A Cup Of Tea A Day Can Help Reduce The Likelihood Of Glaucoma

Glaucoma is a condition that causes blindness for most people over the age of 60. It damages the optic nerve – which carries information from our eyes to the visual center in our brain – thus resulting in permanent vision loss. Most of the time, this damage is caused by abnormally high pressure in our eye.

Glaucoma causes no pain and no symptoms until noticeable vision loss occurs. However, in a type of glaucoma called acute angle-closure glaucoma, one may experience severe headache, eye pain, eye redness, nausea and vomiting, blurred vision, and halos around lights.

Surely all of us want to prevent this type of condition. When it comes to this issue, a cup of hot caffeinated tea was found to be beneficial.

Tea And Glaucoma

Researchers of a study published in the British Journal of Opthalmology found that drinking tea at least once a day can lower our risk of glaucoma by 74%.

For this study involving a team of researchers from the University of California, data from the 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) were used to provide an accurate picture of the health and nutritional status of adults and children. Among the 10,000 samples in the NHANES, at least 1,678 participants had full eye test results, with about 84 adults noted to have developed glaucoma.

Data regarding their consumption of coffee, tea or soft drinks during the past 12 months were gathered using a questionnaire. Based on the information gathered, only less than 10% of the participants drank hot tea daily while almost half of the participants had reported drinking coffee often. Furthermore, it was revealed that only a daily cup of caffeinated hot tea was tied to a lower risk of glaucoma.

Dr. Anne Coleman, the lead author of the study, says:

“Tea drinkers should keep drinking and don’t need to stop because of a fear of glaucoma. This makes sense, but we’ll see if it holds up in future studies.”

Coleman added that one possible explanation for this finding is that teas containing caffeine have more antioxidants than decaffeinated teas do.

“It could be that tea contains phytochemicals and flavonoids, and these plant compounds have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that may protect the eye and the nerves surrounding it.”