So far, our wolf pack has eyed a variety of “prey.” Every one of the options we have thus far reviewed from the 2018 article Physical treatments for age-related macular degeneration has not satisfied our hunger for a serious, effective intervention. Some of them have shown promise, but none have definitely been found to be what we are looking for.
Believe it or not, that is okay. The wolf pack does not waste time and energy on prey they cannot catch. They do not waste time and energy on potential prey that will not satisfy their needs. They are discerning and shrewd, and we must be the same.
With that in mind, fellow wolves, let us move on to the letter M!
In this article, the letter M stands for microcurrent stimulation. Microcurrent is used in treating musculoskeletal pain. Some of you may have TENS units that do this. However, in this case, they decided to see if very low levels of current administered to the eye could help with dry AMD. The thought is this may be a way to increase neuroprotection by activating the neurons in the eye.
The data available at the time the article was written suggested microcurrent may have some promise, but there is no good understanding as to why. At least one study suggested there might be increased blood flow in the eye layer called the choroid. (My OCT scan pictures show my choroid. That is because there is a hole where my photoreceptors and RPE s once were.) A couple of other studies suggested there might be some changes in chemical signaling (your eye cells do talk to one another. Their language is chemicals.) There was also some indication the microcurrent would be able to interfere with pre-programmed cell death.
Now on to the conclusions about this research. Once more, microcurrent has not been scientifically found to be effective. There were only three studies found to review and none of these offered robust results. At this time, microcurrent appears to be another unworthy target for the pack. Don’t waste time and energy following this scent trail, wolves! It does not look like this is prey for us.
Bring us to the letter N for night-time light. We have mentioned dozens of times that drusen are simply eye poop, the fatty, metabolic waste of the cells in your eyes. The theory has been slow down the metabolism in the eye, and you will create less eye poop and consequently fewer drusen.
According to this section of the article, for some weird reason, eyes are more metabolically active in the dark. The theory is this: keeping light in your eyes all night will lead to the slowing of the metabolic process of the eye and result in less eye poop.
Interesting theory, but there was no research to prove or disprove it as of the publication of the paper. Consequently, one more false trail. Don’t let your nose lead you down this trail, wolves. One more, there is no satisfying kill at the end.
So, so far there have been few promising trails for us. Going down any of these trails will not result in satisfaction of our hunger. Maybe there will be something more substantial somewhere later in the alphabet? We will see.