hello and welcome this is Dr. Allen here from the Dr eye health show helping you learn all about the
eyes vision finding the best vision products now today we are talking about a blinding eye
condition called age related macular degeneration also known as AMD for short and being February
it happens to be amd or macular degeneration awareness month so i figured we'd shed some light
on the subject now if you or a family member are ever diagnosed with macular degeneration
your doctor will likely tell you if you either have dry macular degeneration or if you have wet
macular degeneration and so i figured we'd kind of go over the differences between these two to
fully understand what's happening your risks and ultimately the different treatments that
are available so let's go over the difference between wet versus dry macular degeneration plus
if you stay tuned toward the end i'll share three quick tips that if you incorporate these tips into
your lifestyle should help reduce your chances of ever getting this terrible blinding disease
and if you're somebody who already has it should even help slow down and reduce your
risk of it getting worse so yeah you may want to stay tuned for that otherwise let's just jump into
it now age-related macular degeneration is again a potentially blinding eye condition but as the name
implies it is age related so usually people don't develop amd till they're at least 50 years of age
or older and the older you get the more likely you are to get this disease now what is so devastating
about macular degeneration is the part of the eye that's involved again in the name it says macular
degeneration and that has to do with the part of the retina in the back of the eye called the
macula the macula is the center bullseye of the retina in the back of the eye it sends the light
signals that pertain to the very center of your vision so if you're somebody who's you know you're
looking at a friend right in the face and you have macular degeneration you not may not be able to
identify your friend because their face may be all blurry or could be completely blotched out another
symptom that is really frustrating for people with this disease is that it can affect their ability
to read because oftentimes when people are reading they have these little blind spots especially in
the dead center of their vision and that's the part of their eye that helps them see the details
in order to make out letters and words and so it just becomes very very challenging for these
people with macular degeneration now again macular degeneration is broken into two different forms
there's dry macular degeneration and wet now dry macular degeneration is by far the most common and
affects about 85 percent of everybody diagnosed with the disease and thankfully dry macular
degeneration is usually less severe in fact a lot of people who are diagnosed with the early
to intermediate stages of the disease may never have much visual deficiency at all typically the
first symptoms that somebody gets when they're developing mac generation is something like night
blindness they have a harder time seeing in dim light and low light situations in fact that's why
one of the newer technologies for even detecting early macular degeneration is basically a dark
adaption test that some eye clinics may have if you want to learn more about that test i'll put
that in the links in the description below because i think it's pretty cool it's not available in all
eye clinics but it's becoming more popular so again you can check that out in the description
below otherwise many people don't even know that they're developing this disease until they go
see their eye doctor so that they can look inside the eye and start seeing different signs within
the retina which we use to identify and diagnose macular degeneration one of these first things
that your doctor may identify and tell you about is a buildup of a protein called drusen this
drusen is kind of a yellowish material a little protein stuck behind the retina but it'll show up
during an eye exam depending on the size of this drusen build-up material and the number that are
appearing in the back of the eye your doctor may begin to diagnose different levels of dry macular
degeneration now as dry age-related macular degeneration advances eventually these drusen may
disappear but oftentimes the retina itself begins to atrophy and we call that geographic atrophy and
that's again another thing your doctor may mention to you unfortunately when someone progresses from
earlier stages of dry macular generation to this later end stage that has geographic atrophy
these individuals who have that often start having permanent blank spots in their vision
and that can lead to essentially legal blindness and that can be really unfortunate because we just
don't have a treatment for that end stage of the disease now again usually dry macular degeneration
is the most common and it usually progresses very slowly it's something that doesn't really
advance super fast you probably aren't going to notice sudden vision loss or changes like that
but it's really important that you continue to see your doctor so that they can figure out what stage
you're at your risk factors and be able to educate you about the best forms of treatment for you
but then again there is the form of wet age-related macular degeneration
