Wellness Corner

One of the things that we notice happening as we get older is that our eyesight starts to go. For some people, the cause of this is more serious than it is for others. Age-related macular degeneration is a condition which affects the inner lining of the eye as you age. People who have this condition often lose a significant portion of their eyesight and may even go blind as they get older. However, there is hope for people who have age-related macular degeneration.

A new study has shown that an experimental drug called endostatin may reduce or even eliminate the problems in the eye that cause this disease. This could mean that as people get older in the future, they'll have one less thing to worry about because age-related macular degeneration will be a problem of the past.

"With Baby Boomers reaching advanced ages, new treatments are desperately needed to keep age-related macular degeneration from becoming a national epidemic," said Gerald Weissmann, MD, Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "This research provides hope for those at risk for blindness, and it gives everyone another glimpse of how investments in molecular biology will ultimately pay off in terms of new treatments and cures." (Source)

This is a brand-new study using an experimental drug. It hasn't even been done on people yet, just on mice. So there's a long way to go before you can say for sure that age-related macular degeneration is going to have a cure. However, this is a step in the right direction and an area of research to watch for older people who are concerned about this aspect of aging.

Question of the Day: Which aspects of aging frighten you most?

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