People who ate between 100 to 142 mgs (milligrams) of vegetable nitrates each day had a 35 per cent lower risk of developing early age-related macular degeneration (AMD) than people who ate less than 69 mgs of vegetable nitrates each day, showed the findings published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Spinach has approximately 20mg of nitrate per 100g, while beetroot has nearly 15mg of nitrate per 100g.
"This is the first time the effects of dietary nitrates on macular degeneration risk has been measured," said lead researcher Bamini Gopinath from Westmead Institute for Medical Research in Australia.
For the study, the researchers interviewed more than 2,000 Australian adults aged over 49 and followed them over a 15-year period.
"If our findings are confirmed, incorporating a range of foods rich in dietary nitrates -- like green leafy vegetables and beetroot -- could be a simple strategy to reduce the risk of early macular degeneration," Gopinath said.
The research did not show any additional benefits for people who exceeded 142mgs of dietary nitrate each day.
Age is the strongest known risk factor for AMD and the disease is more likely to occur after the age of 50.
There is currently no cure for the disease.
As per a complaint, Sumitra who resides at Gulapada under Binika block had been applying a fairness cream on her body for the last 15 days.
But surprisingly, after some days of application, she started complaining of severe skin problems with losses of vision. Besides burning sensation on the entire face, Sebak’s cheeks also started swelling with red rashes on all around the face.
“She bought the cream from a grocery shop in our village and started applying on the face. Four-five days after, she started complaining rashes and swollen cheeks. She also experienced burning sensation on face. Gradually, it affected the eyes. Now, her eyes have closed due to the ill effects of the cream. She has almost lost her vision,” said Sraban Sebak, husband of the women.
As the woman experienced severe pain, her family members rushed her to Binika Health Centre and later admitted her to the Dermatology Department at VIMSAR in Burla in Sambalpur.
Blatant use of poor quality body lotion and fairness creams can cause severe skin damages. Some face creams of substandard quality contain harmful bleaching agents like hydroquinone, mercury, chromium, lead, mercury and steroid which contribute to the damage of skin.
Dermatologists often advise to avoid cheap cosmetic items which may lead to skin issues and encourage use herbal products in natural way.
After passing Class XII in 1980, Bhaskar took admission in BJB College in Bhubaneswar to pursue graduate course in Commerce stream. However, he had to quit midway due to gradual loss of vision.
But the disability did not deter Bhaskar from providing education to others. Initially, he taught his younger brother and children from neighbourhood. When they came out with flying colours in their examinations, Bhaskar became famous in the area.
Currently, Bhaskar teaches 37 students at his house on a regular basis.
“Instead of sitting idle, I prefer to impart education to children. If any organisation comes forward to provide a permanent set up, it will benefit many poor students who are deprived of quality education due to financial constraints,” said Bhaskar, who has attained 60 years of age.
“He (Bhaskar) provides good education and clears our doubts completely. Our seniors were quite successful academically under his guidance. Some even got scholarship after clearing different tests,” said Rekhanjali Das, a student.
Toeing similar lines, another student Udayanath Mallick said, “I have been studying under his guidance for past three years. He teaches Maths very well and helps us in remembering formulas.”
Bhaskar has won many accolades from different organisations for his service. Residents of the area believe if the State government helps him in his endeavour, many poor students will be benefitted.
“Bhaskar has a strong memory power. He never demands money from any child, but provides quality teaching and produces meritorious students. His sole aim is to teach children and spread the light of knowledge,” said Kamalakanta Naik, an educationist.
They were being treated at the hospital OPD, he said and added, their normal vision was unlikely to be restored.
"Watching solar eclipse with naked eyes can result in solar retinitis. 15 such cases have been reported at the hospital. Our examination has found that a part of their retina had been burnt," he said.
He said such illness is treated by giving supportive treatment and it takes 3-6 weeks for the patient to recover partially.
(IANS)
The results, published in the journal Nature Medicine, suggest that the AI model, built in partnership with Alphabet subsidiary DeepMind and Moorfields Eye Hospital in Britain, could help doctors study preventive treatments for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the third-largest cause of blindness across the globe.
Around 75 per cent of patients with AMD have an early form called "dry" AMD that usually has relatively mild impact on vision.
A minority of patients, however, develop the more sight-threatening form of AMD called exudative, or "wet" AMD.
This condition affects around 15 per cent of patients, and occurs when abnormal blood vessels develop underneath the retina.
These vessels can leak fluid, which can cause permanent loss of central vision if not treated early enough.
Wet AMD often affects one eye first, so patients become heavily reliant upon their unaffected eye to maintain their normal day-to-day living.
Unfortunately, 20 per cent of these patients will go on to develop wet AMD in their other eye within two years.
The condition often develops suddenly but further vision loss can be slowed with treatments if wet AMD is recognised early enough.
The new research showed that the Google Health AI model has the potential to predict whether a patient will develop wet AMD within six months.
The researchers trained their model using a retrospective, anonymised dataset of 2,795 patients.
These patients had been diagnosed with wet AMD in one of their eyes, and were attending one of seven clinical sites for regular 3D optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging and treatment.
For each patient, the researchers worked with retinal experts to review all prior scans for each eye and determine the scan when wet AMD was first evident.
The AI system is composed of two deep convolutional neural networks, one taking the raw 3D scan as input and the other taking a segmentation map outlining the types of tissue present in the retina.
It used the raw scan and tissue segmentations to estimate a patient's risk of progressing to wet AMD within the next six months.
In the future, this system could potentially help doctors plan studies of earlier intervention, as well as contribute more broadly to clinical understanding of the disease and disease progression.
(IANS)
Published in the journal ‘Nature Communications', the study suggests that the experimental therapy -- which targets a common cause of neurodegeneration and vascular leakage in the eye -- could have broader therapeutic effects than the existing drugs.
Retinal vein occlusion occurs when a major vein that drains blood from the retina is blocked, usually due to a blood clot. As a result, blood and other fluids leak into the retina, damaging specialised light-sensing neurons called photoreceptors.
Standard treatment for the condition currently relies on drugs that reduce fluid leakage from blood vessels and abnormal blood vessel growth. But there are significant drawbacks. These therapies require repeated injections directly into the eye, and for the patients who brave this daunting prospect, the treatment ultimately fails to prevent vision loss in majority of the cases.
"The new treatment targets an enzyme called caspase-9. Under normal conditions, caspase-9 is believed to be primarily involved in programmed cell death, a tightly regulated mechanism for naturally eliminating damaged or excess cells," said study researcher Carol M. Troy from the Columbia University in the US.
However, in studies of mice, the Troy lab discovered that when blood vessels are injured by retinal vein occlusion, the caspase-9 becomes uncontrollably activated, triggering processes that can damage the retina.
The study found that a highly selective caspase-9 inhibitor, delivered in the form of eye drops, improved a variety of clinical measures of retinal function in a mouse model of the condition.
Most importantly, the treatment reduced swelling, improved blood flow, and decreased neuronal damage in the retina.
"We believe these eye drops may offer several advantages over existing therapies," said Troy.
"Patients could administer the drug themselves and wouldn't have to get a series of injections. Also, our eye drops target a different pathway of retinal injury and thus may help patients who do not respond to the current therapy," Troy added.
The researchers are preparing to test the eye drops in people with retinal vein occlusion during a phase I clinical trial.
(IANS)
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