two years.
But the findings are quite promising. The patients had lost so much vision that there was no expectation that they could benefit, the researchers say.
“I’m astonished that this is working in the way that it is — or seems to be working,” says Steven Schwartz, a UCLA eye specialist who led the study, which was published Tuesday in the British medical journal The Lancet. “I’m very excited about it.”
Other researchers agreed the work is preliminary, but also highly promising.
“It really does show for the very first time that patients can, in fact, benefit from the therapy,” says Dr. Anthony Atala, a surgeon and director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University.”
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More on the subject at the full article.
There is no money in looking at the blue light problem, retinal bleaching, and all the things Jake discusses in his recent article about the effects of artificial light on our long term eyesight health. Because of this I can’t even tell you with any degree of certainty that you could avoid macular degeneration by reducing your exposure to some of these light sources.
But the research is there in terms of negative effects. As with everything we discuss on this site, you should consider the basic tenants of keeping your eyes healthy:
1. Spend time outside!
2. Challenge your eyes for focus every day.
3. When working, try to have natural ambient light (and if that’s not possible, at least get high quality, full spectrum light sources).
Keep your eyes healthy!
Om Shanti,
– Neha
