NIH Launching Second AREDS Study

BETHESDA, Md.—The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a second nationwide study to see whether a modified combination of vitamins, minerals and fish oil can further slow the progression of vision loss from age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of vision loss in the United States for people over age 60. This new study, the Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 (AREDS2), will build upon results from the earlier AREDS. AREDS2 will refine findings of the original study by adding lutein and zeaxanthin and the omega-3 fatty acids docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) to the study formulation. The main study objective is to determine whether these nutrients will decrease a person’s risk of progression to advanced AMD, which often leads to vision loss.

Paul A. Sieving, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Eye Institute (NEI) at NIH, said, “Nearly two million Americans have vision loss from advanced AMD, and another seven million with AMD are at substantial risk for vision loss. In the AREDS study, we found a combination of vitamins and minerals that effectively slowed the progression of AMD for some people. Now, we will conduct this more precisely-targeted study to see if the new combination of nutrients can reduce AMD progression even further.”