A common medicine used for diabetes, called metformin, might also help protect our eyes from a condition that causes vision loss as we get older.
This eye problem is called age-related macular degeneration, or AMD. It affects the center part of our vision, making it hard to read, drive, or see people’s faces clearly.
In the United States, about 11 million people have AMD, and the number is expected to double by 2050 because the population is getting older. AMD is the main reason many people over 50 lose their vision.
There are two kinds of AMD. One is called dry AMD, which is more common and gets worse slowly. The other is wet AMD, which is not as common but can cause fast and serious vision loss.
Right now, there are some treatments for wet AMD to slow it down, but there is no cure for dry AMD. Once someone loses their vision from dry AMD, it usually cannot be brought back.
Because AMD is linked to aging, scientists have started to look at drugs that might slow aging. Metformin is one of those drugs. It has been used for many years to treat people with type 2 diabetes.
Doctors have noticed that people who take metformin often have fewer problems with other age-related diseases, like heart disease or memory loss. This made researchers wonder if metformin could also protect the eyes from AMD.
Dr. Dimitra Skondra, an eye doctor and researcher at the University of Chicago, is studying this idea. She and her team looked at health insurance records and found that people who took metformin had a lower chance of getting AMD.
In one of her studies, metformin seemed to lower the risk for both dry and wet AMD. In another study, it helped protect against a more serious stage of dry AMD called geographic atrophy, which causes major vision loss.
Scientists are not sure yet how metformin helps protect the eyes. But they think it may work by lowering inflammation and helping cells work better. Some studies even suggest that metformin can improve the bacteria in our gut, which might help keep our eyes healthy too.
All of this is very exciting because metformin is a safe and affordable medicine. It is taken as a pill and doesn’t require surgery or eye injections. If future clinical trials prove that metformin really works for AMD, it could become a simple and helpful way to protect the vision of millions of older adults.
This could make a big difference in people’s lives, helping them stay independent, keep doing the things they enjoy, and see the world clearly for longer.
If you care about eye health, please read studies about how vitamin B may help fight vision loss, and MIND diet may reduce risk of vision loss disease.
For more information about eye disease, please see recent studies about how to protect your eyes from glaucoma, and results showing this eye surgery may reduce dementia risk.
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