Terrifying New Study Links Coffee to Glaucoma

[Sarah LeBoeuf]

Terrifying New Study Links Coffee to Glaucoma

Heavy coffee drinkers may be at an increased risk for vision problems.

What's a typical morning like for you? Maybe it involves putting on a pot of coffee and consuming a few cups before leaving the house. Perhaps you like to grab some freshly brewed java on the way to work, or guzzle a cup or two after lunch for a pick-me-up. No matter how you get your coffee fix, you might be putting yourself at risk: a new study has linked caffeine consumption with exfoliation glaucoma or exfoliation glaucoma suspect.

The study was composed of "78,977 women from the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and 41,202 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS) who were at least 40 years of age, did not have glaucoma, and reported undergoing eye examinations from 1980 (NHS) or 1986 (HPFS) to 2008." Scientists tracked the participants' caffeine consumption through questionnaires and medical records, and found that those who consumed 500mg or more of caffeine per day were at a higher risk for glaucoma.

"Compared to abstainers," those who drank three or more cups of coffee a day were at a higher risk for the eye disease, which can permanently affect vision and even lead to blindness. There is some good news, however, if you prefer a non-coffee caffeine buzz. "We did not find associations with consumption of other caffeinated products (caffeinated soda, caffeinated tea, decaffeinated coffee or chocolate) and risk of EG/EGS."

This is alarming news if, like me, you permanently have a cup of coffee by your side; I can't even drive a car until I've consumed at least three cups in the morning. While your instinct (and mine) might be to panic, this is only the first study to link coffee and glaucoma, so there's more science to be done before we fully understand the relationship between them.

Source: IOVS [http://www.iovs.org/content/53/10/6427.abstract?sid=9dd04ef5-beba-4204-b980-19a9afd4a3aa]

Image: UCI [http://www.ic.uci.edu/Programs/coffeehour.php]

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[GAunderrated]

No surprise there. People tend to not think twice about caffeine because its legal and has some positive benefits. Although people neglect to think about that caffeine has a slight but pretty addictive physicality. Meaning if you drink coffee for a year in heavy doses and stop cold turkey, you will crave it and/or get physical withdrawls. Not to mention that 1-10,000 deaths a year are from caffeine.

Moderation is the key.

 

[Genocidicles]

There is some good news, however, if you prefer a non-coffee caffeine buzz. "We did not find associations with consumption of other caffeinated products (caffeinated soda, caffeinated tea, decaffeinated coffee or chocolate) and risk of EG/EGS."

Well then it's not caffeine that gives you Glaucoma. It's coffee.

 

[jehk]

I'll go blind before I give up coffee. Wait... I will? Really? It's not supposed to be true.

 

[gigastar]

I did a little digging [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glaucoma] and it seems that caffine only accelerates glaucoma, so if you dont have it at all it seems you can chug without fear.

 

[DugMachine]

Pretty sure no one in my family has suffered from glaucoma before and they're heavier coffee drinkers than I. I'll stick with my one cup in the morning MAYBE two if I really need a pick me up.

 

[antipirate]

There is some good news, however, if you prefer a non-coffee caffeine buzz. "We did not find associations with consumption of other caffeinated products (caffeinated soda, caffeinated tea, decaffeinated coffee or chocolate) and risk of EG/EGS."

Well then it's not caffeine that gives you Glaucoma. It's coffee.

Interestingly based on what the article says about the study it isn't caffeine or coffee it's only caffeine with coffee.

It also sounds like it was only in the really high consumers that there was any significant results. Also the data sets they were using are not really good any ways. Besides it's entirely possible there is something else heavy coffee drinkers tend to do that is causing the glaucoma.

Personally I don't think lay news media should report on observational studies it does way more harm than good, unfortunately we can't stop them because of free speech so we'll just have to teach people to understand that these kind of findings don't really mean anything until they can be further substantiated.

Regards,
Jordan

 

[Deathfish15]

No surprise there. People tend to not think twice about caffeine because its legal and has some positive benefits. Although people neglect to think about that caffeine has a slight but pretty addictive physicality. Meaning if you drink coffee for a year in heavy doses and stop cold turkey, you will crave it and/or get physical withdrawls. Not to mention that 1-10,000 deaths a year are from caffeine.

Moderation is the key.

Um...where are 1 to 10,000 deaths a year caused by caffeine? What study proved this? Because heart attacks certainly don't count, that's pre-existing conditions and heart issues, NOT caffeine.

Now, I know there's been studies and proof of 100,000's of deaths a year from alcohol through either poisoning or DUI wrecks or whatever else.

Caffeine: 1
Alcohol: 0

 

[Canadamus Prime]

While your instinct (and mine) might be to panic, this is only the first study to link coffee and glaucoma, so there's more science to be done before we fully understand the relationship between them.

No, my first instinct is to go 'So what?' Everything I consume is apparently harmful to me in some way or other whether it causes cancer, glaucoma or some other damn thing. How about studies to show what things WON'T harm and/or kill me? It'd probably result in a much shorter list.

 

[Webb Myers]

So...

Phase 1- Drink a lot of coffee
Phase 2- ?
Phase 3- Medicaid buys you marijuana when you retire

 

[GAunderrated]

No surprise there. People tend to not think twice about caffeine because its legal and has some positive benefits. Although people neglect to think about that caffeine has a slight but pretty addictive physicality. Meaning if you drink coffee for a year in heavy doses and stop cold turkey, you will crave it and/or get physical withdrawls. Not to mention that 1-10,000 deaths a year are from caffeine.

Moderation is the key.

