The Eyes Have It

As one who wears both eyeglasses and contacts, ophthalmologist Timothy Olsen understands his patients’ needs quite clearly. “I love to see,” says Olsen, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, who also practices at the University of Minnesota Eye Clinic. “I have a profound appreciation for the visual system and its impact on quality of life.”

Olsen, a graduate of the University of Kansas School of Medicine, did his residency at the University of Minnesota and a fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta. He specializes in treating age-related macular degeneration, a deterioration of the part of the retina that is responsible for detailed central vision and the leading cause of legal blindness in people older than fifty.

Some forms of macular degeneration are related to diseases such as diabetes, and Olsen treats patients ranging in age from infants to seniors (his oldest patient is 103). He also has a grant from the National Institute on Aging to study age-related macular degeneration. There are two types of age-related macular degeneration: dry and wet. The more common dry form is a simple wasting of the cells of the macula. The more aggresive wet form occurs when blood vessels that have grown under the macula to increase the oxygen supply break, leak blood, and form scar tissue.

The most recent big development in the treatment of macular degeneration occurred in June 2006, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the injectable drug ranibizumab (trade name, Lucentis) for the treatment of wet macular degeneration. “It’s really a huge progression in treatment of the wet form of macular degeneration,” he says. The only available treatment for the dry form is the use of antioxidant vitamins, which slows down the process, but does not improve the condition.

Delaying macular degeneration may be possible, Olsen says, with regular exercise and a diet high in green leafy vegetables and fruits and avoidance of high-fat foods. “It turns out that many of the same things that are good for the heart are also good for the eyes,” he says, adding that wearing sunglasses and a hat when in the sun may also help.