macular degeneration-related vision loss include shadowy areas or fuzzy distortion in a person 's central vision . `` A patient told me recently that he noticed when he was driving that the streetlights were slanted ; the poles themselves were slanted , '' Solomon said . `` That 's a classic sign of the beginning of this disease . '' Although obesity , smoking , high blood pressure and certain drugs can cause it , age is the primary risk factor . `` As people approach their 50s and later , they may have little yellow deposits that develop underneath the retina , and that 's called drusen , '' Solomon explained . `` Those deposits are the hallmark of what we call early age-related macular degeneration . '' There are two forms of age-related macular degeneration , or AMD : the dry form , known as non-neovascular , and the wet form , called neovascular . The dry form , which Budacz has , is more common . According to the National Eye Institute , about 85 to 90 percent of patients with advanced macular degeneration have the dry form . Dry macular degeneration is caused when drusen begin
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- When Albert Budacz was young , he prided himself on having good eyesight ; he never wore glasses . But as he eased into his late 40s , he could n't see as well . `` I noticed a change in my vision , '' he explained . `` Primarily in church when I would open a Bible , or something like that , I had to position myself under a light to see it . '' Ophthalmologist Dr. Sharon Solomon examined Albert Budacz and found age-related macular degeneration . Concerned that he was beginning to lose his sight , Budacz went to his ophthalmologist , Dr. Sharon Solomon with the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins . He was found to have the beginnings macular degeneration , an eye condition that occurs when the central portion of the retina -- called the macula -- begins to deteriorate . Until recently , people with age-related macular degeneration , the leading cause of severe vision loss in Americans older than 60 , had few treatment options . But now , thanks to new research and advancing technology , there are more vision-saving choices . Early signs of