Lucentis, the new drug for macular degeneration
Add another drug to the FDA's growing list. This one's called Lucentis, and it's been approved for treating patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (ARMD).
This is the first drug ever approved for treating wet ARMD (the worst and most difficult to treat form of the eye disease). And in trials, this drug (which comes in the form of a monthly injection) had a 90 percent success rate when it came to maintaining (though not correcting) the vision of wet ARMD patients. But while this may sound like good news, getting treated with Lucentis is no picnic -- unless you like getting a shot in the eye every month.
There's one main thing that worries me whenever a new treatment shows up on the scene: People start thinking they're in the clear, and so they stop thinking about preventing the disease in the first place. But instead your goal should be to avoid needing this drug at all. And that's a lot easier to do than it sounds.
When patients ask me what they can do to prevent macular degeneration and protect their eyesight, one of the first things I recommend is that they up their intake of antioxidants, especially carotenoids like lutein, zeaxanthin, and beta-carotene. These antioxidants play an absolutely crucial role in defending you from eye disease, especially ARMD.
You see, one of the main causes of ARMD is oxidative stress (which happens when free radicals attack your photoreceptors). That oxidative stress triggers inflammation in your eye, opening you up to a serious risk of macular degeneration.
But antioxidants actually neutralize the free radicals causing the strain and inflammation on your eyes.
Most people's multivitamins already contain some small amount of carotenoids, but rarely enough to make the kind of difference you need. Fortunately there are plenty of easy-to-find supplements out there that you can take to get the amounts of these carotenoids that you need.
But before you start supplementing, think about trying to get these nutrients the natural way: through your diet. There are actually hundreds of different carotenoids, all of them available through different fruits and vegetables. And even though supplements are undeniably useful when it comes to getting these carotenoids, getting them through your diet is even better.
The best advice any doctor could give you is to eat plenty of red, yellow, orange, and leafy-green vegetables. Carrots, red peppers, squash, broccoli and spinach are all rich in carotenoids. And they're also your best line of defense against ARMD -- and the best way to avoid needing a shot in the eye later on.
