”Age-related macular degeneration”, a rather unfamiliar sounding disease, is quietly developing in the city of Shanghai and has overtaken eye diseases such as glaucoma, cataract and diabetic retina as the main cause of blindness in people over 50 years old in the city. At the city’s recent International Eye Conference, Professor Xu Xun, director of the Shanghai Clinical Medical Center for Restoration of Sight and director of ophthalmology at Shanghai First People’s Hospital, gave a presentation on the subject. His greatest concern is that the awareness and attention of this disease is very low among patients in the city. The macula is located in the center of the retina, which is the sharpest and most critical part of human vision, mainly used for fine vision and color recognition. Once the macula is damaged, vision will be severely damaged and can even cause severe and irreversible loss of central vision. Age-related macular degeneration mostly occurs over the age of 45, and the older the age, the higher the incidence. Doctors correlate the incidence of this disease with the level of development of the region, and they believe that the more economically developed the region, the higher the incidence, making Shanghai the city with the highest incidence in the country. According to a special survey of 100,000 people recently completed by the city’s first hospital in the Beixinjing area, the results show that age-related macular degeneration has surpassed eye diseases such as glaucoma and retinal detachment as the leading cause of blindness in old age: “Among people over 50, the incidence of the disease is as high as 15.5 percent, with 5.1 percent of them going blind.” In addition, data from an epidemiological survey of people over 50 years old in Caojiadu Street, Jing’an District, Shanghai, were similar, with 159 patients with a total of 254 eyes diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration out of 1,023 people examined. The prevalence of detection was 5.7%, 13.5%, 20.2% and 23.5% in the age groups 50-59, 60-69, 70-79 and 80 years and older, respectively. This indicates that the prevalence of this disease increases significantly with age. Xu Xun said that the growth rate of age-related macular degeneration in Shanghai has reached a point where the public must be alert and pay attention to it. In China, the number one cause of blindness is cataract, but in Shanghai, due to better medical conditions and the government’s promotion of cataract surgery in recent years, this has led to the vast majority of cataract patients receiving better treatment in a timely manner, thus causing the number of blindness caused by age-related macular degeneration to jump. In addition, the onset of age-related macular degeneration is also closely related to hypertension, high blood pressure and poor lifestyle habits, especially smoking and obesity, with the risk factors for smokers being two times higher than those for non-smokers. Xu Xun said that age-related macular degeneration sometimes develops so slowly that you don’t notice the change in vision, and sometimes it progresses rapidly. It doesn’t cause pain, but it can rob you of the ability to recognize objects in front of you. Medical data also shows that patients with age-related macular degeneration in one eye have a 40 percent chance of developing the disease in the other eye within five years. “The treatment of age-related macular degeneration is recognized by the ophthalmology community as one of the most difficult diseases to treat.” Xu Xun is concerned that the level of public awareness is currently too low. The survey also found that despite the rising incidence, only 2 percent of adults surveyed believe it is the leading cause of blindness in people over 50, and 82 percent of those surveyed were unfamiliar with age-related macular degeneration. “A significant number of patients present to the hospital after becoming blind in one eye, but most are too late.” Symptoms and prevention of age-related macular degeneration The main symptoms of age-related macular degeneration are loss of central vision and dark shadows obscuring the center of the visual field, which may not be a problem when viewing objects with both eyes, but will appear in the visual field when using one eye. In addition, visual objects become distorted, straight lines become curved, horizontal lines become wavy, etc.; the contrast of seeing things also decreases, and instead of a bright, clear picture in front of the eyes, it becomes a gray, indistinguishable image. Recent clinical trials have shown that high intakes of lutein and zeaxanthin can reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration. Lutein is a carotenoid that is found in many vegetables and fruits and, like carotenoids, plays an important role in human health. However, lutein is not produced in the body and is found in leafy green vegetables such as spinach and egg yolks.