Lifestyle, Genes Affect Age-Related Sight

Certain lifestyle factors combined with genetics can increase the risk of an age-related vision degeneration, a study by Massachusetts researchers showed.

The condition, age-related macular degeneration, can cause blindness and is known to have genetic and environmental risk factors, HealthDay News said. Previous studies found the mutation of two genes also were associated with AMD.

In their study, researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School compared 457 men and women with AMD to 1,071 people without the eye disease. Overall, the researchers said they found that people with the two mutated genes were 50 times more likely to develop AMD than those with the two normal copies of each gene.

The study also found obese people and smokers with mutated copies of either or both of the genes were more likely to develop the condition than non-obese people.

Education about risk factors may increase understanding about the disease, the researchers wrote, and suggest lifestyle changes that may prevent AMD or delay the disease onset.

Other lifestyle factors for AMD — regular aspirin use, fruit intake, fatty acid ratios and alcohol consumption — did not seem to interact with genetic factors, the researchers said.