Vitamin-rich diet may help vision

A vitamin-rich diet appears to lower the risk of macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness among the elderly in developed countries.

In an eight-year study, researchers found that older people whose diets included more than the median levels of vitamins C and E, beta carotene and zinc had a 35% lower risk of developing macular degeneration, compared with those whose diets provided a below-median level of any of the four nutrients.

In macular degeneration, abnormal blood cells grow in the eye and leak blood and fluid that damage the center of the retina and blur central vision. Sufferers are often unable to read, recognize faces or drive, and the condition worsens with age. It affects more than one in 10 white adults older than 80, and is the leading cause of severe vision loss in Americans 60 and older.

The study involving more than 4,000 older residents of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, was published in the Dec. 28 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Assn.