Thaindian News

Washington, April 12 (ANI): A University at Buffalo study has found that women under the age of 75 with high vitamin D status were less likely to have early age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of irreversible vision loss in adults.

Vitamin D status was assessed using the blood measure of 25-hydroxyvitamin D or 25 (OH) D. The 25 (OH) D level is generally considered the means by which nutritional vitamin D status is defined.

“In women younger than 75, those who had 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations lower than 38 nanomoles per liter were more likely to have age-related macular degeneration than women with concentrations greater than 38 nanomoles per liter,” said Amy E. Millen, assistant professor in the UB School of Public Health and Health Professions and lead author.

“Blood concentrations above 38 nanomoles per liter were associated with at least a 44 percent decreased odds of having AMD.”

She noted that the Institute of Medicine considers an adult with a blood 25 hydroxyvitamin D concentration of lower than 30 nanomoles per liter to be at increased risk of vitamin D deficiency and a person with a concentration of less than 50 nanomoles per liter to be at increased risk for vitamin D inadequacy.

“The take- home message from this study is that having very low vitamin D status (25-hydroxyvitamin D blood concentrations lower than 38 nanomoles per liter) may be associated with increasing your odds of developing age-related macular degeneration,” said Millen.

“But based on these study findings, being at a higher vitamin D level than 38 nanomoles per liter does not appear to be more protective,” she cautioned.

The paper has been published in the “Archives of Ophthalmology,” one of the JAMA/Archives journals.(ANI)