I often hear of the AREDS study or formulation. What is the AREDS formulation?
AREDS, or the Age-Related Eye Disease Study, was a large study involving more than 4700 patients that investigated the benefits of vitamin supplementation with respect to preventing the progression of dry macular degeneration. This study was sponsored by the National Eye Institute (a branch of the National Institutes of Health). The study showed that patients at high risk of developing advanced stages of macular degeneration lowered their risk by about 25% when using a specific combination of antioxidants and zinc.
Patients were considered at high risk of progression if they had intermediate dry macular degeneration (defined by the presence of certain numbers of drusen of a particular size), wet macular degeneration, or geographic atrophy in one eye but not the other. The combination of nutrients also decreased the risk of vision loss by 19%. The daily amounts in the AREDS formulation are 500 mg of vitamin C, 400 IU of vitamin E, 15 mg of beta-carotene, and 80 mg of zinc (as zinc oxide).
The formulation also includes 2 mg of copper (as cupric oxide) to prevent copper deficiency anemia, a condition that may occur with high levels of zinc supple-mentation (see Table 1). It should be emphasized that daily use of the AREDS supplements is not a cure for macular degeneration; rather it is a treatment that helps to prevent progression and visual loss.