“There has long been a question about whether maintaining a healthy lifestyle can delay or prevent the development of macular degeneration,” said researcher Bradley Gelfand of UVA’s Center for Advanced Vision Science. “The way that question has historically been answered has been by taking surveys of people, asking them what they are eating and how much exercise they are performing. The problem with that is that people are notoriously bad self-reporters, and that can lead to conclusions that may or not be true. This [study] offers hard evidence from the lab for very first time.”