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SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) – Researchers from China's Taiwan Province have discovered that a drug commonly used to treat type 2 diabetes could have the effect of reducing the risk of developing an illness causing blindness, the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) said Sunday.
The San Francisco-based academy said the research, disclosed at the 2018 AAO, held its 122nd annual meeting in Chicago from October 27 to 30 and showed that diabetic patients taking the drug-based metformin had a significantly lower rate of development. Disease-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), one of the leading causes of blindness among Americans age 50 and older.
The researchers studied statistics from the Taiwan health insurance research database covering a period from 2001 to 2013 and found that 45,524 patients with type 2 diabetes who took metformin had better chance of avoiding AMD, which affects about 2.1 million people in the United States.
The study suggests that metformin, which controls the level of glucose in the blood in patients with type 2 diabetes, can suppress inflammation and oxidative stress, the two main factors playing a key role in the development diabetes and AMD.
"Our study is the first to reveal the protective effect of metformin on the development of AMD," said lead investigator Yu-Yen Chen.
The AAO is the world's largest association of ophthalmologists and surgeons. It has 32,000 doctors. She is committed to the defense of eye protection and the empowerment of life by promoting eye care and health for the public.
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