Macular Degeneration Risk Tripled In Smokers
December 21, 2005
A new study has shown that smoking tobacco dramatically increases the development of vision loss because of age-related macular degeneration. The risk increases for smokers and anyone who lives with a smoker who smokes regularly indoors.
Macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in the US. The disease can be a naturally occurring sight loss that progressively worsens with age and time, causing either a slight or total sight-loss.
The study was reported in the latest issue of the British Journal of Ophthalmology and consisted of some 435 patients who had serious cases of macular degeneration. The study also included 280 people who lived with the core group of participants.
The data showed that people who had smoked 20 or more cigarettes a day, for 40 years or longer, had three times the risk of developing macular degeneration blindness than non-smokers. Smokers who had quit for over 20 years had a risk level comparable to non-smokers, however.
Non-smokers who lived with smokers for more than five years had over two times the risk of developing macular degeneration than non-smokers living with non-smokers or by themselves.
Many LASIK doctors also regularly screen for macular degeneration as part of their normal eye examinations and also have procedures that can help in the development of the disease.
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