Dietary Fat and Fish Intake and Age-Related Maculopathy

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Abstract
AGE-RELATED maculopathy (ARM) is a leading cause of irreversible blindness in Australia1 and the United States.2 The causes of ARM are not known, but there are many hypothesized risk factors. In addition to smoking,3-7 a number of cardiovascular diseases and risk factors previously have been found to have statistically significant associations with ARM. These include systemic hypertension,8,9 past diagnosis of vascular disease,9,10 presence of carotid or lower extremity arterial disease,11 high serum cholesterol level,4,12 body mass index (calculated as the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters),12,13 and plasma fibrinogen level.13 However, few cardiovascular associations found in individual studies have been reproduced consistently. An association between early ARM and a high intake of saturated fat and cholesterol was reported from the Beaver Dam Eye Study.14 The relation between diet and atherosclerosis is unproven.15 However, reasonable evidence suggests that dietary fat intake, particularly dietary intake of saturated fat and cholesterol, is associated with an increased risk for atherosclerosis.16 It is biologically plausible that higher dietary saturated fat intake promotes atherosclerosis to increase the risk for ARM.