17 September, 2024
Hot Off The Press
More updates on the latest research:
Up to a 41% improvement in AMD over 5 years. And so simple
It’s interesting to see how diet and lifestyle factors affect the progression of AMD, and it’s reassuring to see that there are no surprises.
Yet again, a healthy lifestyle slows disease… more than we think. Eating lots of green leafy vegetables, fish, and omega-3 fatty acids, reducing smoking, and exercising more, all slow down the progression of AMD.
The study showed that over a 5-year period, individuals who ate less than 2.7 servings/week of green leafy veg and less than 2 x 4oz serves of fish per week had up to a massive 41% higher risk of AMD progression than those who ate more of the greens and fish.
The key foods in the study were: dark green leafy vegetables (spinach – raw or cooked, kale, collards, mustard greens, turnip greens), foods rich in lutein/zeaxanthin (peas, summer squash, corn, pumpkin, brussels sprouts, broccoli, asparagus, lettuce, carrots, egg yolks) and grilled/baked fatty fish (salmon, tuna, sardine, mackerel and trout) rich in EPA/DHA. Yum.
I truly believe that the strongest medicine in the world (and the cheapest and most enjoyable) is a healthy lifestyle with good food, and lots of exercise. Sometimes we can’t avoid disease, and we need additional medicines, but a healthy lifestyle is always the primary medicine. You can’t beat it.
Systemic safety of anti VEGF injections
This study looked at the 3 most widely used anti-VEGF treatments which are aflibercept, bevacizumab, and ranibizumab. As most people require recurrent eye injections over many years, the study looked for any cumulative systemic side effects that might occur with prolonged use.
They looked at all‑cause admission, all‑cause death, heart failure, major cardiac events, major bleeding, and thromboembolic events. They also looked at changes in blood pressure, cholesterol, kidney, and liver function.
The bottom line was that the 3 different injections were all very similar… as in they were all effective, and well tolerated in AMD. Very reassuring.
A one-off treatment for Geographic Atrophy?
This was just a phase 1 study which is now moving to phase 2, but it will be worth keeping an eye out for the results. It is for a potential 1-time eye injection treatment for geographic atrophy which if it works will be life changing for all those people with GA who are currently stuck with recurrent lifelong eye injections. Watch this space.
In a recent phase I/II gene therapy trial for LCA1 caused by mutations in GUCY2D, the improvements in vision were outstanding.
There were 15 participants in the trial including 3 children, all of whom had severe vision loss. They were each given subretinal injections. Within the first month, vision started improving, and some of the higher dose recipients developed an extraordinary 10,000-fold improvement in vision which was maintained past the 12 months duration of the trial. Quite outstanding…….and there weren’t any serious side effects…. That is the most amazing life-changing result.
This is the most exciting research development I have seen yet, and I can’t wait to see what happens next…….
On that breathtaking end note….
Till next time…..
Cathy
Guest writer – Dr Catherine Civil
My name is Dr Catherine Civil. I have been associated with Retina Australia since the early 2000s. At that time, they were called WARPF, or the WA Retinitis Pigmentosa Foundation. WARPF were raffling a car in a shopping centre, and it caught my eye because my dad and my uncle both had Retinitis Pigmentosa. Being a doctor and a parent, I had a particular interest and awareness, not just of the disease, but of the fact that there was a significant risk that I or my children or my relatives might have inherited it.
I turned up at an AGM and found myself on the Board and engaged in fundraising. I spent several years on the Board and met some wonderful people, and I was even Chairman for a couple of years. When I left, I started writing the “Hot off the Press” research update column for the newsletter.
I arrived from the UK in the early 1990s with my husband and twin baby girls to live in Perth for a year for a bit of sunshine and fun, and we find ourselves still having fun in WA 30 years later, and with a grown son as well.
