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If you are age 65 or older, then it is your best interest to have regular eye exams. Senior citizens are more at risk for contracting a serious eye disease called macular degeneration. This disease targets the macula, which is a part of the rest of the eye that is needed for vision. As a greater percentage of the population ages, there will be more cases of degeneration of the macular. This is why it is important to take health issues seriously and make sure eye exams are done regularly.

There are two types of macular degeneration (AMD). Dry, which is also known non-neo vascular and wet, also known as neo vascular. Wet refers to the growth of new blood vessels in the macula, where they are not suppose to be. The dry form is much more common and affects about 85 to 90% of all AMD patients. While both forms are not good to have, the wet form is much worse than the dry. Dry AMD is usually an early stage of the disease and can result from the macular tissues getting older and thinning out.

Dry AMD causes loss of vision in the central part of the eye. Sometimes dry AMD can progress on to wet AMD. Wet AMD is when blood vessels grow underneath the retina and then leak fluid and blood. This leakage will cause permanent damage to the cells of the retina. This damage is severe and causes the cells to die, which creates blind spots in the central vision. The growth of the blood vessels is the body’s misguided attempt to try and correct a problem that it knows is happening. Unfortunately, this just makes things even worse for the health of the eyes and is what causes AMD to really do its damage.

Macular degeneration is an eye disease that affects the aging, women, Caucasians, and people with a family history of AMD. This disease works slowly and painlessly and usually results in a profound vision loss. AMD causes shady areas in the central vision of the eyes, and it also causes fuzzy and distorted vision. Of the two forms of this disease, wet and dry, dry AMD is the more common form. This is good news considering the wet form of AMD is much more damaging to the eye. Doctors are not totally clear on what causes this disease. There has been talk and speculation of different genes and family history of the disease being the biggest factors. AMD affects the aging, white people, women, and people with a family history of this disease. Hopefully, doctors will have more answer about AMD as time goes on, especially considering that there is no known cure for this eye disease as of yet. Treatments can help and keep a quality of vision but it cannot totally cure this disease.

Macular degeneration affects the aging population more than any other group. While there are other groups of people that are at a high risk for contracting AMD, this is the primary one. This disease causes a lot of damage and is one of the top causes for seniors to go blind. Seeing a doctor for regular exams will go a long way towards preserving vision for many years to come.