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Showing posts with the label glaucoma

Now Coffee Can Save Our Eyes

I feel like a broken record!  Now coffee is being held up as a way to hold on to your eyes. Or, your vision, at least. A cup of coffee a day may keep retinal damage away, newswise.com reports.  Coffee may prevent deterior ating eyesight and possible blindness from retinal degeneration due to glaucoma, aging and diabetes. That's because coffee contains not just caffeine but  chlorogenic acid, a strong antioxidant that prevents retinal degeneration in mice.   Accordin to newswise.com, t he retina is a thin tissue layer on the inside, back wall of the eye with millions of light-sensitive cells and other nerve cells that receive and organize visual information. It is also one of the most metabolically active tissues, demanding high levels of oxygen and making it prone to oxidative stress. The lack of oxygen and production of free radicals leads to tissue damage and loss of sight. “Coffee is the most popular drink in the world, and we are understanding what benefit we can g

Take Birth Control Pills? Watch Out for Glaucoma

A scary new study has found that long-term users of birth control pills are twice as likely to have serious eye damage. According to newswise.com, women who have taken oral contraceptives for three or more years are twice as likely to suffer from glaucoma , one of the leading causes of blindness which affects nearly 60 million worldwide. More than 3,000 women across the U.S. 40 years and older were studied.  And while the cause and effect is not known, there are risk factors, including African American-ethnicity, family history of glaucoma, history of increased eye pressure or existing visual field defects. Previous studies in the field have shown that estrogen may also play a significant role in the development of glaucoma. “At this point, women who have taken oral contraceptives for three or more years should be screened for glaucoma and followed closely by an ophthalmologist, especially if they have any other existing risk factors," the Web site quotes Shan Lin, M.D., l