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If you are over 60, and your eyesight is getting patchy and blurred, you could have macular degeneration. People with macular degeneration find it harder to read, recognize people's faces, or make out fine detail.

The full name for macular degeneration in older people is age-related macular degeneration. It's also called AMD for short. Macular degeneration can affect younger people, but this is rare. It can also be caused by injury to the eye, infections and diabetes (when it's called diabetic retinopathy). Here we deal with the disease that affects older people.

The macula is part of your retina, the lining inside your eye that captures the images you see and sends them to your brain.

The macula is a tiny area in the middle of the retina. It helps you see the fine detail of objects right ahead.

But sometimes the cells in the macula get damaged and no longer work properly. When this happens it's called macular degeneration. Eventually things in the middle of your vision may look blurred and distorted.

There are two stages of AMD: early and late.

In early AMD, fluffy white patches form in and around your macula. Doctors call these drusen.

The patches don't affect your eyesight, but your doctor or optician can see them during an eye exam.

In late AMD, your eyesight is affected. There are two types of late AMD: dry and wet.

• Dry AMD is more common. It affects more than 8 in 10 people who get AMD.¹ Dry AMD progresses slowly. The fluffy white patches in the eye can gradually get bigger and join together. And the cells in the macula die. Dry AMD usually affects both your eyes. But the sight in one eye may get worse, while the other eye remains the same. You may get wet AMD.
• Wet AMD affects between 1 and 2 out of 10 people who get AMD. It causes more rapid damage and serious sight problems than dry AMD. In wet AMD, besides the cells in the macula dying, tiny new blood vessels form at the back of your eye.² The blood vessels leak blood and fluid into your eye and damage your sight even more.

We don't know why the macula sometimes stops working well as you get older. But a few things can increase the chances of this happening. You're more likely to get problems with your macula:^{3 4 5 6}

• If you smoke
• If you have high blood pressure
• If someone in your family has macular degeneration.

Some experts think macular degeneration is more common in women than in men. But we don't know for certain.