subject: Amd And Heredity [print this page] Age related macular degeneration usually causes loss of central vision. As its name reflects, this disease is associated with the macula of the retina, where cells degenerate or die. Bothered by AMD, patients often have difficulty in reading, driving, recognizing face as well as some other daily activities. But central vision loss caused by age related macular degeneration is not the same as blindness. Without normal central vision, age related macular degeneration patients still have intact peripheral vision which can be used to perceive near objects. Peripheral or side vision will not be damaged by AMD.
Age related macular degeneration is incurable until now. The only remedy within modern medicine is to slow down its progression, not to say recover normal vision. Once suffered from this eye disease, central vision loss will occur more or less at a different speed. So the most advisable way is preventing it. Nowadays, a great number of individuals are suffering from macular degeneration that the disease has become the leading cause of blindness in the United States. Preventing this disease is much easier than treating it.
Another finding of age related macular degeneration involves genes associated with this problem. People who have relatives with late-stage AMD are more susceptive to the disease due to some associated genes. There are detailed figures that describe the relation between AMD and heredity. It is believed that one fourth of all cases of late-stage macular degeneration are linked to generics. People who have a relative with AMD will suffer late-stage AMD at a chance of 50%. In the contrary, individuals who do not have AMD relatives only have a 12% risk of developing late-stage AMD. In this case, AMD prevention is much more urgent for people who have relatives with AMD.
