June 10, 2021 — Individuals who drink plenty of caffeine have a better danger of glaucoma, however provided that their genes already make them vulnerable to the attention illness, researchers say.
Individuals with a dad or mum or sibling recognized with glaucoma ought to contemplate limiting caffeine to the quantity in two cups of coffee a day, says Louis Pasquale, MD, an ophthalmology professor at Mount Sinai Well being System in New York Metropolis.
“It’s a suggestion,” he says. “It’s not one thing set in stone, however if you happen to’re concerned about lowering your danger of the illness, it’s one thing I’d positively entertain.”
Pascale and his colleagues reported their findings in Ophthalmology.
Glaucoma causes injury to the optic nerve, typically from elevated stress from a buildup of fluid inside the attention. It could possibly trigger blindness.
The illness is extra frequent in individuals with shut members of the family who’ve it. And researchers have recognized variants in a number of genes which are extra frequent in individuals with glaucoma.
In earlier research, individuals who take giant doses of caffeine have had short-term will increase in eye stress. So researchers have questioned whether or not getting caffeine over an extended time period might pose a danger.
To assist reply that query, Pasquale and his colleagues regarded on the information of greater than 100,000 individuals. The information got here from the UK Biobank, a big survey carried out in the UK. The information included info on sufferers’ genes, how a lot tea or espresso they drank, their eye stress, and whether or not they had glaucoma.
all of the contributors collectively, the researchers didn’t discover any elevated danger of glaucoma from caffeine. In truth, they discovered that individuals who obtained probably the most caffeine really had barely decrease eye stress.
However once they regarded solely at individuals whose genes have been related to glaucoma, they discovered that caffeine was linked to larger common eye stress and in addition to a better danger of glaucoma.
That was notably true once they regarded on the 25% of people that obtained greater than 321 milligrams of caffeine — the equal of three cups of espresso — a day. When these individuals have been additionally within the prime 25% of genetic danger for elevated eye stress, that they had a a lot larger danger of glaucoma. They have been virtually 4 occasions extra prone to have the illness than individuals who didn’t eat caffeine and have been on the lowest 25% genetic danger.
The researchers discovered that the mixture of caffeine and genes elevated the danger of glaucoma greater than the genes alone.
The researchers couldn’t discover a statistical hyperlink to larger eye stress or glaucoma for espresso, just for tea. However that’s probably due to a statistical drawback, says research co-author Anthony Khawaja, affiliate professor on the College Faculty London Institute of Ophthalmology. “The reply is kind of easy− the UK is a tea consuming nation!” he says in an e mail. There have been in all probability not sufficient individuals within the database who drink giant quantities of espresso to investigate their glaucoma danger.
Individuals in each the highest 25% for genetic danger and prime 25% for tea consuming (three to six cups of tea a day), have been virtually thrice as prone to have glaucoma in comparison with these within the lowest 25% for tea consuming and lowest 25% for genetic danger.
Nevertheless, such a research can’t show that caffeine will increase the danger of glaucoma or excessive eye stress, even amongst individuals with a genetic danger, Pasquale says. He and his colleagues want to do a follow-up research through which they offer caffeine to teams of individuals with completely different genetic dangers, then examine the results on eye stress.
Sufferers mustn’t depend on altering their caffeine consumption as a approach of treating their glaucoma, says Asaf Achiron, MD, an ophthalmologist on the Sackler College of Drugs in Tel Aviv, Israel, who has studied the connection of life-style and eye stress. Caffeine didn’t have an enormous impact for most individuals within the research, he factors out.
“Glaucoma is a fancy illness. In some circumstances it continues to progress even when [eye pressure] is lowered by the drops so clearly there are extra points right here than stress,” he says in an e mail.
Nonetheless, the discovering is perhaps price mentioning to sufferers, he says. “I do not talk about tea with my sufferers simply measure their [eye pressure]. Maybe I ought to.”
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