New Study Links Caffeinated Coffee To Vision Loss 203
dsinc writes "A new study suggests caffeinated coffee drinkers should limit their intake to reduce their chances of developing vision loss or blindness. According to a scientific paper in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, heavy caffeinated coffee consumption is associated with an increased risk of developing exfoliation glaucoma (abstract), the leading cause of secondary glaucoma worldwide. 'Scandinavian populations have the highest frequencies of exfoliation syndrome and glaucoma,' said author Jae Hee Kang, ScD, of Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass. 'Because Scandinavian populations also have the highest consumption of caffeinated coffee in the world, and our research group has previously found that greater caffeinated coffee intake was associated with increased risk of primary open-angle glaucoma, we conducted this study to evaluate whether the risk of exfoliation glaucoma or glaucoma suspect may be different by coffee consumption.'"
Other explanations (Score:4, Interesting)
Scandinavian people are more blue eyed than most ethnic groups and it's been known for years that blue eyed people may be more sensitive to vision problems caused by sunlight. It could also be that for some reason (ozone depletion?) that Scandinavia gets stronger sunlight than other regions. If they want to convince me that there is something to do this, show me a study in Brazil where there aren't very many blue eyed people and they drink a lot of coffee too.
Re:Correlation != Causation (Score:2, Interesting)
Must agree and disagree.
From our ignorant, "try banging the rocks together guys," state of science, yes, it feels like a crapshoot.
But these kinds of studies are great to have on hand, so that when DNA is well understood and cheaply examined we can find the factors that make caffeine good and bad for a person. The net result, in the Gattaca Age, will be that you go to the thrice repurposed GeneOMat drive through, get your print out and at the bottom just above your total_fitness_index, will be the list of drugs that work for you, and that don't.
Mine:
Caffiene: No benefits, no effects
Amoxycilin: Expect allergic reaction
Novacane: 10% expected effacacy
Cannabis: Expect contact nausea at exposure frequencies less than 1 per week
Rogane: Effective
Butenafine
Hydrochloride: Ineffective
Alcohol: 1 std. serving per day, cardio_effects +, liver_effects negligble
At that point it won't be a crapshoot, and starting life knowing these things would be extremely useful.
The process starts with studies like this article.