Fish Oil For Sons and Daughters of Macular Degeneration Patients

Fish Oil For Sons and Daughters of Macular Degeneration Patients

Posted December 4, 2020: by Bill Sardi

The Bad News. If your father or mother have macular degeneration, you have a 50% chance of developing this sight-robbing disease during your lifetime. That risk is only 12% for people whose relatives do NOT have macular degeneration.

The good news: A newly published study finds that DHA-rich fish oil would likely help to maintain the underlying structures of the retina, particularly the fovea or visual center of the eyes. This is especially important for immediate offspring of macular degeneration patients who have weaker (thinner) foveas who are at a 12-times greater risk to experience vision loss.

This discovery was published in BMC Ophthalmology by its authors at Scripps Memorial Hospital, Scripps Mericos Eye Institute, and the Veterans Hospital in North Chicago, Illinois. Stuart Richer OD, PhD, director of Ocular Preventive Medicine at the VA hospital in Chicago, and past President of the Ocular Wellness & Nutrition Society, who says this is a significant development.

About 11-15 million Americans have macular degeneration. It is a disease that robs older Americans, particularly those over age 80, of their central vision used for reading, driving and recognizing faces.

The human retina is about the size of 2.5 postage stamps and contains millions of light receptor cells.

The fovea is the target for light rays to focus on as they enter the eyes and has ~200,000 light receptor cells. The fovea/macula contains ~6.4 million color-vision receptor cells (cones) and the remaining outer retina contains 110-125 million night-vision cells (rods).

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