Eating fish can reduce blindness risk by half

London: Eating fish just once or twice a week could reduce the risk of suffering from the most common form of blindness by nearly half.

Research shows that eating omega-3 fatty acids, most commonly found in tinned salmon and tuna, can help prevent the onset of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a condition that leads to the gradual loss of vision.

This finding backs up previous research, which showed similar results in men. William Christen, of the Harvard Medical School, the US, who led the study, said that dark meat fish appeared to help the most, the Telegraph reports.

"This lower risk appeared to be due, primarily, to consumption of canned tuna fish and dark-meat fish," Christen said.

The disease, which mainly effects people over 40, robs sufferers of their sight by creating a black spot in the centre of their vision which slowly gets bigger.

With the number of AMD sufferers expected to treble in the next 25 years as the population ages, there is an urgent need for a breakthrough.

The team at Harvard Medical School piggybacked on another study of more than 38,000 women to obtain the findings. All the participants began the study AMD-free.