UNITED KINGDOM -- If the possibility of heart disease and cancer is not enough to discourage smoking, maybe the threat of blindness will be.
British researchers have definitively linked smoking to an eye disease that leads to blindness. Smokers have a two to three times greater likelihood of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of lost vision in developed countries.
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'AMD may reflect accumulation of oxidative damage in the retina,' says Dr. Yu-Guang He, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.
Dr. Yu-Guang added, 'Smoking is well known to be associated with the generation of oxygen free radicals, which are directly responsible for oxidative damage. Smoking may also reduce choroidal blood flow in the eye, and promote ischemia, hypoxia, and atrophy, all of which could increase the susceptibility of the macula to the degenerative process.'
AMD afflicts about 1.75 million people in the United States. Approximately 20 percent of those over 75 years old have some degree of AMD.
'It could cause severe, irreversible vision loss, and there is no effective treatment yet,' says Dr. He, whose research is focused on macular degeneration.
'Age is the most important risk factor, and genetic susceptibility is also highly associated with the disease.'
Some modifiable risk factors, such as dietary choices and smoking, have been controversial.
After reviewing all English-language epidemiological trials, the British investigators confirmed an association of smoking and development of AMD. The study also suggested a lack of awareness about the risks among both health care professionals and the general public.
(Source: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center January 2006.)
