Vitamin supplement to afford long-term benefit for AMD?

Patients suffering from AMD have experienced long-term benefits from using the Macular Health vitamin supplement following the second phase of the Multifocal Electroretinogram (MERG) study at the Callahan Eye Foundation Hospital at the University of Alabama Birmingham (US).

It is estimated that as many as 17.8 million people will suffer from age-related macular degeneration (AMD) by 2050 and 1.57 million will be blind from the disease, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Macular Health is a combination of supplemental vitamins, minerals and carotenoids. Phase II of the study measured the vision function of the same patients measured in Phase I (2005). An average improvement of 17% was achieved in Phase II and 16% in Phase I.

"The outcome of this study is extremely encouraging for sufferers of age-related macular degeneration," says John O. Mason, III, MD, researcher and retinal specialist at the Callahan Eye Foundation Hospital. "These new findings prove that Macular Health can slow vision loss and actually improve vision function over time."

MERG testing was used to gauge the vision of AMD patients before and after using the Macular Health supplement. The test results of patients taking Macular Health were compared to results of a control group that did not take the supplement. Phase II of the study was accepted by the Association for Research and Vision in Ophthalmology (ARVO) for poster presentation.