A popular supplement most often used to help you get shut-eye may actually help you preserve your eyes, with new research linking melatonin and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine assessed records of more than 200,000 people who either had no history of age-related eyesight decline or had developed the slow-progressing nonexudative AMD. Of the 121,523 patients who were aged 50 or older with no history of , regular melatonin use was linked to a 58% reduction in risk of developing the condition.
In the 66,253 patients with early eyesight degeneration, melatonin use presented a 56% lower risk in this condition progressing. These results, which assessed medical records from 2008 to 2023, were consistent when patients were further divided into age groups of around 60, 70 and 80 years. As the name suggests, AMD affects the macula, which is found at the back of the eye and is the central part of the retina that processes what you see directly in front of you.
Some 11 million Americans are affected by this condition, and its progression is one of the main culprits in age-related blindness. In a on mice, researchers showed for the first time that melatonin helped protect the retina from damage and the progression of nonexudative AMD. Then a found that patients with AMD had lower melatonin levels in blood serum and tear fluid, while released the same year demonstrated that supplementary melatonin mitigated the progre.