Age-related macular degeneration is the most common cause of blindness and vision impairment in people older than 50 in the United States. There's good news, though: the National Eye Institute at the National Institutes of Health says that vitamin supplementation can significantly reduce the risk of macular degeneration and the vision loss it causes.

In a 6-year clinical trial sponsored by the federal government, researchers followed 3,640 patients with at least early stages of macular degeneration. After a vitamin regimen of 500 milligrams of vitamin C, 400 international units of vitamin E, 15 milligrams of beta carotene, 80 milligrams of zinc as zinc oxide, and two milligrams of copper as cupric oxide, people with intermediate stages of the disease found their risk of advanced disease reduced by 25%, when compared with a placebo. The same vitamin program reduced the risk of vision loss caused by age-related macular degeneration by 19%. People in the earliest stages of the disease did not experience any effect from the vitamins.

Although the National Eye Institute cautions that the vitamin program is not a cure for age-related macular degeneration and will not cure vision loss, they do recommend that people at high risk for macular degeneration should talk to their eye care professionals and consider taking the formulation in the study.

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