Posted on 07/17/2007 1:10:36 PM PDT by neverdem
Certain kinds of carbohydrates may play a role in the development of age-related macular degeneration, an incurable degenerative eye disease that is a leading cause of blindness in older adults. A new study has found that eating carbohydrate-rich food with a high glycemic index — a measure of a food’s potential to raise blood glucose levels — is associated with the development of the disorder.
The glycemic index is a measure of how fast carbohydrates are metabolized — the faster they are broken down into glucose, the higher the glycemic index. Simple carbohydrates, like those in cakes and cookies, cheese pizza, white bread or other foods sweetened with sugar or corn syrup, are quickly metabolized by the cells, while the complex carbohydrates in brown rice, barley and many other vegetables are broken down more slowly.
Heavy consumption of foods with a high glycemic index has been implicated in the development of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers, according to background information in the paper, which appears in the July issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The researchers examined 4,099 people ages 55 to 80 enrolled in a larger long-term study of eye health. Each participant had 20/32 vision in at least one eye, and the lens of the eye had to be clear enough to allow good photographs that could be used to diagnose macular degeneration.
None of the participants had diabetes. Using these criteria, the scientists had 8,125 eyes to analyze. They graded the severity of macular degeneration on a scale of one to five, administered food frequency questionnaires and calculated the dietary glycemic index, a number indicating the quantity of high-glycemic foods consumed, for each participant.
After controlling for age, sex, education level, body mass index, alcohol consumption and other variables, they found that the higher...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Nada about wet or dry?
I guess I should bank on glasses then :(
“I guess I should bank on glasses then :(”
I hope you mean from your eating habits and not another habit! ;)
“The glycemic index is a measure of how fast carbohydrates are metabolized — the faster they are broken down into glucose, the higher the glycemic index. Simple carbohydrates, like those in cakes and cookies, cheese pizza, white bread or other foods sweetened with sugar or corn syrup, are quickly metabolized by the cells, while the complex carbohydrates in brown rice, barley and many other vegetables are broken down more slowly.”
In other words, things that taste good will make you go blind. HMMM Mom told me something else will make me go blind.
Glasses of barley, right?
I’ve had some eye problems and have discovered that on many boards devoted to vision care, carbohydrates are a known danger. Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil often help with prevention and at least partial alleviation of problems.
“carbohydrates are a known danger”
So is age!
That what I rely on. But I do find that sometimes even that makes thing look blurry. And, sometimes it makes things look better. Everything looks better through the bottom of the glass!
I read this same news at least eight years ago in Men’s Health. The study had something to do with people who needed glasses and bad carbohydrates.
Macular degeneration means your retina goes bad.
Glasses don't help.
Actually, there is nothing new here. Macular degeneration has been associated with diabetes for a long time. This article basically says if you OD on sugar you run the risk of diabetes which can cause macular degeneration.
...joke!
The theory is that the body takes longer to digest the "complex" than it does the "simple". Turns out both are converted almost instantly into glucose by the liver ~ there really is no lag time ~ so that means eating starch is as bad as eating sugar, and it doesn't matter what kind, or how much just as long as the human body can digest the stuff.
The trick is in the fiber ~ which consists of cellulose and other non-digestible sugars. The higher the percentage of fiber, the lower the glycemic index, and the slower the digestion rate for the digestible sugars in the food.
17 common fruits and vegetables have reasonably low glycemic index levels. That's all I eat in quantity (other than vast quantities of oils, fats and meat).
The diabetic organizations in Australia usually have the most up to date information on the what the glycemic index means.
Yep! I wonder if brown rice would make a good fermentation?
So just how useful is this information. Does it mean if I have 4 cookies a day instead of three, I’ll go blind?
I hate this kind of scare stuff. I’m gonna go stuff myself with cookies and ice cream until I feel better.
17 common fruits and vegetables
My husband has diabetes. Would you mind sharing the 17 items that you favor?
Thanks in advance.
Jane
That’s interesting. My eye doctor, who specializes in working with people with low vision, recommends a low fat diet to prevent macular degeneration. It sounds like low carb would be better according to this study.
Me, too! All this bad news depresses me.When I'm depressed, I eat junk.
I’ve always wondered how the people running these ‘studies’ reconcile with themselves when thinking about the group that ‘loses’?
Read “SuperFoods Rx” by Pratt & Matthews from 2004 - very informative - speaks directly to this issue
From the first link in comment# 1:
Design:Dietary information was obtained from 4099 participants aged 55–80 y (56% women) in the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS). A total of 8125 eligible eyes at baseline were classified into 1 of 5 AMD groups according to the size and extent of drusen, the presence of geographic atrophy, and neovascular changes. We used a generalized estimating approach to evaluate the relations between dGI and risk and severity of AMD with eyes as the unit of analysis.
I believe this is called an observational study, IIRC. The gold standard is called a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled study. Neither the patient or the staff dispensing the meds knows who got what until the end of the study, or they have an obvious clinical endpoint. Once they have a statistically significant number of results, one way or the other, they'll stop the study ahead of time. To continue would be unethical. Everyone will find out whether they got the active drug or placebo.
When the presence of glucose is detected by the beta cells, in the pancreas, then the insulin is secreted by the by the beta cells. High glycemic foods summon more insulin because they raise the level of glucose more quickly. When the glucose is inducted very quickly into the muscles, with the aid of the higher level of insulin, then insulin is left over to linger and do damage to the micro-vascular tissue.
