A recent edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), published the results of a study conducted by Dr. van Leeuwen, member of the Department of Ophthalmology of the Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam , Holland and his collaborators. These researches investigated if the regular diet ingest is related with minor risks of suffering from Age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Age-related macular degeneration is a progressive ocular affection that attacks the macula, where the most acute central vision takes place. At present, the macular degeneration affects 11.5 % of white people older than 80 years of age.

This illness affects 15 million people in the United Status and is the most common cause of irreversible blindness in developed countries. It is expected that in the United States , the amount of people severely handicapped due to AMD in the late stage of the illness, will increase in more than 50 percent, 3 million during the next twenty years.

The study showed that food containing beta-carotene, antioxidant vitamins C and E and Zinc, achieve a significant reduction of the risk of macular degeneration.

Another study had shown that increasing the levels of beta-carotene, vitamins C and E and Zinc in patients with AMD in the first stages of the illness or only in one eye, achieve a reduction of 25% in the progress towards the advance stage in a five year period.

People who consumed high levels of vitamin A and Zinc had a reduced risk of 10% of developing Age-related macular degeneration. Those who had an ingest higher than average of the four nutrients (beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E and Zinc) presented a reduction of 35% in the risk of AMD. Adding nutritional complements to the diet of people who already had an ingest high in these nutrients did not change the results.

The authors of the study said that people who consumed lower quantities than average of these nutrients, had an increase of 20% of the risk of developing AMD.

Vitamin E is found in whole grains, vegetable oil, egg and nuts; Zinc is found in meat, poultry, fish, whole grains and dairy products; beta-carotene is found in vegetables as carrots, cauliflower, spinach; vitamin C is found in fruits, citric juices, green pepper, broccoli and potatoes.