Posted on 11/08/2022 1:52:46 PM PST by ConservativeMind
Regular use of drugs to lower cholesterol and control type 2 diabetes may lessen the risk of the degenerative eye disease associated with aging, known as AMD, finds a pooled data analysis.
AMD is the leading cause of severe visual impairment among older people in high-income countries.
AMD affects central vision and the ability to see fine detail. Various genetic and environmental factors associated with aging are thought to trigger AMD, but it's still not clear how best to prevent it or slow its progression.
Previously published research suggests that drugs to lower cholesterol, control diabetes, and tamp down inflammation may help to lessen the risk of developing AMD, but these findings were partly contradictory and based on small numbers of participants.
The pooled data analysis showed that drugs to lower cholesterol or control diabetes were associated with (respectively) 15% and 22% lower prevalence of any type of AMD, after accounting for potentially influential factors.
No such associations were found for any of the other types of drug or for advanced AMD, in particular, although there were only a relatively small number of such cases, note the researchers.
Theirs is the first large pooled data analysis of its kind to use individual level data from various population-based and hospital-based studies, highlight the researchers.
But the findings point to a likely key role for metabolic processes in the development of AMD, which may offer potential new avenues for treatment and have implications for public health messaging, they suggest.
"Our study suggests that regular intake of [lipid lowering] and antidiabetic drugs is associated with reduced prevalence of AMD in the general population. Given a potential interference of these drugs with pathophysiological pathways relevant in AMD, this may contribute to a better understanding of AMD etiology," they conclude.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
Drugs can’t compensate for the bad things we keep doing to ourselves.
Effects of melatonin in age-related macular degeneration
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16399908/
Potential of melatonin to treat or prevent age-related macular degeneration through stimulation of telomerase activity
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306987710003403
Melatonin as the Possible Link Between Age-Related Retinal Degeneration and the Disrupted Circadian Rhythm in Elderly
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-27378-1_8
Melatonin protects the retina from experimental nonexudative age-related macular degeneration in mice
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jpi.12643
Nice references.
Was diagnosed with Type II diabetes back in 1998. I have only been on oral medication, and see the eye doctor once a year. At age 75, there is no sign of any diabetic damage to my eyes, nerves, etc.
Statin drugs will kill your hormones and give you memory loss. Diabetes drugs will too.
Google bergamot
This is great news... I’m on Metformin for diabetes and Lipitor for cholesterol... Oh... And I’ve already had cataract surgery on both eyes... So my eyesight is 20/20. The last thing my opthamologist said to me is... ‘You’ll likely never see me again.’ Is that an industry joke?
Who knows, but I see awesome. The high cholesterol and diabetes things will likely never go away.
Bkmk
Amazing timing. I’m having a corneal transplant next week and doc gave me list of drugs. A statin is on it. I don’t need statins for anything and hate taking prescription drugs of all kinds. Will discuss this with him when I see him.
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