By Staff Writer

When people are asked what body part they could not live without, most of them would instantaneously reply, their eyes. Indeed, our precious eyes are the window to our soul. It allows us to appreciate the wonders of God's creations in this world. However due to various circumstances, some people go through a series of complications that affect their eyes. One of the most common age-related eye problems faced by people these days is macular degeneration.

Definition. Age-related macular degeneration is a kind of eye disease that greatly affects the foundation of the retina located at the back part of the eye. The retina carries out an important function because it is responsible for taking images from the eye lenses and sending the said images to the brain. Since this retinal degeneration develops in a progressive manner, tracing it can be quite difficult. In addition, this eye disease is said to be acquired from one's genes or environment, making a lot of people susceptible. Prevention is not much of an option. In fact, research shows that the number one cause of visual-related deficiencies among senior citizens is the age-related macular degeneration.

The types. There are two main types of age-related macular degeneration. One is called dry or atrophic degeneration, which usually produces some debris in the retina area. These tiny components are oftentimes yellowish in color. The second type of age -elated macular degeneration is the wet one which is more challenging because the process could lead to possible vision loss due to the flow of the blood vessels towards the photoreceptor cells.

Symptoms. The wet and dry age macular degenerations have different symptoms. For the dry one, a blurry vision is the first and most common sign. Some experts say that bright lights help recover the blurry vision slightly. As for the wet macular degeneration, the earliest symptom is the appearance on images of crooked lines where fairly straight lines actually exist. For both macular degenerations, a tiny blind spot in the central area of one's vision is also considered a symptoms.

Treatments. There are several treatments for macular degeneration. One is through laser surgery wherein a beam of light is used to target the blood vessels, which have become leaky due to the disease. The second option is through photodynamic therapy, which is done through the injection of the drug called Verteporfin. This is said to be effective because the drug sticks to the blood vessels, which have been damaged. For wet macular degeneration, the drug Avastin is highly recommended. In America, some eye vitamins that contain the drugs Lutein and Zeaxanthin are popular because they has been proven to help in reversing the loss of vision. But people must remember that these vitamins will not totally bring back good vision, it will just alleviate the progression.

Other related diseases. There are also other retina-related diseases today such as the one that produces a macular hole. This kind of eye disease is characterized by extreme near sightedness of a person, which could lead to total loss of vision in the central area. Tests show that this particular hole will alter certain things that we see or make them blurry. Apart from the macular hole, there is also another retina-related disease, which is called the macular edema. This kind of eye disease makes the macula swell due to a small leak from the blood vessels of the retina in the eye.

These days, getting more research done about macular degeneration is really important because there is a big chance that one of us could be the next victim.