Need another reason to stop smoking? Cigarette smokers are far more likely than nonsmokers to go blind late in life, but few people are aware of the risk, new research suggests. Smoking was associated with a two- to threefold increase in the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in a review of studies conducted by researchers in the U.K.AMD is the most common cause of legal blindness in people over the age of 55; it occurs in nearly one out of three people over the age of 75. Roughly 200,000 new cases are diagnosed each year in the U.S. Approximately 10 million people in the U.S. are affected by the condition.
