The most common disease I see daily is macular degeneration, which is a form of aging in our eye. Unfortunately, this aging occurs in our macular, which is the central part of our retina responsible for perceiving light and colors.
There are several risk factors for macular degeneration, which include:
Age
Smoking
Genetics
Female Gender
Heart disease, hypertension and obesity
Are their ways we can prevent or reduce the progression of macular degeneration? Yes!
A recent study (May 2020), showed that exercise can reduce your risk of age related eye disease. What a win-win!
We know that exercise is important for our cardiovascular health, but we also have proof that it can help keep your vision healthy.
Researchers studied two groups of mice. One group had access to an exercise wheel while the other group did not. The mice could voluntarily exercise. After one month, the researchers treated the mouse eye with lasers to simulate the changes that occur in humans with age-related vision loss. After this treatment, physically active mice had up to 45% less eye damage than nonactive mice
Takeaway: exercise can give your eye protection when faced with retinal aging stress like macular degeneration
Sources:
