The inside track

Eating lots of green, leafy vegetables like kale and spinach may help protect your macularDon't hang about with your eyes: get them tested by a qualified optometrist every couple of years. You might be suffering from macular disease, the most common cause of sight loss in the UK, and the early symptoms are not detectable by the sufferer themselves. The Macular Disease Society estimates that 513,000 Britons currently suffer from the condition, which affects a small area of the retina. It's about the size of a small grain of rice, but it nevertheless contains the greatest concentration of our photoreceptors.There are two forms of the disease. One is called "dry" degeneration, which causes the macular region to wear out like a carpet. The photoreceptors die off, and affect a loss in vision.

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