Eating fruit may help protect against the development of age-related maculopathy (ARM), an eye disease that can cause blindness, according to an article in the June issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
According to information in the article, ARM is the leading cause of vision loss among people 65 and older. Because there are no effective treatments for ARM, prevention of this eye disease is important. Antioxidant vitamin and mineral supplementation has been found to help protect against ARM. In a recent study, supplementation with high-doses of vitamins C and E, beta carotene and zinc delayed the progression of ARM.
Eunyoung Cho, Sc.D., of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, and colleagues examined the effect of antioxidant vitamins and carotenoids (compounds responsible for the red, yellow and orange pigments found in some fruits and vegetables) as well as fruits and vegetables on the development of ARM among 77,562 women and 40,866 men. The women were part of the Nurses' Health Study, and the men were participants in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Participants were at least 50 years old at the beginning of the study with no diagnosis of ARM. Women were followed for up to 18 years, and men were followed for up to 12 years.
Women completed food consumption questionnaires up to five times over the follow-up period (in 1980, 1984, 1986, 1990 and 1994), and men answered similar questionnaires up to three times over the follow-up period (in 1986, 1990, and 1994). Participants also reported their vitamin and supplement use once every two years.
Over the follow-up period, the researchers documented a total of 464 (329 women and 135 men) new cases of early stage ARM, and 316 (217 women and 99 men) cases of neovascular ARM (a more severe type of ARM).