Your Vision And Alzheimer’s

By Suzanne Holman • June 18th, 2010

Gram Enjoying Her Reading

Mom LOVED to read! She would often be reading newspapers. I remember when she was receiving three different subscriptions: Sun City paper, Arizona Republic, and the Wall Street Journal!

Or Mom would be reading a newsletter from the Mayo Clinic or some other health related organization. Novels would capture her attention and even in her 8th decade she would be reading well into the early morning to complete a great story!

Mom developed macular degeneration and over the years it grew worse and worse. She developed what is called “wet” macular degeneration and at that stage, laser treatment is recommended. She had the laser treatment from a renown retinologist, but she ended up with a black spot in her eye. This can happen as damage to the nerves can happen when the treatment is being done to the macular.

She was no longer able to read, even with special glasses and special lighting. I believe that was a huge part of her demise with Alzheimer’s taking over her brain. That stimulation was gone. Her hearing also wasn’t great so it was difficult for her to hear a lot of conversation and television became more challenging for her to hear.

Learning new technology wasn’t easy for Mom so trying to get her to play the talking books didn’t work well. In 2006 she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and in 2009 she passed away in an Alzheimer’s Care Center.

Studies are showing that treating vision problems really can reduce the risk for Alzheimer’s Disease.

When University of Michigan researchers noticed that people with dementia tended to have had fewer eye procedures prior to their diagnoses than those without dementia, it was motivation for the start of the Aging, Demographics, and Memory Study. There were two major questions that the researchers wanted to answer:

* Does poor vision contribute to the development of dementia?

* Does treating visual disorders reduce the likelihood of developing dementia?

Some of the connections between poor vision and dementia symptoms seem obvious, while others are not yet understood.

They found that people with poor vision were less likely to participate in the kinds of activities, such as reading, playing board games and engaging in physical activities, that can be protective against cognitive decline.

Other research indicates that visual loss can lead to structural changes in the brain, but more studies are needed to understand why.

Using data from Medicare and the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study, the Michigan researchers followed 625 elderly Americans who did not have any form of dementia for an average of 10 years. Based on a scale that ranked vision from excellent (one) to totally blind (six), they found that the risk for dementia increased 52%, on average, with each step up the scale.

Mary A.M. Rogers, PhD, a clinical epidemiologist and the study’s lead author, said the study results suggest that the problems with declining vision preceded the dementia.

Dr. Rogers said that this is the first epidemiologic study, to her knowledge, that points to treatment of vision problems as being protective against the development of late-life dementia.

Good news came out of this study too.

Dr. Rogers said that when elderly people received appropriate treatment for their visual difficulties — which can include procedures such as corneal transplant, cataract removal and lens insertion, and treatment for retinal detachment, lesions and other eye disorders — their probability of developing dementia decreased. Even one visit to an ophthalmologist was associated with a lower risk.

Medicare coverage of vision problems is spotty.

While only about 13% of the Medicare population has Alzheimer’s disease, this group accounts for 34% of Medicare spending.
Alzheimer’s incidence is increasing rapidly.

Dr. Rogers believes it would be very worthwhile to investigate whether expanding vision screenings and treatment to more elderly Americans would in fact save money for Medicare.

All of this research points to the importance of good eye care. Conditions that are treatable need to be tended to.

Hopefully as time goes on, there will be more hope for those people like my Mom who have macular degeneration.

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