RP International, while fighting the hereditary disease retinitis pigmentosa, is also fervently committed to battling against macular degeneration, which threatens even more millions of Americans every year. Macular degeneration is a major cause of blindness and visual impairment of the elderly, and is often part of the body's aging process. Not unlike other diseases, this debilitating condition can cause different symptoms in different people . When the macula loses its full function, a person may experience blurred vision or other visual distortions in the center of his or her vision.
Colors can look dim, and words on a page can blur and run together in patches.
There may even be an empty patch in the middle of the vision, as if someone erased it. Sometimes, only one eye loses vision, while the other continues to function well for many years. The person may even become legally blind. This condition is caused by the aging or thinning of the tissues of the macula and usually manifests itself through the gradual loss of vision. It refers to the condition when abnormal blood vessels form at the back of the eye and leak fluid or blood into the eye.