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news.Canadian researchers have found that rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with anti-inflammatory drugs are 10 times less likely to develop age-related macular degeneration, the most common form of blindness in people over 55.
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The study, recently published in the Neurobiology of Aging, is a joint effort between scientists at the University of British Columbia and University of Saskatchewan.
The scientists reviewed 993 rheumatoid arthritis patients in Saskatchewan aged 65 years or older who, on average, had been living with rheumatoid arthritis since age 51. Only three had developed age-related macular degeneration (AMD), whereas about 30 cases could be expected in a similarly-aged group from the general populace.
It is already accepted that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) reduce the incidence of bowel cancer and there is a growing body of evidence that NSAIDS may also help reduce the incidence of Alzheimer’s. However, according to the researchers, this is the first time a link has been identified between anti-inflammatories and macular degeneration.
The researchers emphasize that further study is required to confirm their findings, but if they are corroborated, anti-inflammatories would be the first approach for this intractable disease.