News You Can Use: April 2009
Could preventing macular degeneration be as easy as taking vitamins? According to a recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, women taking a combination of vitamins B6 and B12 and folic acid, had a 34 percent lower risk of AMD and a 41 percent lower risk of the advanced form of the disease.
The beneficial effects began approximately two years after the start of treatment and lasted throughout the seven year study. The study was conducted by a team led by William G. Christen, ScD, OD, an epidemiologist of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in the United States.
More than 5,000 women over the age of 40, with preexisting cardiovascular disease, or three or more cardiovascular disease risk factors, were randomly assigned to receive either the supplements or a placebo to see who developed age-related macular degeneration. The research conducted was known as a double-blind study, meaning neither the researchers nor the participants knew what was contained in the pills each woman was taking. Women were selected with cardiovascular disease because the AMD study was part of The Women's Antioxidant and Folic Acid Cardiovascular Study which was designed to determine if the vitamin B, folic acid treatment could prevent cardiovascular events among women at high risk for heart disease. While AMD prevalence was lower, the combination treatment failed to improve rates of overall cardiovascular disease events.
After more than seven years, 137 women were diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration. There were only 55 cases in the group taking the folic acid, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 combination compared to 82 cases in the placebo group. While the study involved only women, Dr. Christen says that he sees no reason why the results would not apply to men.
“This is the first study of its kind and these findings are very encouraging” said Alan Cruess, M.D. Chief of Ophthalmology, Dalhousie University and Chairman, AMDAI Science Panel. “Until this research is further corroborated, we are not yet ready to recommend that everyone go out and increase their intake of B vitamins and folic acid. However, it is exciting to think that one day we could have a simple formula to recommend to patients that might help prevent macular degeneration.”
The reason this particular combination of supplements was used is because treatment with vitamin B6, vitamin B12 and folic acid appears to reduce homocysteine levels and may reverse this blood vessel dysfunction. Recent studies have drawn a connection between AMD and blood levels of homocysteine, an amino acid.
