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Q: My mother has macular degeneration. How can I avoid getting it myself?

A: Scientists have made progress in understanding what causes age-related macular degeneration (AMD) — the leading cause of vision loss for people ages 50 or older in the United States.

We’ve learned that certain genes and lifestyle factors increase the risk for developing AMD, and we’ve discovered treatments that often slow the disease’s progression.

Yet for all our advances, we still don’t have a guaranteed way to prevent AMD. You are at greater risk if one of your parents had the condition, but it doesn’t mean you’re destined to get it.

AMD destroys the macula — the central part of the retina, the layer of tissue in the back of the eye that changes light into electrical signals. The signals are sent to the brain, which converts them into images.

There are two types of AMD. Both types reduce the clarity of central vision, blurring or even erasing the image in the center of a person’s vision.

In dry AMD, the most common form, deposits of fat and protein called drusen slowly accumulate behind the retina, causing it to thin and leading to the destruction of the macula’s light-sensitive (photoreceptor) cells. The result is vision loss.

As AMD progresses, drusen can cause new, abnormal blood vessels to grow under and into the macula. The blood vessels leak and bleed, rapidly causing photoreceptor cell damage, scarring and vision loss. This is called wet AMD.

For now, the only advice to ward off AMD is to follow healthy lifestyle habits that help reduce your risk for the eye disease — and for many other health problems as well. These include the following:

Don’t smoke. Smoking has many damaging effects on the body, including increased oxidative stress in the retina. Oxidative stress may affect the way the blood vessels respond, and there seems to be some interaction between smoking and genes that can increase your risk for developing AMD.

Control your blood pressure. High blood pressure damages the blood vessels that feed oxygen and nutrients to the retina and increases the risk for AMD.

Exercise. Exercise keeps your blood vessels healthy. Aim for at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity exercise, such as cycling, swimming or brisk walking.

Eat a heart-healthy diet. Coronary artery disease, high cholesterol and obesity all increase your risk for developing AMD. Eat a heart-healthy Mediterranean-style diet that includes lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds and olive oil; moderate amounts of fish and poultry; and a little bit of low-fat dairy.

Make sure you include green, leafy vegetables in your diet. They’re rich in lutein and zeaxanthin, which have antioxidant properties and have been shown to improve pigment density in the macula, which protects the cells from free radicals.

Howard LeWine, M.D., is an internist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. For additional consumer health information, visit health.harvard.edu.

© 2023 Harvard University. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.