Can Lots of Caffeine Lead to Blindness?

by Lexi Petronis, Glamour
Put down that quadruple shot venti latte and back away slowly when you read the news from this new study...

According to a paper in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, drinking a lot of caffeinated coffee is associated with an increased risk of developing exfoliation glaucoma--a condition that causes white flakes (like dandruff) to deposit in eye tissues, which can lead to vision loss and even blindness.

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The study keys off research done on people in Scandanavian countries, which found that they have the highest rate of exfoliation glaucoma in the world. And, according to researchers, Scandanavian populations also drink more caffeinated coffee than anyone else in the world.

So, to study the condition in the U.S., the researchers evaluated 78,977 women and 41,202 men. They collected information about how much caffeine the subjects drank, and reviewed their medical records. And they found that, compared to the people who drank no coffee, the subjects who chugged at least three cups of a day showed an elevated risk of developing exfoliation glaucoma--or at least some signs of it.

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The researchers say there's still a lot more to study before they understand the causes of exfoliation glaucoma; obviously, caffeinated coffee may be simply correlated with the condition, not a cause. But they also say that they did not find associations with consumption of other caffeinated products (such as soda, tea, chocolate or decaf coffee).

How many cups of coffee do you drink a day, on average? What's your take on the study?

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