No Connection Between Common Eye Disease and Dementia

A recent study from the University of Manchester, led by eye surgeon Dr. Tiarnan Keenan, has discovered that the common eye disease that affects people aged 50 and older is not associated to memory-loss disease such as dementia and Alzheimer's. Analysis of the medical records of 66,000 patients diagnosed with the common eye disease called "age-related macular degeneration" was conducted by scientists. They also analyzed records of 168,000 Alzheimer's disease or dementia victims and over 7 million for comparison to see if there is a connection between eye disease and dementia and vise versa, or none at all.

AMD, often thought to be connected to dementia, affects older people and portrays similar risk factors. When scientists examined both very closely, they found that the two don't have the same genetic risk factors.

The analysis of records led to the finding that there is no connection between AMD and dementia. Having any of the two diseases will not increase the risk of developing the other disease.

"These data provide evidence that there is no positive association between [age-related macular degeneration] and dementia or [Alzheimer's disease]," Dr. Keenan said.



Source-Medindia