2009

Dr. Sharma Ayurveda Series

Dr Prathibha C.K
MD Panchakarma

MACULAR DEGENERATION
OR
AGE RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION
Ayurveda Management of Age Related Macular Degeneration

Department of Panchakarma - Amrita School of Ayurveda

Introduction
Macular degeneration or age related macular degeneration (AMD) is a medical
condition usually of older adults which results in a loss of vision in the center of the
visual field; the macula. Macula is the part of the eye that allows the person to see fine
detail. The area of the macula comprises about 5% of the retina and is responsible for
about 35% of the total visual field. The remaining 65% (the peripheral field) remains
unaffected.

AMD does not hurt, but it causes cells in the macula to die. AMD is a slow progressive
condition. Macular degeneration can make it difficult or impossible to read or recognize
faces, although enough peripheral vision remains to allow other activities of daily living.
It’s of 2 types- Dry AMD and wet AMD

Dry AMD: It constitutes about 90-95% of the AMD cases and is caused by the
breakdown of the light sensitive cells in the macula. It is more slowly progressive. The
person needs more light for reading and other tasks. It generally affects both eyes, but
vision can be lost in one eye while the other eye seems unaffected.

Wet AMD: It consists of only about 5% - 10% of AMD cases and usually presents with
some distortion of vision and lines might look wavy instead of straight. It is caused by
the formation of new blood vessels under the macula that leak; thus the wet form. It’s of
rapid onset.

Symptoms
• Blurred vision: Those with dry type may be asymptomatic or notice a gradual loss
of central vision, whereas those with wet type notice a rapid onset of vision loss.
• Central scotomas (shadows or missing areas of vision)
• Distorted vision - A grid of straight lines appears wavy and parts of the grid may
appear blank.
• Trouble in differentiating colors; specifically dark ones from dark ones and light
ones from light ones.
• Slow recovery of visual function after exposure to bright light

Macular degeneration by itself will not lead to total blindness. In almost all cases, some
vision remains, but few macular degeneration patients experience total visual loss.

Ayurveda Management of AMD:

Ayurveda the life science aims at rooting out the disease from its base than merely
treating the symptoms. As this is a degenerative condition we have to supply nutrition.
Similar to the contemporary system of medicine oral supplementation of anti oxidants is
important. It is done in a special way in Ayurveda. We see to the fact that the drugs we
administer become fully biologically available and don’t produce any side effects. For
the same reason the drugs given will be in the form of ghee preparations or others like
pills or kashayams.

Panchakarma therapy is special to Ayurveda. It includes 5 varieties of procedures viz;

Vamana, Virechana, Vasti, Nasya and Raktamokshna which purifies the body.
Ayurveda believes in the fact that all the diseases are due to accumulation of toxins or
waste products in the body. These 5 therapeutic procedures are developed to remove
the so accumulated toxins and therefore they are also called as the purificatory
therapies. Not all the 5 procedures are advised for a person except in few conditions.
Many a times one of the 5 may become necessary.

Administration of drugs through anal route is called as Basti. The benefit of this therapy
is that large quantity of drug can be administered through this route. It checks the fact of
maximum absorption of the drug in the same form, as it bypasses the hepatic
metabolism. Basti not only remove the toxins out of the body but also nourishes the
targeted tissue and that is what required in AMD.

Nasya is the procedure in which the drug is administered through the nostrils so as to
reach to the target site of action. It not only removes the doshas out of the body but also
nourishes the undernourished

Tarpana is a local procedure wherein the drugs are directly applied over the eye. The
eye is made to merge in a pool of ghee and the person has to keep blinking for a
prescribed time. Here the outer layer of the eye readily absorbs the active principles
from the ghee and so; cause the healing of the diseased.

So Ayurveda has an answer to AMD. The whole aim of the treatment is to go to the root
cause of the disease and treat the pathology than just merely treating the symptoms. Of
course the damage already caused may not be reversed completely, but will surely
prevent the further progress of the condition.