Good News for 'Occasional' Drinkers and Exercisers: You May Not Lose Your Vision As You Age

We all know physical activity is practically commanded by the Bible in the way we're all ordered to practice it.  It can prevent breast cancer, heart disease, diabetes, you name it, even Alzheimer's, according to some studies. 

 And now it's being touted as a way, along with occasional drinking (?), to keep your eyesight strong well into old age.  

 newswise.com reports that a physically active lifestyle and occasional drinking "are associated with a reduced risk of developing visual impairment."

 (Does this mean we should all become "occasional" drinkers to save our eyes?)

 But it's not just losing your sight we should be worried about, the Web site notes.  It could also affect the way, and how well, we live.

 Visual impairment – sight loss often caused by eye disease, trauma, or a congenital or degenerative condition that cannot be corrected with glasses or contact lenses – is associated with a poorer quality of life and, when severe, loss of independence, according to newswise.com. 

 Research has shown that over 20 years visual impairment developed in 5.4 percent of the population and varied based on lifestyle behaviors.  

 Of people who engage in regular physical activity three or more times a week, over 20 years, 6.7 percent of sedentary persons and 2 percent of physically active persons developed visual impairment, a 58 percent (adjusting for age) decrease in odds of developing visual impairment in those who were physically active compared to those who were sedentary.

For those who have consumed alcohol in the past year, but reported fewer than one serving in an average week, over 20 years, 11 percent of non-drinkers (people who have not consumed alcohol within the past year) developed visual impairment while 4.8 percent of occasional drinkers did so, a 49 percent decrease in odds of developing visual impairment in those who were occasional drinkers compared to those who consumed no alcohol. 

 So does this mean we should drink if we exercise a lot?  Probably not.  

 “While age is usually one of the most strongly associated factors for many eye diseases that cause visual impairment, it is a factor we cannot change,” newswise quotes Ronald Klein, M.D., MPH, lead researcher of the study. “Lifestyle behaviors like smoking, drinking and physical activity, however, can be altered. So, it’s promising, in terms of possible prevention, that these behaviors are associated with developing visual impairment over the long term"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Don't Wash Your Chicken and Other Food Safety Myths

I remember when I first heard this.  Don't wash your chicken , before you cook it?  I ignored it.  But over time, I began to realize it's true.  Washing it spreads deadly (or at least sick-making) bacteria.  Really. “You should assume that if you have chicken, you have either Salmonella or Campylobacter bacteria on it, if not both,”Dr. Jennifer Quinlan, an associate professor at Drexel University, told newswise.com.  These two bacteria, she noted, are the leading causes of food-borne illness. “If you wash it, you’re more likely to spray bacteria all over the kitchen and yourself," she said. And the rinse water you've been using? It's not hot enough to kill bacteria anyway. Washing raw poultry was a common unsafe practice in all the groups she studied for a documentary on safe cooking conditions, with some minor cultural differences in the method of washing. People are very attached to the idea of washing raw poultry, she told newswise.com. “Some think they’re
Read more

Take Herbal Supplements? Even Green Tea Extract Can Lead to Liver Damage

Take herbal supplements? You might want to listen up. A new study is warning that new information is showing that some supplements may damage the liver, along with over the counter drugs and even those prescribed by physicians, according to newswise.com. The rate of drug-induced liver injury (DILI), a rare adverse drug reaction which is challenging to diagnose -- and which can lead to jaundice, liver failure and even death -- is increasing more and more.  Experts put it down to the overwhelming use of herbal supplements and other drugs in the last 10 years.  “A lot of consumers have a preconceived notion that if it’s a natural product, it must be safe. But that is not necessarily the case,” the Web site quotes Herbert Bonkovsky, MD, FACG, co-author of the guidelines. “Most of these products are not well-regulated and have very little oversight. Traces of heavy metals and prescription drugs have even been found in some herbal and dietary supplements. We encourage patients to
Read more

Need the ER? Pray Your Doc Plays Video Games

We're all so used to picking on our kids for playing video games but the next time he's in the ER, you just might be happy that doctors do it, too. According to new research, video games improve doctors' recognition and triage of severe trauma patients, newswise.com reports. Playing an adventure video game featuring a fictitious, young emergency physician treating severe trauma patients was better than text-based learning at priming real doctors to quickly recognize the patients who needed higher levels of care, according to a new trial led by the  University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine .  The results held, even though doctors assigned to the game enjoyed it less than those assigned to traditional, text-based education. This indicates that if game enjoyment can be improved, the already favorable results might be enhanced, the web site notes.  “Physicians must make decisions quickly and with incomplete information. Each year, 30,000 preventable deaths occur
Read more