Not on prescription Since 2010, these have not been available on prescription from your doctor as they are regarded as non-drug nutritional supplements. Supplements are probably most useful to the relatively undernourished with a diet poor in green vegetables. You should try to eat green vegetables such as spinach and curly kale twice a week, oily fish twice a week and not forget fruits rich in Vitamin C such as oranges.

Suppliers
Ocuvite PreserVision, ICAPS, visionace are all much of a muchness. Some pharmacies such as Boots have their own proprietary preparations. All contain vitamins C and E, zinc, lutein and zeathanthin. For ICAPS, visit www.icapsinfo.co.uk or telephone 0800 092 4567. They used to contain Vitamin A too, but the trials showed an increased risk of lung cancer in smokers taking preparations containing Vitamin A so most suppliers omit Vitamin A from their preparations. An example is viteyes which also contains omega-fish oil. Some studies suggest diet high in fish oils (such as canned tuna, salmon and sardines) may reduce the risk of wet macular degeneration.

Effects
These decrease the risk of severe AMD from 28% to 21% over a period of 5 years. Incidently, they also decrease the risk of nuclear sclerotic cataract but increase the risk of posterior subcapsular cataract.

Smokers
For supplies of nutritional supplements without vitamin A try viteyes (Tel: 0845 838 6704) or visit www.butterflies-healthcare.co.uk