I work for a group of ophthalmologists and have a retina specialist who works very closely with macular degeneration patients. I've been doing data collecting for him for about three years, and truly, everyone is different.

His recommendations to his patents are the AREDS vitamins, like Ocuvite Preservision, and daily monitoring of an Amsler grid for any changes (your optometrist can provide you with one if he hasn't already).

On a personal note, my grandfather has macular degeneration, and was diagnosed many years ago...he is in his 90s and just in the past 5 years has had trouble with his vision.

I provided a link to the American Macular Degeneration Foundation website. We give this website as a source for many of our newly diagnosed patients. There is a lot of information there, including treatments, and a listing of clinical trials.

I hope that this helps explain what is happening, but as for statistics and progression rates, that truly differs for every individual.