Let’s start by discussing Age-related Macular Degeneration (ARMD), which is a deterioration of the macula, the area on your retina that controls visual acuity, or what I call your HD vision. When your macula degenerates, you start losing the ability to read, recognize faces, drive, watch tv, use a computer and perform any other visual task that requires you to see fine detail. Macular Degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss among older Americans.
There are 2 forms of ARMD, wet (neovascular) and dry (non-neovascular). The dry form is the early stage of ARMD and results in the thinning of macular tissues and drusen (deteriorating tissue, fat, cholesterol) depositing in the macula. In the wet form of ARMD, new blood vessels grow beneath the retina and leak blood and fluid. This leakage causes permanent damage to light-sensitive retinal cells, which die off and create blind spots in central vision.
There are two main causes of ARMD, deficiency of nutrients and retention of waste (ie. Inflammation). If your cells get starved of nutrients, what do you think happens? They start to atrophy. If waste is not eliminated from your cells, waste accumulates and causes inflammation. In your eyes, a sewage backup causes inflammation in your eyes which results in drusen deposits. Drusen deposits are like plaque in your arteries.
In allopathic medicine, according the National Eye Institute (NEI), the treatments for dry ARMD is nutritional supplementation with the AREDS and AREDS2 formulation. These are basically supplements containing vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene, zinc , copper, lutein, zeaxanthin and omega-3 fatty acids. However these supplements are not a cure, they do not help people with early ARMD, and will not restore vision already lost. However the NEI believe it may delay the onset of late ARMD.
For wet ARMD, according to the National Eye Institute, the treatments are injections like Avastin, Lucentis, and Eylea. These injections may stop the growth of new blood vessels, but do not restore lost vision. Oh, and by the way, these are harsh cancer medications that are being injected into your eye. There’s also photodynamic therapy where they use a laser along with a drug called verteporfin to close off new blood vessels to slow the rate of vision loss. The 3rd option is laser surgery, where an intense “hot” laser is aimed at your abnormal blood vessels in your eye to destroy them. All 3 treatments are aimed at stopping bleeding and slowing down the production of new blood vessels.
So the question is, are these the treatments you want to try first, or would you like to hear about another option, a more natural option where you can actually stimulate your body to heal itself? (stay tuned for part 3 of this series…)
