One of the most important parts of our body is our eyesight. We can’t appreciate the beauty and radiance of the world we are living in without it. Our personal lives depend on our eyesight and keeping it safe is of utmost importance. However, there are several eye diseases and disorders that occur that threaten our vision. One condition which causes the loss of sight in the center of our field of vision is called macular degeneration. This is one of the leading causes of blindness in adults aged 60 or older and it affects millions of people in the United States.
The macula, which is the center area of our retina, is the part where it gets affected and damaged with macular degeneration. We need our central vision for our eyes because this is required to see objects clearly and is helpful in our everyday activities. Blurred vision, wavy vision or perhaps noticing a blind spot usually present as the symptoms that occur with this type of disease. The peripheral vision is not affected though as it only prevents people from being able to read or recognize faces.
There are two forms of macular degeneration. One is known as wet macular degeneration and the other is called dry macular degeneration. The first one occurs when abnormal blood vessels behind the retina start to grow and this leads to the leakage of fluid and blood. This should not be overlooked since this can cause serious damage to your eyes and may result to rapid central vision loss. On the other hand, dry macular degeneration happens when the macula simply wears out as a result of the aging process. This is the more common among the two and progresses more slowly compared to the wet form.
There are also other risk factors that are associated with macular degeneration. Aside from simply aging, individuals who are smokers and those with high cholesterol or high blood pressure also have been found to be at a higher risk. Those who consume a high fat diet or who are obese also seem to have a higher risk. However, this disease is highly hereditary, so if you have a relative with macular degeneration, you are at a higher risk of developing this disease.
Ranibizumab is one of the several treatments used for this disease today which was made with the help of modern science. This is injected once each month directly into the eye and this type of drug is known as a monoclonal antibody treatment. In this process, antibodies are used to stimulate the patient’s immune system to target and attack specific cells. This drug is created with the help of custom monoclonal antibodies, and this treatment is used only to treat the wet form of the disease.
In addition to treatments, people can learn to use their peripheral vision more effectively to compensate for the loss of vision in the center of the vision field. There are also adaptive eyeglass lenses and even special computer screen readers that can help make this disease easier to deal with and have less of an impact.
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