What Do Rainbows Have to Do with Macular Degenerative Disease?
If you have blue, green or light-colored eyes you are at higher risk of developing macular degenerative disease.
This is simply because there is less pigment in the iris. Pigment in the iris is just like pigment in the skin in that it gives some protection from the damaging rays of the sun. In the eyes it prevents damaging light from entering the retina.
Your eye colour is genetic. But, according to Wikipedia, "iris color is also a highly complex phenomenon consisting of the combined effects of texture, pigmentation, fibrous tissue and blood vessels within the iris stroma." Stroma is the pigmented fibrovascular tissue that makes up the iris (or irides, the plural of iris).
When you have less pigment in your iris your eyes will be colored blue to green, and the more pigment the darker your eyes will be.
Did you know that blue, green and grey eyes are relatively rare amongst human beings? In a way it’s a physical weakness created when Caucasian babies develop without adequate melanin in the stroma. Melanin is a brown to very dark brown pigment.
Fair-eyed, fair-skinned people are at higher risk of macular degenerative disease. Nutritional supplements for your eyes, like Visulyn, contain a substance called Lutein. To learn more about Lutein see our previous posts. Basically Lutein is a carotenoid pigment naturally occurring in the macular, like melanin. New research shows that supplementation with Lutein is an effective way of boosting your eye pigment and protecting your macula.
So what do rainbows have to do with macular degenerative disease?
Read the next post to find out.
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[...] AMD mainly affects people with fair skin and light eyes. Caucasians are at high risk. Africans and people with dark skin and dark eyes are not at risk for [...]
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