Effect of Oral Curcumin Supplementation in Dry Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) Patients

Nutrition plays an important role in preventing progression of dry age related macular degeneration (AMD), a disease of aging that leads to drusen deposits in the macula causing significant decrease in vision. Drusen contains amyloid protein which is inhibited by curcumin, a natural plant based antioxidant. Oral Longvida curcumin has been shown to accumulate in the retina of human subjects within 10 days of supplementation. This study aims to investigate the duration of oral curcumin supplementation needed to see clinical impact in reducing volume and number of drusen and decreasing choriocapillaris density loss or flow impairment in dry AMD patients. Patients will be given a 12-month course of oral Longvida curcumin and clinical impact will be measured by multimodal retinal imaging (fundus photos, OCT and OCT-A) at day 0, month 3, month 6, and month 12 of supplementation. Previous small studies have shown change in drusen size within 4 6months of curcumin supplementation, given that drusen can naturally fluctuate in size, we want to have a longer study period with a control group to better understand the effects of curcumin on drusen characteristics.