Dietary antioxidants cut elderly eye disease risk

High amounts of beta-carotene, vitamins C and E, and zinc in the diet may help stave off age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness in the elderly, new research suggests.

In a previous study, high-dose supplementation with these antioxidants was shown to slow the progression of AMD, but the effect of regular dietary consumption in preventing this eye disease was unclear, according to the report in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

To investigate, Dr. Paulus T. V. M. de Jong, from the Netherlands Ophthalmic Research Institute in Amsterdam, and colleagues analyzed data from 4170 subjects who participated in the Rotterdam Study. The subjects were all at least 55 years of age and lived in a middle-class suburb of Rotterdam.

A food questionnaire was used to assess dietary intake from 1990 to 1993, and then standard eye scoring systems were used to assess the occurrence of AMD through 2004.

During an average follow-up period of 8 years, 560 subjects developed AMD, the investigators report. They found that the higher the amount of vitamin E and zinc in the diet, the less likely were individuals to develop AMD.

Further analysis showed that consuming a diet with above-average levels of beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin D, and zinc reduced the risk of AMD by 35 percent, the report indicates.

“Although in need of confirmation, our observational data suggest that a high intake of specific antioxidants from a regular diet may delay the development of AMD,” the researchers conclude.

“This information may be useful to persons with signs of early AMD or to those with a strong family history of AMD,” they suggest.

SOURCE: Journal of the American Medical Association, December 28, 2005.

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