Um...where are 1 to 10,000 deaths a year caused by caffeine? What study proved this? Because heart attacks certainly don't count, that's pre-existing conditions and heart issues, NOT caffeine.

Now, I know there's been studies and proof of 100,000's of deaths a year from alcohol through either poisoning or DUI wrecks or whatever else.

Caffeine: 1
Alcohol: 0

US government gets estimates of deaths and causes from hospitals and compiles it each year. That is where I got my information from. Although your quick defense of your drug of choice is amusing, especially when you have to go to alcohol to defend it. No one in their right mind would say that caffeine is worse than alcohol, but to outright close your ears and pretend that caffeine in large doses isn't good for you is your choice.

As I said in my previous post, moderation is the key.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Seeing as this is the first study that has a link to that, I will withhold my panic until further proof from science.

Also, I just bought my coffee from a coffee shop and I'll be damned if I have to dump it over this.

It's so gooooood.

 

[GAunderrated]

While your instinct (and mine) might be to panic, this is only the first study to link coffee and glaucoma, so there's more science to be done before we fully understand the relationship between them.

No, my first instinct is to go 'So what?' Everything I consume is apparently harmful to me in some way or other whether it causes cancer, glaucoma or some other damn thing. How about studies to show what things WON'T harm and/or kill me? It'd probably result in a much shorter list.

Pretty soon that will be nearly impossible to have food that wont cause cancer. Companies such as monsanto are trying to pass a bill so that they do not have to even label something as genetically modified food. Also if you are a documentary lover and like learning about what you eat you should watch:

1. Food inc (documentary its on netflix)

2. Men who make us fat (documentary on youtube)

 

[Vivi22]

Okay, so first things first, I hate when studies aren't available in their entirety online because no way am I going to pay $15 for a copy of that just to spend five minutes on the internet picking it apart a bit for the layman.

But just based on the abstract, that many participants almost certainly means that they were self-reporting their intake, and probably not every day. In fact, the standard sorts of questionnaires for studies like this will check up on people once every few years and have them try to remember how much they ate and drank and of what since the last time they reported in. This is pretty notoriously unreliable, often being off by as much as 30% one way or the other because even ignoring the fact that people will tell you what they think you want to hear, good luck remembering how much of various foods you ate in the past two years. Again, I don't have access to the whole article so I can't say for certain that was what went on, but it's pretty likely. And of course there's the whole correlation does not equal causation thing that shouldn't even be necessary to get into.

Also of note, when they say a result is statistically significant it means it's more likely than not that the result didn't simply occur through random chance. And they don't disclose the absolute risk which always annoys me. Relative risk is important, and I'd certainly like to know if people who smoke are 30 times as likely as non-smokers to get lung cancer or whatever, but as far as actually making a choice for myself, absolute risk is more important.

I'm not a coffee drinker, but if I was, knowing that the absolute risk of glaucoma for coffee drinkers is 1.5% as opposed to 1% for people who don't drink coffee is a much more relevant bit of info for my own decision making than knowing that drinking coffee makes me 50% more likely to get glaucoma. A 50% increase in an absolute risk of 1% is not as worrisome as a 50% increase in an absolute risk of, let's say, 20%.

Long story short, I wouldn't waste too much time worrying about this, regardless of what they reported the absolute risk to be.

 

[The White Hunter]

There is some good news, however, if you prefer a non-coffee caffeine buzz. "We did not find associations with consumption of other caffeinated products (caffeinated soda, caffeinated tea, decaffeinated coffee or chocolate) and risk of EG/EGS."

Well then it's not caffeine that gives you Glaucoma. It's coffee.

Yeah exactly, something else must be present in the beans, this requires further research to find out if it's a strain of bean or all strains or w/e.

Tbh, I'm gonna keep drinking shitloads because it reduces the risk of prostate cancer.

I place male functionality above the need for great vision. My eyes are shitty anyway.

 

[Yopaz]

There is some good news, however, if you prefer a non-coffee caffeine buzz. "We did not find associations with consumption of other caffeinated products (caffeinated soda, caffeinated tea, decaffeinated coffee or chocolate) and risk of EG/EGS."

Well then it's not caffeine that gives you Glaucoma. It's coffee.

Decaffeinated coffee isn't coffee all of a sudden?

OT: Now this makes me reconsider my caffeine intake. I usually get 6 cups of espresso every morning and 6 cups during the evening. Then again caffeine has been shown to reduce the risk of getting heart diseases and that was a 10 year long study. I am also sceptical at the data being presented here. Caffeine in every form except for coffee seems to be safe, and decaf seems to be safe. So they're not linked with coffee and not linked with caffeine. Oh well, I wont stop drinking coffee just because of this in either case.

 

[Genocidicles]

Decaffeinated coffee isn't coffee all of a sudden?

Well, not real coffee anyway.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

While your instinct (and mine) might be to panic, this is only the first study to link coffee and glaucoma, so there's more science to be done before we fully understand the relationship between them.

No, my first instinct is to go 'So what?' Everything I consume is apparently harmful to me in some way or other whether it causes cancer, glaucoma or some other damn thing. How about studies to show what things WON'T harm and/or kill me? It'd probably result in a much shorter list.

Pretty soon that will be nearly impossible to have food that wont cause cancer. Companies such as monsanto are trying to pass a bill so that they do not have to even label something as genetically modified food. Also if you are a documentary lover and like learning about what you eat you should watch:

1. Food inc (documentary its on netflix)

2. Men who make us fat (documentary on youtube)

Speaking of "genetically modified" *sarcastic air quotes* food...
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/the-big-picture/2541-Feeding-Edge