Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Vitamin-rich diet cuts risk of vision malady: study

A vitamin-rich diet lowers the risk of contracting macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness among the elderly in developed countries, according to this week's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The eight-year study involved more than 4,000 older residents of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. It found those whose diets included more than the median levels of vitamins C and E, beta carotene and zinc had a 35 percent lower risk of developing macular degeneration, compared with those whose diets provided a below-median level of any of the four nutrients.Participants with a below-median consumption of all four of the nutrients had a 20 percent higher risk of macular degeneration.

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