Posted on 02/25/2009 11:10:19 AM PST by neverdem
A combination of vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12 and folic acid might protect women against age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the elderly, a new study finds.
Women taking this trio of vitamins in amounts well beyond the recommended daily doses were one-third less likely to develop macular degeneration than were people taking placebos, researchers report in the Feb. 23 Archives of Internal Medicine.
Cigarette smoking is known to increase a person’s likelihood of developing macular degeneration. Other than not smoking, there is little a person can do to limit risk, says study coauthor William Christen, an epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “This is the first trial to suggest a benefit” from vitamin B and folic acid, he says. “I’d like to see it corroborated in other populations.”
Christen and his colleagues analyzed data collected as part of a large trial originally designed to test the effects of other vitamins on women with heart problems. In 1998, researchers selected 5,205 women in the trial who didn’t have macular degeneration and were willing to take part in a test of B-6, B-12 and folic acid — also called folate and vitamin B-9. Half of the women were randomly assigned to get these supplements; the others received placebo pills.
Most of the women were overweight. Their average age was 63. The women in both groups provided information about their vision by responding to annual questionnaires in the mail. All were permitted to take multivitamins with B-6, B-12 and folate up to, but not exceeding, recommended daily allowances. Those getting the B-6, B-12 and folate pills received many times that amount.
Whenever a participant reported that she’d been diagnosed with macular degeneration, scientists contacted the woman’s eye doctor and elicited a report...
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
And what about men????
Thanks for posting this article.
Um, the women were over 63. Would they still be interested in men?
You’ll be interested in this thread ping.
Lets try again: does the vitamin regimen work on/in/among men also?
And what about men???
So what’s your point? LOL
Walmart equate Vision formula with lutene
Word from my Eye Doctor is that if you were EVER a smoker (quit 1 yr ago, or 30+ yrs ago) do NOT take Beta-carotine; as they have shown a link between Beta-carotine and lung cancer - even among people who have quit smoking decades earlier.
If you are suspect for Macular Degeneration, and the Eye Doctor recommends taking the Vision supplements - take the version without Beta-carotine (both versions are available).
So, now you know why they have 2 versions of Vision Vitamin supplements.
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