My mom was diagnosed with macular
degeneration. I work in the optical field
and thought that I was somewhat familiar
with this disease. However, I was under
the impression that it was age-related,
and my mom's OD told her that it is not,
but rather that she needs to be checked
for diabetes and high blood pressure. I
understand why he'd suggest being checked
for these two things (since they can be
underlying causes of AMD), but she is 62
years old and I'm not sure why it couldn't
just be a result of age, combined with the
fact that she's a white female and a
life-long smoker (all of which I
understood to also be risk factors).
Is it likely that there something more
that he saw that led him to tell her it
couldn't be age-related? He didn't seem to
provide her with very much information,
and so I'm trying to determine whether
this indicates that it is very advanced. I
know there are two forms (wet and dry) but
he didn't tell her which she had or how
quickly the disease might progress.
Macular degeneration is conditioned by
age, smoking cigarettes, and genetics.
High blood pressure and diabetes
mellitusmust first be excluded because
these conditions can damage the blood
vessels in the retina, causing
degeneration of the neuron-epithelial
cells (retinopathy). You can consult her
OD to query the form of her condition and
to ask about the speed of advancement.
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