A simple saliva test that can detect if you are likely to lose your sight has been launched in the UK.

The genetic home-testing kit checks for risk of agerelated macular degeneration, which causes loss of central, detailed vision.

More than 500,000 suffer from AMD in the UK and numbers are set to soar.

Users spit into the tube of the £399 kit, aimed at people in their middle age and bought online, and send it for lab tests on six genes that indicate a risk.

An eye expert will then advise on how to try to slow the partly hereditary problem with a healthier life, vitamins or drugs.

Eye specialists Optegra said: "The tragedy is many people turn up when they have already suffered permanent eye damage."

Amd, more likely in over 55, often goes unnoticed until sufferers have difficulty seeing TV or faces.