Chronic Fatigue No Longer Seen as ‘Yuppie Flu’
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
Controlling for alcohol consumption? But that was the very carb I wanted to know about! I was under the impression moderate alcohol use (like red wines or beers) lowered the potential for macular degeneration and a few other problems, though it is not good for diabetics.
bttt
That may be true, but that is not what the article says. As it states, "None of the participants had diabetes." Among the people in the test those found to have macular degeneration did not have diabetes.
The test showed a correlation between certain carbohydrates and macular degeneration. However, as the report also states, "the study does not prove a cause-and-effect relationship between a high glycemic diet and macular degeneration". There isn't enough data to say carbs cause this disease.
There may be other factors involved. For example, lack of vitamins A (beta carotene), C, E, and the mineral zinc (found in spinach) are also correlated with the development of macular degeneration.
Bookmarked
Most people with mild dry macular degeneration will never have disabling central vision loss. However, there is no way to predict who will progress to a more severe form of the disease.The wet form is much more severe, in that new blood capillaries form, leak fluid into the macula, and destroy the photoreceptors and thus destroy central vision.
To my knowledge the only drug that has been proven to stop the progression of the wet form of AMD is Lucentis.
bttt
My mother has the Wet Macular Degeneration in both eyes. She has been fighting with it for 7 years. One of her eyes started bleeding this past December and they tried a new drug that you inject into the eye called AVASTIN. It didn’t help much unforunately, she has pretty much lost her central vision in that eye. Then her other eye started bleeding and they are doing the injection in that eye every 6 weeks. It has helped.
For those that may not know, one of the signs that you may have ARMD is seeing straight lines looking wavy, such as mini-blinds and if someone does see that they better get to the Eye Specialist quickly.
As I understand things, Lucentis is a derivative of Avastin. Neither drug is a cure, but they will stop the progression of the disease in most cases. In about 40% of cases, there is even a slight improvement in vision. I assume this results because the bleeding into the macula stops. And yes, injections must be done every 4 to 6 weeks.
My mother also has wet macular degeneration. The doctor will start Lucentis treatments soon.
Meanwhile, are you eating your spinach?
Spinach? Yes, along with nutrients for the eyes such as Natrol’s Ocular formula. Can’t hurt.
My mom is not a diabetic or anything close but was told that the probable cause was too much bright sun at a young age.
Don’t forget to wear sunglasses and protect the eyes!
You are right. It can't hurt.
Don’t forget to wear sunglasses and protect the eyes!
I have a pair around here somewhere. I will have to find them before the weekend.
My mother has both wet and dry ARMD. She originally started on Macugen and switched to Avastin. It has helped her. Her eye doctor keeps pretty well up to date on the latest treatments. From what I understand, the latest thing is to treat with Avastin until no more improvement. Then do cold laser treatment (Visudyne) to seal off the leaking capillaries. My mother just had the Visudyne treatment (last week) so it’s too soon to tell how much if any improvement it will provide. At a minimum, the doc is hoping that the avastin treatments can be reduced from once a month to once every two or three months.
Now if some treatments for the dry type of ARMD could be developed....
Thanks for the info. Its good to know what others are doing.
My mother has taken Plavix for the last 4 yrs. and it makes me think that if it can make the blood flow more freely, I wonder if it could make the veins in the eyes, that are already weak, start leaking. I’ve asked the Doctor and he doesn’t seem to think so.
I still wonder about it.
IMHO, I think all these chronic-type things have something to do with the body’s inflammatory response. IIRC, there is a lot of research out there about chronic inflammation being related to heart disease, diabetes, ARMD, alzheimer’s and probably 50 other things I can’t think of off the top of my head. I am not a scientist so I can’t really explain it. Maybe someone else can.
Glasses don't help macular degeneration.
The center part of your vision goes DEAD. Dead as a can of spam, not just pining for the fjords dead, but morally, ethic'ly, spiritually, physically, positively, absolutely, undeniably and reliably dead!
It's like having a fuzzy gray spot always right in front of whatever you are looking at.
Ah. Ummmmmm, *nevermind*
My mother's doctor has been using Visudyne on her for the past 3 years. He is now going to switch to Lucentis or Avastin (Lucentis is derived from Avastin, but as far as my research indicates, they are equally effective with Avastin much cheaper). Here is what I found on Wikipedia (and this supports what I have found on many other websites):
Only Lucentis and Macugen are FDA approved as of April 2007. Macugen has been found to have only minimal benefits in neovascular AMD and is no longer used. Worldwide, Avastin has been used extensively, with excellent results, despite it's "off label" status. Genentech, the maker of both Avastin and Lucentis, has been hoping to promote the use of Lucentis due to the potential for much higher revenues. The cost of Lucentis is approximately $2000 US while the cost of Avastin is approximately $50. Fortunately, retinal specialists worldwide have together proven that Avastin is at least as effective and safe as Lucentis, at a fraction of the cost.I am glad this topic come up so that we can review and compare the various therapies.
How many times has your mom had the visudyne treatment?
I got the impression from my mom’s doc that the laser treatment wouldn’t be done more than once or twice. Maybe I misunderstood him.
My mom’s doc was very clear about the fact that Avastin is a good as Lucentin and so much less expensive. He said he doesn’t use Lucentin much, if ever.
I just checked with her. She has had three treatments with Visudyne. (I thought she had had more than that.) Her doctor has told her that he will continue with the Visudyne treatments if she prefers, but he would prefer to move on treatments with Lucentis (or perhaps Avastin).
My mom’s doc was very clear about the fact that Avastin is a good as Lucentin and so much less expensive. He said he doesn’t use Lucentin much, if ever.
This is good to know. I will tell my mother about that.
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