Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a progressive chronic disease of the eyes, specifically affecting the macular cells at the centre of the retina in the area of sharpest vision. One distinguishes between the dry and the wet form of the disease. The dry form occurs in 80 to 85 percent of AMD patients and thus much more often than wet macular degeneration. Neither form is associated with any pain. As we age, the regulatory capacity of the autonomic nervous system declines (reduced heart rate variability). The result is that the metabolic functions in the body no longer run optimally and the body is no longer able to repair the growing number of damaged cells on its own. In the case of dry macular degeneration, functional losses and damage to the photosensitive cells of the retina of the eye occur over a period of years. The deterioration of vision is thus a gradual process, and patients are able to retain their reading ability for a long period.

There is no organ in our body that consumes as much oxygen per cell as does the eye. Wherever large amounts of oxygen are converted or “burned” in order to generate energy, pollutants always accumulate, so-called free radicals. All of these processes are controlled, regulated and controlled by our body’s top-level control and regulation centre called the autonomic nervous system (ANS). If, however, the regulative capacity of the ANS is impaired, these important combustion processes no longer work optimally and there is an increase in the number of free radicals, which damage the delicate and light-sensitive cells of the eye. As with a car engine, poor combustion produces more exhaust and less power. If over time more damage occurs than can be repaired by the body, it will lead to dysfunctions and “defects” in the eye cells, especially the macula and retina.

Found in 10 to 15 percent of AMD sufferers, the wet form of macular degeneration is less common, but significantly more “aggressive.” Here, “pathological” blood vessels grow under or into the retina. Through the vessel walls, tissue fluid and blood components increasingly get under or into the layers of the retina, leading to further impairments. In the wet form a significant loss of vision can occur within a short time.

No matter which conventional medical measures are performed – lasering, photodynamic therapy (PDT), surgical membrane removal, drug injection directly into the eye, macular shift – none of them treat the causes of macular degeneration.
The risk associated with these procedures is sometimes extremely high, as are the costs, which usually need to be paid out of pocket. The damage, such as scarring, irreversible destruction of macular cells and retinal cells and surrounding tissue, significantly worsen the chances for the body’s own regeneration and repair processes.

It would therefore seem sensible to aim at creating the conditions in the body that would allow its own repair and regeneration processes to do their job properly.

The experience of the past 17 years clearly shows that this is possible!