A healthy lifestyle prevents vision impairment in old age

[Love Pulse]

Exercise and refrain from smoking
A healthy lifestyle prevents vision impairment in old age

Those who follow a healthy lifestyle in general through exercise, eating, and not smoking have significantly reduced
Risk of macular degeneration, a major cause of poor vision in the elderly.

Julie Maris of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, who led the study, said that exercise and dieting alone reduced the risk, but their combination together and non-smoking reduced the risk of age-related macular degeneration by more than 70%.

"We should not be the victims of these old age damage," Maris said.

"Small things may have an impact on our injury or not being affected by macular degeneration."

Macular degeneration results in loss of vision in the middle of the field of view due to damage to the retina, and may make reading and facial recognition difficult or impossible, despite the possibility of maintaining sufficient field of view to allow the rest of the activities of life.

The study by Maris and her colleagues, published in the Journal of Ophthalmology, reviewed information on 1313 women aged 55 to 74 on diet, exercise and smoking collected during the 1990s.

Another visit was made to women on average six years later, where they underwent an eye examination for macular degeneration.

Among women who ate a healthy diet, 11% had an early pattern of macular degeneration compared with 19% for women who had the worst diet, following an analysis of elements, such as their intake of fruits, vegetables, legumes in general, fat and sugar.

Nearly one in 10 women in the exercise group had macular degeneration, compared to one in five of those who did little exercise.

When the researchers compared the effect of diet, exercise and non-smoking, the risk of macular degeneration decreased even more, even though smoking alone was not uniquely associated with macular degeneration.