Hold up, posting out of schedule (there’s a schedule?) because this needs to be discussed – high consumption of coffee daily may increase our risk for glaucoma. You know what? A lot of us may be at risk but we can’t be sure.

The study is a complex and technical one, especially for us without a medical or scientific background. As I mentioned earlier, the study looks at the effect of caffeine intake on glaucoma and most specifically intraocular pressure (IOP, not even going to pretend I know what this is). According to the articles I read, elevated IOP is an “integral risk factor for glaucoma” (Mount Sinai).

The participants were 120,000 people in the UK aged between 39 and 73 years old. The study ran for four years until 2010 and involved their medical records and DNA samples. They were asked questions about their diet (including coffee/caffeine consumption), their vision, a family history of glaucoma, and they also had their IOP tested. Findings seem to show that high caffeine intake does not lead to higher risk for glaucoma overall. However, it does pose a threat for those who have the “strongest genetic predisposition to elevated IOP” (HealthDay). In this group, those who drank 3 or more cups of coffee a day had the highest rate of risk for glaucoma.

Now, if you know of anybody in your family who has suffered or suffers through glaucoma, the study seems to show that minimizing your caffeine intake can be a way for you to help prevent you yourself contracting it. You can also take it further and get yourself checked if your genes make you susceptible to glaucoma, though I personally do not know if that is even possible (or affordable for most of us).

Now, we love coffee, it leads to a lot of good for us and it just tastes darn good, but drinking too much of it cannot be good for us. Also, and I am almost a hypocrite for saying this since I haven’t done it myself, ask your doctor if you can actually drink coffee. Not being able to drink coffee may not sound like a good thing, but there are so much more good things to try. So if you can’t be cleared to drink coffee then just don’t risk it.

Read more about this through the following links:

https://consumer.healthday.com/b-6-7-too-much-coffee-might-raise-your-odds-for-glaucoma-2653261326.html

https://www.mountsinai.org/about/newsroom/2021/high-caffeine-consumption-may-be-associated-with-increased-risk-of-blinding-eye-disease

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