Exercise Could Lower Age-Linked Eye Disease Risk

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People who are physically active are also likely to be "biologically younger" than those with a sedentary lifestyle, which could also be important, since AMD is associated with aging, the researchers said.

Knudtson was cautious in interpreting the findings. Exercise is a good thing, he said. "But we don't want people to exercise and then get upset that they [still] get this disease," he said. "We can't prove in any way, shape or form that there is a causal relationship," he added.

One expert believes the findings need to be replicated before the relationship between exercise and AMD is proven.

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"Exercise doesn't seem to affect your risk of getting AMD," said Dr. Marco Zarbin, professor and chairman of the Institute of Ophthalmology and Visual Science at New Jersey Medical School. "It seems to affect your risk of getting a particular complication of it."

Zarbin said that if the finding is confirmed in other studies, that would be important, however.

"It's the second behavioral modification, after not smoking, that I know of that would reduce your risk of getting the wet form of the disease," he said.

More information

There's more on AMD at the U.S. National Eye Institute (www.nei.nih.gov ).

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