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For example, if you have cardiovascular disease or high blood pressure, take your medicine and follow your health care provider's instructions for controlling the condition. The following measures may help reduce your risk of developing wet macular degeneration: It's important to have routine eye exams to identify early signs of macular degeneration. This condition is known as Charles Bonnet syndrome. With profound loss of vision, people may see visual hallucinations. People whose wet macular degeneration has progressed to central vision loss have a higher risk of depression and social isolation. If you have diseases that affect your heart and blood vessels, you may be at higher risk of macular degeneration. Research indicates that being obese increases the chance that early or intermediate macular degeneration will progress to a more severe form of the disease. Smoking cigarettes or being regularly exposed to tobacco smoke greatly increases your risk of macular degeneration. Macular degeneration is more common in white people. Researchers have identified several genes linked to the condition. This disease is most common in people over 55. This may cause irregularities in the macula layers, resulting in vision loss or distortion.įactors that may increase your risk of macular degeneration include: When fluid leaks from the choroid, it can collect between the thin cell layer called the retinal pigment epithelium and the retina or within the layers of the retina.
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Sometimes irregular new blood vessels grow from the choroid under and into the macula.
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The macula is located at the back of the eye in the center of the retina.
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