Red Meat Linked To Blindness in Old Age

A new study from Australia suggests that eating lots of red meat is linked to a higher risk of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness in old age.

The study was the work of first author Dr Elaine Chong, who is from the Centre for Eye Research Australia based at the University of Melbourne, and colleagues, and is published on 1 April in the advance access issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

The results showed that:

* At follow up, 1,680 participants had early stage AMD and 77 had late stage AMD.

* Higher red meat intake was positively associated with early AMD (ie more red meat linked to higher chance of having early AMD).

* The odds ratio for eating meat ten times a week or more versus eating it less than 5 times a week was a significant 1.47 (ie eating meat 10 times a week gave a person 47 per cent higher risk of AMD than if they ate it less than 5 times a week).

* Conversely, eating chicken 3.5 times a week or more was linked to 57 per cent lower risk of late AMD compared to eating it less than 1.5 times a week.

Posted in: Blindness, Eye Research Australia, Macular Degeneration, Red meat, University Melbourne