Computers Linked to Glaucoma?

An anonymous reader writes "Maybe we should have listened to our parents and gone outside instead of playing video games. In newly published study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, heavy computer users were 74% more likely to develop visual field problems as compared baseline in a group of 10,202 randomly selected workers. Furthermore, heavy computer users were found to be 81% more likely to develop glaucoma."

Comments

Glaucoma

[arnoroefs2000]

For a non-slashdotted link to information on Glaucoma: clicketie-click

Re:Woo Hoo!

[smooth wombat]

What you are thinking only helps Glaucoma in the sense that the pressure on the eye is somewhat (temporarily) relieved. It does nothing to the underlying condition.

For reference:

CNN
Glaucoma Research Foundation
Canadian Opthomological Society
National Eye Institute

I realize that letting facts get in the way of things is not the norm here on /. but there's always a first time.

Re:CRT vs LCD

[bconway]

That's a nice anecdote. Apparently neither you nor the author understand the difference between correlation and causation.

Re:Did they properly control the experiment

[Peyna]

Glaucoma is definitely related to diabetes, and diabetes is definitely related to a sedentary lifestyle.

Although, glaucoma also is caused by a number of other things (many of which we do not know); the article is down right now, so I can't tell what type of glaucoma these people were found to have.

Assuming that the increased rate could be explained by the sedentary lifestyle associated with heavy computer usage, it's just more news of the same: we're getting fat, lazy and stupid, and we'll look for any thing to blame it on other than the fact that we eat too much, don't exercise, and think education is a joke.

Re:Obviously

[Fnkmaster]

Yes, it helps but no, it doesn't help much. There were apparently a bunch of studies done back in the late 90s, since it is a known fact that marijuana, specifically THC, the psychoactive substance therein, does reduce intraocular pressure, which is the primary symptom of glaucoma.

However, the relief is apparently short-lived and comes only with sufficiently high dosage to get fairly high, so you can't just have a few toots twice a day to treat your glaucoma effectively. Furthermore, there are more effective eye-drop based treatments that have no side effects.

Also (according to some sources) marijuana reduces blood flow to the optic nerve, which is not good for glaucoma patients. Not sure how substantial this effect is. Anyway, Googling for "marijuana glaucoma" turns up tons of stuff, some of it from fairly reputable sources and studies.

Certainly, I don't think tooting some marijuana will hurt your glaucoma, but it doesn't seem like it will cure it either.