Macular Degeneration
What is AMD?
THE leading cause of irreversible vision loss worldwide.
AMD is the leading cause of vision loss over 50. AMD stands for "Age-related Macular Degeneration". It is how our eyes age. AMD affects the center of the retina, called "the macula", where vision is focused and sharpest. AMD does not cause blindness. However, AMD can cause "legal blindness", vision so blurry that you are unable to read, drive, or recognize faces. This can happen slowly, or suddenly. Studies show that nothing reduces this risk better than Vision Protection Therapy.
Nearly 14 Million Americans Have AMD
That number is growing daily. Vision loss from AMD is the major cause of loss of independence and decreased quality of life for people over 50 worldwide, and a major burden on affected patients and their families. AMD is one of the most important unmet healthcare needs in the modern world.
Dry vs. Wet AMD
GET TREATMENT TODAY TO PREVENT VISION LOSS.
DRY AMD
The earliest form of AMD is called “dry” AMD. People with early dry AMD have good vision on the eye chart but may have difficulty seeing at night and indoors. Driving at night can become difficult. Adjusting to a bright or dark room may take longer than usual. Reading a restaurant menu may become impossible without a flashlight.
Only about 10% of people with AMD develop severe vision loss due to dry AMD. This occurs when a condition called “geographic atrophy” (GA) develops. GA leaves an atrophic, or “dead spot” in the center of the retina that gets bigger with time. The bigger the GA spot gets, the more vision that is lost. While dry AMD usually progresses slowly over many years, GA progresses more rapidly. Eventually, the ability to read, drive and see faces is lost. These eyes need macular vision protection. Published studies show that Vision Protection Therapy is both the safest and most effective way to slow progression of GA.
WET AMD
Wet AMD is the main cause of vision loss from AMD. In fact, 90% of people who lose vision from AMD lose vision when they develop “wet” AMD. This means that the best way to prevent vision loss from AMD is to prevent the development of wet AMD. Nothing does this better than Vision Protection Therapy.
In wet AMD, scar tissue, called “neovascularization” develops in the macula. This scar tissue grows, destroying the macula and the sharp vision. Things you look directly at may be blurry and distorted, or wavey. To others, it is like looking through Swiss cheese, with holes in their vision. When wet AMD develops, the ability to drive, read and recognize faces may be lost. This can happen suddenly, and without warning.
AMD vision loss is often permanent and progressive, even with current treatments. To make matters worse, once you lose vision in one eye from AMD, you are at increased risk for eventually losing vision in your good eye as well. The answer? Prevention
What About "Red Light" Therapy?
HOW DOES VISION PROTECTION THERAPY (VPT) COMPARE TO VALEDA?
Recently, the FDA approved “red light therapy” applied by the Valeda device for treatment of dry AMD. Red light therapy, or “photobiomodulation”, works by briefly energizing the retina via the “photoelectric effect” using visible light. Think: a strong cup of coffee. You might feel better, but you’re not healthier. VPT works by a much more powerful mechanism called “low-dose thermal adaptive hormesis”, using laser. VPT makes things better by making your eye healthier. Think: going to the gym every day.
After 27 treatment visits to the doctor over one year, the only benefit of red-light therapy was to improve vision by just 2 letters on the eye chart. Rather than decreasing the risk of vision loss from dry AMD, Valeda tripled the risk of vision loss from wet AMD. In contrast, VPT improves vision more (avg 7 letters) and is the most effective treatment to prevent disease progression and vision loss from wet AMD, decreasing the risk of wet AMD 13X and slowing geographic atrophy by avg 47% per year.
| Valeda / “red-light therapy” | Vision Protection Therapy | |
|---|---|---|
| Treatment device FDA approved for AMD? | Yes | Yes |
| Mode ? | Photobiomodulation | Laser |
| Mechanism of Action? | Photoelectric effect | Thermal adaptive hormesis |
| Long lasting? | No | Yes |
| Treatments per year? | 27 | 3 |
| Bad effects? | Increased wet AMD 3X | None |
| Prevent wet AMD and eye injections? | No Increases wet AMD 3X | Yes Reduces wet AMD 13X |
| Help geographic atrophy? | NA | Slows 47% per year |
| Improves vision? | 2 letters avg | 7 letters avg |
| Studies | 1 (time span: 1 year) 91 treated 54 controls | 4 (time span: 10 years) 2,181 treated 15,670 controls |
Boyer D, Hu A, Warrow D, Xavier S, Gonzalez V, et al. LIGHTSITE III: 13-Month Efficacy and Safety Evaluation of Multiwavelength Photobiomodulation in Nonexudative (Dry) Age-Related Macular Degeneration Using the Lumithera Valeda Light Delivery System. Retina. 2024 Mar 1;44(3):487-497. doi: 10.1097/IAE.0000000000003980. PMID: 37972955; PMCID: PMC10885856.
Luttrull JK, Sinclair SH, Elmann S, Glaser BM. Low incidence of choroidal neovascularization following subthreshold diode micropulse laser (SDM) for high-risk AMD. PLoS ONE 2018 13(8): e0202097. https://doi.org/10.1371/ journal.pone.0202097
Luttrull JK, Sinclair SH, Elmann S, Chang DB, Kent D. Slowed progression of age-related geographic atrophy following subthreshold laser. Clin Ophthalmol (2020) Oct 1;14:2983-2993. doi:10.2147/OPTH.S268322. eCollection 2020
Luttrull JK, Gray G. Real World Data Comparison of Standard Care vs SDM Laser Vision Protection Therapy for Prevention of Neovascular AMD. Clin Ophthalmol (2022) May, 16: 1555-1568.
Luttrull JK, Gray G, Bhavan SV. Vision protection therapy for prevention of neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Sci Rep. 2023;13(1):16710. doi:10.1038/s41598-023-43605-w
What if I already have Wet AMD?
In two large national real-world data studies, eyes with wet AMD given Vision Protection Therapy in addition to drug injections needed up to 4.5 X fewer eye injections with better vision results than injections alone. This is because VPT makes the injections work better: when they work better, they last longer, and fewer injections are needed. This is important for several reasons: (1) who likes eye injections? (2) these drugs are very expensive (3) there are risks from the injections that, although rare, can be very serious, and (4) the anti-VEGF drugs in the injections cause geographic atrophy or make it worse, leading to worse vision in the long-run. Thus, while eye injections are essential for wet AMD, reducing them with Vision Protection Therapy has clear benefits.
Video Presentations
Vision Protection Therapy is a unique, proprietary treatment program designed to minimize the risks of visual loss from AMD. Learn more by watching our videos below.
Vision Protection Therapy
Scientific Evidence
AMD Nationwide Study
A nationwide study of over 350,000 patients with dry AMD was done to determine the effect of Vision Protection Therapy on preventing wet AMD.
Over the 4.57 year time window, Vision Protection Therapy reduced the risk of wet AMD and vision loss over 13 times better than AREDS vitamins alone. That is a 1,300 % difference!
In this same study, the average visual acuity of Vision Protection Therapy patients improved, while the visual acuity of patients on AREDS vitamins alone worsened.
PREVENT VISION LOSS FROM AMD WITH VISION PROTECTION THERAPY
Interested in a treatment focused for a change on prevention?
Vision Protection Therapy is the most effective treatment to reduce your risks of vision loss from AMD ever developed. Vision Protection Therapy is evidence-based, data-driven, innovative, and the only treatment for all types and stages of AMD, wet or dry. We want you to know about it.