How Does Macular Degeneration Affect Vision?

If you’ve ever noticed straight lines starting to look wavy, struggled to recognize faces, or felt like the center of your vision just isn’t as sharp as it used to be, it can be unsettling. Changes like these often raise a simple but worrying question – what is happening to my eyesight? For millions of adults, especially as they get older, the answer can be age-related macular degeneration.

Age-related macular degeneration, often called AMD, is one of the most common causes of vision loss in adults over 40. In the U.S. alone, more than 1.8 million people over 40 show signs of AMD. Even so, many people do not fully understand what it is, how it changes the way you see, or what it actually feels like to live with it. In this article, we will break down how macular degeneration affects vision, the early signs to watch for, what vision loss from AMD looks like in real life, and the practical steps you can take to slow its progression and protect your eyesight.

What Is AMD?

As its name suggests, AMD is a condition that primarily impacts the macula. The macula is the part of the retina where the light-sensitive cells of the eye are located, making it incredibly important for visual acuity. This is what helps us to do our favorite tasks like reading, watching TV, and even driving. As we age, these cells tend to get damaged, causing these light-sensitive skills to stop working.

So, just how does macular degeneration affect vision? First, it causes irreparable damage to the photoreceptors in your eye. Secondly, it causes blood vessels in the retina to leak. Both of these symptoms cause the deterioration of vision, notably at different rates. This is why it is so important to get regular eye exams, as they can help both you and your doctor track your vision’s decline, no matter how gradual.

What Are the First Signs of Macular Degeneration?

There are a few common early signs of age-related macular degeneration. They often involve subtle changes in your central vision, like straight lines appearing wavy or blurry, missing words when reading, difficulty recognizing faces, needing brighter light for tasks, or seeing dark/blurry spots in your vision, all indicating a loss of central detail and clarity. If you notice any of these symptoms, it’s important to get help right away so that you and your doctors can put together a treatment plan that will help you preserve your quality of life. Early macular degeneration is much easier to address than the late stages of the disease.

What’s It Like to Have Macular Degeneration?

If those macular degeneration symptoms are hard to imagine, never fear. The National Eye Institute recently made a video that demonstrates what you see when you have macular degeneration. This video can help you determine whether your vision issues are caused by AMD or whether they are caused by something else. But, to be absolutely positive, you should check in with your eye doctor rather than self-diagnose.

As you can see, this video takes place in a grocery store. As you (as the camera) walk down the aisle, you can see food on the shelves, and everything looks clear. Then, they apply the “AMD Filter” to the camera perspective, and you now notice dark splotches across your center vision. The area around that dark splotch also appears distorted and wavy. So, we can see that a person with AMD has clearer vision on the outskirts, but that loss of central vision is definitely alarming and inconvenient. By having a better idea of what you see when you have macular degeneration, you can do a lot to prevent the disease from progressing too much, as you’ll know what symptoms to look out for.

How Can You Prevent AMD?

Whether you develop AMD or not depends on a variety of factors, including genes and lifestyle. Luckily, there is a lot you can do to prevent this disease from developing, and here’s the best secret: it mostly has to do with what you eat.

1. Consume the Right Fats

Fats are some of the best things you can consume to prevent AMD. Of course, they have to be the right fats. For example, the omega-3 essential fatty acid known as DHA is intimately involved with eye health. It’s found in salmon, mackerel, sardines, shellfish, and herring. Tuna is also a great source, and bluefin tuna has up to five times more DHA than other types of tuna. Several epidemiologic studies have indicated that omega-3 oils may reduce the risk of AMD.

Other studies also suggest increasing your omega-3 intake to reduce inflammation. Inflammation in the eyes is one of the most common causes of AMD. So, what’s the best way to improve your omega-3 intake? The easiest way is to consume two or more servings of fish high in omega-3 fatty acids per week. Besides fish, nuts also provide healthy fats. You can also consider adding more avocados, oysters, and flaxseeds to your diet.

2. Supplement with Lutein and Zeaxanthin

We talk about the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin all the time here at Rebuild Your Vision. This is because they are so vital to maintaining healthy vision, as they form the macular pigment region in your eye. By adding these supplements to your diet, you can actually thicken your retina and help prevent AMD.

And, if you’ve already been diagnosed with AMD, taking these supplements is still helpful. Researchers have found that lutein not only helps prevent but also reverses symptoms of AMD. Although there is no cure for AMD, you can slow down its progression and see some improvements in symptoms.

If you want to add these carotenoids to your diet naturally, your best bet is to add more kale, spinach, collard greens, eggs, turnip greens, broccoli, zucchini, romaine lettuce, corn, and peas to your rotation. Alternatively, a supplement of 20 mg of lutein and 6-10 mg of zeaxanthin per day has been proven to increase macular pigment health. It’s truly one of the best things you can do to improve eyesight with macular degeneration.

In addition to being antioxidants, lutein and zeaxanthin also may help protect against photodamage of the retina by filtering out blue light. Over time, blue light can do severe damage to the retina. So, if you spend a lot of time at the computer, these are an excellent way you can combat those negative effects. Also, lutein and zeaxanthin may also protect the blood vessels that supply the macular region.

3. Quit Smoking

Smoking is a powerful risk factor for loss of vision for a multitude of reasons, but it has also been strongly linked to AMD development. Research shows that smokers are up to four times more at risk of developing AMD than non-smokers.

Luckily, it’s never too late to benefit from quitting. You can begin to enjoy the benefits within hours of quitting smoking. In these early stages, your heart rate will return to normal, and the carbon monoxide level in your blood will normalize. After two weeks, your risk of heart disease decreases. After nine months, the coughing goes away, and your physical capabilities improve. Jump to 15 years later, and in terms of risks for disease, it’s often like you never smoked in the first place. The fact of the matter is that when your overall body is healthy, your eyes are healthier.

4. Stay Active

Researchers have conducted decades-long studies to explore the links between exercise and AMD prevention. A recent multicohort study found that physical activity reduces the risk of developing AMD dramatically when conducted regularly from an early age.

The improved blood flow experienced by those who do cardio exercises may have something to do with the lower chance of developing AMD. Exercise is good for you for a myriad of reasons, and your vision health is definitely one of them.

Why Early Changes Should Never Be Ignored

Vision loss from AMD does not happen all at once, which is why understanding the warning signs of macular degeneration is so important. Knowing what vision looks like with macular degeneration, and truly grasping what it’s like to have it, makes those early changes harder to ignore and easier to act on. When you recognize how AMD can affect your eyesight in everyday situations – reading, shopping, recognizing faces – you are far more likely to protect the vision you still have. Awareness paired with consistent habits can slow progression, preserve independence, and keep small visual changes from quietly becoming life-altering ones.