and wet macular degeneration usually comes on much more sudden with more serious vision changes
what happens in wet macular degeneration is that the walls of the retina between the retina
and the back of the eye called the choroid the choroid is a mesh work of very tiny
blood vessels these tiny blood vessels begin to grow into the retina itself and they act kind of
like leaky garden hoses that leak fluid inside of the eye usually a serous or blood like fluid
and that inside of the eye looks wet compared to the dry form so that's why we call it wet macular
degeneration versus dry macular degeneration usually individuals with wet macular generation
again notice sudden vision changes their vision may appear warped or distorted in fact that's
my favorite term of all of eye care is the term for when your vision looks worked and distorted
we call that metamorphopsia i just love how it sounds even though my wife thinks that it
sounds like it's from a dr seuss book i think it's cool but because this warpage of your vision can
sometimes be difficult to tell when it's really subtle that's why a lot of doctors will hand
out a special grid line sheet called an amsler grid this is something that a lot of patients
can put on their fridge or keep by a workbench or their desk so they can just check on their vision
periodically to see if there's any little subtle changes unfortunately when somebody is diagnosed
with macular degeneration there really is only one treatment for that form of disease right now
and that is getting injections of medications into the back of the eye these medications are
ca anti-cancer medications called anti-veg f and these injections can help slow down or reverse
some of that buildup of fluid in the back of the eye and what's really important is that the sooner
your doctor is able to identify that you're having this wet macular degeneration the sooner you can
get treatment and the better the outcomes so if you're somebody who's noticing these sudden vision
changes and you know you're at risk for macular degeneration then you definitely want to see your
doctor right away but there you have it that's the real difference between dry macular degeneration
versus wet macular degeneration the dry form has a little protein buildups and eventually atrophy
of the retina in the back of the eye where wet macular generation is where new blood and fluid
begins to leak inside the back of the eye now since you've made it through the video so far i do
want to share a couple of tips that you can change in your lifestyle different products that you can
use that can help slow down or reduce your risk of ever getting macular degeneration but before we go
over that quick let me know in the comments if you have mac degeneration if it runs in your family or
if you have any other questions about age related matters generation i'd love to get back to you
guys and make future videos on the topic so let me know your questions in the comments section below
and i look forward to seeing them now the three tips here i'm just gonna be really
quick about them the first big one is you need to eat healthy specifically eating a diet that
is rich in green leafy vegetables in fact it is recommended to consider eating some sort of a
plant-based mediterranean diet that includes oily fish nuts and seeds and again lots of green leafy
vegetables this has a lot of micronutrients which has been shown to help reduce the risk of getting
macular degeneration so again start eating very healthy tip number two is to consider start taking
eye vitamins specifically if you're taking eye vitamins for macular degeneration you want to
take one that says AREDS2 written on the label that is based off of major studies that found
that high supplementation of taking antioxidant vitamins could reduce the risk of advancing
macular degeneration by 25 percent over five years however i do encourage you that if you're
going to consider taking eye vitamins make sure you talk with your local eye care professional
if that is something they would recommend for you but if you happen to want to check out and look
more into taking eye vitamins my favorite brand called i promise i do have an affiliate with them
and you can save a dollar off if you want to check out the link i'll put in the description below
they make vitamins of all different kinds for all different ages and types of eye conditions
tip number three is that if you or a family member who has risk of macular degeneration
if you smoke you need to stop many many studies have found that cigarette smoke is strongly
associated with a higher risk and advancement of more severe forms of macular degeneration
so thankfully it is a dose-dependent relationship so the less you smoke the less chance you have of
having complications and if you're somebody who's quit smoking and haven't smoked for 20 years
you have essentially the same risk as someone who's never smoked so yes quit smoking otherwise
thank you so much for watching if you enjoyed the video and want to learn more about different eye
conditions and what you can do about them hit that like button for me and subscribe to the channel
otherwise again this is dr alan here from dr eye health keep an eye on it and we'll talk to you
soon
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