To help save your vision as you age, you may want to give fish oil the thumbs up and cigarettes the thumbs down.
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) — the leading cause of age-related vision loss — is nearly twice as common in elderly smokers as nonsmokers. And seniors who eat fish at least twice weekly are almost half as likely to have AMD than those who eat fish less than once a week.
So say Johanna Seddon, MD, and colleagues in July’s Archives of Ophthalmology. Seddon works at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, which is affiliated with Harvard Medical School in Boston.
Halfway around the world in Australia, other experts found that age-related macular problems are rarer in people whose diets are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in fish, including salmon and mackerel, as well as flax seeds and walnuts.
Read more about the study here