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Fish Oil May Help Save Your Eyes3/18/2007 Fish Oil May Help Save Your EyesNot Smoking May Also Help Avoid Age-Related Macular Degeneration
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
July 10, 2006 -- To help save your vision as you age, you may want to give fish oil the thumbs up and cigarettes the thumbs down. Age-related macular degenerationmacular degeneration (AMD) -- the leading cause of age-related vision loss -- is nearly twice as common in elderly smokers as nonsmokers. And seniors who eat fish at least twice weekly are almost half as likely to have AMD than those who eat fish less than once a week. So say Johanna Seddon, MD, and colleagues in July's Archives of Ophthalmology. Seddon works at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, which is affiliated with Harvard Medical School in Boston. Halfway around the world in Australia, other experts found that age-related macular problems are rarer in people whose diets are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in fish, including salmon and mackerel, as well as flax seeds and walnuts. U.S. StudySeddon's team studied data from 681 individual male twins in their mid-70s who were World War II veterans. The group included 222 men with intermediate- or late-stage AMD and 459 with early or no AMD. The men completed questionnaires about their smoking history, alcohol use, physical activity, diets, and use of multivitamins and supplements. "Current smokers had a 1.9-fold increased risk of AMD while past smokers had about a 1.7-fold increased risk" of AMD, compared with nonsmokers, the researchers write. The study also shows that men with the highest fish consumption (at least two weekly servings) were 45% less likely to have AMD than those with the lowest fish consumption (less than one weekly serving)........
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