What is Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)?

Lylas G. Mogk, MD, is a renowned expert on age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and is the founding director of the Visual Rehabilitation and Research Center of Michigan, part of the Henry Ford Health System Eye Care Services.

Dr. Mogk is a co-author of Macular Degeneration: The Complete Guide to Saving and Maximizing Your Sight.

Are you experiencing blurring or a blind spot in the center of your vision? Are you seeing blurry areas on a printed page? Do some straight lines appear wavy? Are there dark spaces or areas in the center of your vision? It might be age-related macular degeneration.

Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is a gradual, progressive, painless deterioration of the macula, which is the small area in the center of the retina that gives us our detailed vision. When we look directly at an object to see it as clearly as possible, we are using our macula. Everything else that surrounds the object is what we see when we are using our peripheral retina.

The macula gives us detailed vision (to help with reading, for example) and the peripheral retina gives us a large area of vision that allows us to move through the environment safely. This is why someone with vision loss from macular degeneration may have trouble reading mail or newspapers but have no trouble spotting an object off to the side or while walking around, even in unfamiliar places.

A Definition

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is an incurable and progressive retinal eye disease and the leading cause of low vision, severe vision loss, and legal blindness for people aged 60 and older in the United States. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), 10-15 million individuals have AMD and about 10% of those affected have the "wet" type of AMD.

The Macular Degeneration Partnership, an online resource for information about AMD, defines and describes AMD as follows:

Macular degeneration is a progressive eye condition affecting as many as 15 million Americans and millions more around the world. The disease attacks the macula of the eye, where our sharpest central vision occurs. Although it rarely results in complete blindness, it robs the individual of all but the outermost, peripheral vision, leaving only dim images or black holes at the center of vision.

[AMD can] reduce contrast sensitivity and color perception [and] destroy the clear, "straight ahead" central vision necessary for reading, driving, identifying faces, watching television, doing fine detailed work, safely navigating stairs and performing other daily tasks we take for granted.

An AMD Simulation

To help family members and friends better understand the visual and functional effects of AMD, Macular Degeneration Support has created an online simulation gallery, entitled Through Our Eyes: How People with AMD See.

Here is what a person with "normal" vision sees:

Here is what a person with AMD sees: