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AMD is the short form of Age Related Muscular Degeneration. This is the condition of the eyes that affects a part of retina called as macula. This macula is responsible for making you see straight and helps you to know the fine details about what you are seeing. AMD is the condition that is related to age and it is one of the main causes of blindness. Those people who have habit of smoking, bad eating habits, those who are overweight are under major risk of getting this condition. If anyone in your family had or has AMD, then your chances of getting this condition are also high. Women are more prone to this condition than men.
Types of AMD -
- Dry AMD – This is the most common type of AMD and it happens when the light sensitive cells in macula start degrading and affects the central vision. In dry AMD there are three main stages - Early AMD, Intermediate AMD and Advanced AMD. In the early AMD, there is presence of drusens, which is nothing but a yellow color deposit under the retina. In this stage there will be no vision loss problems. In intermediate AMD stage, the number of drusens is more and they are large in size. Thus making the vision blurry and the affected person has to deal with great difficulty to do regular tasks. In the advanced AMD stage, the light sensitive cells starts getting degraded and the blurred spots become more visible in your central vision. In some time dry AMD can get evolved in Wet AMD.
- Wet AMD – It is severe compared do dry AMD and in this case the vision loss happens very fast. In this new blood vessels get formed that are thin and very fragile and start breaking and leaking soon. The blood and fluid that these blood vessels were carrying will damage the macula and that is what makes the vision loss so fast. Wet AMD is a rare case and if it occurs it needs immediate medical treatment.
Symptoms of AMD -
Blurry areas in central vision and the presence of drusens are the two major symptoms of dry AMD. The basic symptom of wet AMD is seeing a straight line as a wavy line. These symptoms can get neglected and hence many people don’t know about their condition unless they get a visual activity test done. Also Amsler grid test is very effective in detecting the wet AMD. In this you will be told to over your one eye and the doctor will made you see an black dot that will have patterns of straight lines. Those suffering from wet AMD will see the straight lines as wavy lines and thus there condition will get detected.
In advanced stage of the AMD, there is nothing that can be done to restore the central vision. But with several ways the condition can be prevented from getting advanced even if it gets detected in intermediate stage. Antioxidants and zinc will slow down the age related muscular degeneration.
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