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New Study Links Caffeinated Coffee To Vision Loss
dsinc writes "A new study suggests caffeinated coffee drinkers should limit their intake to reduce their chances of developing vision loss or blindness. According to a scientific paper in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, heavy caffeinated coffee consumption is associated with an increased risk of developing exfoliation glaucoma (abstract), the leading cause of secondary glaucoma worldwide. 'Scandinavian populations have the highest frequencies of exfoliation syndrome and glaucoma,' said author Jae Hee Kang, ScD, of Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass. 'Because Scandinavian populations also have the highest consumption of caffeinated coffee in the world, and our research group has previously found that greater caffeinated coffee intake was associated with increased risk of primary open-angle glaucoma, we conducted this study to evaluate whether the risk of exfoliation glaucoma or glaucoma suspect may be different by coffee consumption.'"
Good for you... Coffee is bad for you... Coffee is good for you... Coffee is bad for you...
Coffee is making me sea sick.
It may be that people whose genetics predispose them to exfoliation glaucoma are also more than usually enchanted by coffee. Still, interesting observation.
Damn... Between caffeinated coffee and masturbation, it's amazing I'm not completely blind...
So, does this mean it's time to start evaluating a possible reason?
I ask because I love my coffee. Seriously, I'm stupid for it... But the last thing I need is another activity that supposedly makes me go blind...
Geez. To me this is kind of like in the movie "The Jerk" when the crazy guy is trying to kill Steve Martin's character by shooting him from across the road with a rifle and Martin concludes that the guy has a problem with cans and he's actually attacking the cans, which just happen to also be everywhere Steve is.
Scandinavian people are more blue eyed than most ethnic groups and it's been known for years that blue eyed people may be more sensitive to vision problems caused by sunlight. It could also be that for some reason (ozone depletion?) that Scandinavia gets stronger sunlight than other regions. If they want to convince me that there is something to do this, show me a study in Brazil where there aren't very many blue eyed people and they drink a lot of coffee too.
From the abstract:
Compared with participants whose cumulatively updated total caffeine consumption was <125 mg/day, participants who consumed 500 mg/day had a trend toward increased risk of EG/EGS that was not statistically significant (RR = 1.43; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.98–2.08); P trend = 0.06).
If it's not statistically significant, then how can we take this seriously?
Someone should read the article a little better instead of posting some inflaming title... FTFA, "participants who consumed 500 mg/day had a trend toward increased risk of EG/EGS that was not statistically significant". Notice the "not statistically significant" part? Also, " We did not find associations with consumption of other caffeinated products". Way to panic!
So in the last 6-12 months coffee and red wine have been show to prevent pretty much everything -- heart disease, dementia, hypertension, aging etc.
Pop science is so tiring. Fact is all of these studies are incredibly dependent on the population.
The only thing know for sure is living is hazardous to your health...
So as a followup study, find the relationship between coffee consumption and compulsive masturbation? Could possibly be linked, based on personal anecdotal evidence.
Indeed. If it shows strong correlation, the /. userbase is going to have to learn braille...
For 80k women, there were a total 360 cases (.45%).
The increase was higher for women in families who already had a history of glaucoma.
The link was specific to caffeinated coffee and wasn't found for other products (Tea, Chocolate, decaffeinated coffee)
There was a tiny statistically significant increase compared to abstainers.
I.e. take those 360 cases, and say there were 160 cases among abstainers and 200 cases among caffeinated coffee drinkers. So the actual increased number of cases due to drinking caffeinated coffee in the population of 80k women may have been something like .05%. This is a rough swag. The actual increase was:
"increased risk of EG/EGS (RR = 1.66; 95% CI, 1.09â"2.54; P trend = 0.02)"
So give up a lifetime of drinking coffee, the other benefits of drinking coffee in return for reducing your risk of Glaucoma very very slightly.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
So, we need to avoid coffee to avoid going blind, or drink it regularly so that we don't get Alzheimer's?
No, it means that you should stop reading dumb clinical articles taken out of context on Slashdot.
This is just one of those hundreds of thousands of medical articles trawling the data for a correlation so somebody can chase after another grant. According to TFA, they reviewed records of almost 79000 people and came up with 360 cases of this particular form of glaucoma. Then they take the self reported caffeine intake, adjust for 'other confounders' (waves hands) and come up with a weak (Relative Risk 1.4) association that is barely statistically significant and likely not clinically significant at all.
Hrumphh. Not impressed
(Goes back to quaffing his Nuclear Waste level caffeinated beverage)
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Ok, I didn't read diddly squat, but I will go out on a limb and say that the researcher didn't speak to a common audience.
Researchers need to publish cliff-notes at a level that high-schoolers would understand. We all assume the study was "local" and flawed, but the "cliff-notes" would address that right up front!
Help eliminate stupid speeding tickets"
So tea is still safe. Now if only there was a safe alternative to masturbation I wouldn't have to worry about my vision at all.
remember folks, add weed to your coffee.
It will both prevent glaucoma and take the harsh edge off the coffee buzz.
Coffee AND 24" screen it is then.
Privacy is terrorism.
Caffeinated coffee? That's just "Coffee" - add words if you've taken away the good stuff, not when it's au naturel.
Sorry, their conclusions are just not statistically justified.
Let me review what they found:
Compared total caffeine consumption of less than 125 mg/day to greater than 500 mg/day: no significant result
Compared abstain from caffeinated coffee to greater than 3 cups of caffeinated coffee daily: glaucoma relative risk in the interval 1.09 to 2.54
Compared consumption of (caffeinated soda, caffeinated tea, decaffeinated coffee or chocolate) to non-consumers of same: no significant result
That relative risk that they quote as being significant has a confidence interval with a lower end of 1.09; which is only barely above 1.0 (1.0= no effect). So, they studied one particular variety of one particular minor disease (of many health effects). Finding one effect at a trivial level is meaningless.
Ob xkcd: http://xkcd.com/882/
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
So, does this mean it's time to start evaluating a possible reason?
I ask because I love my coffee. Seriously, I'm stupid for it... But the last thing I need is another activity that supposedly makes me go blind...
So keep drinking coffee, just drink less of it each time. I've cut down in a major way over the last year, but I still need two a day to keep me awake and my brain working. I just drink way less both times.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
It's all fatal. Some faster than others, I admit, but everyone eventually becomes infirm and dies and causality is pretty firm linked to existing in the world and doing things.
So, can we have good regulators to worry about stuff like Chromium in tap water and just start ignoring the really subtle stuff?
So, does this mean it's time to start evaluating a possible reason?
I ask because I love my coffee. Seriously, I'm stupid for it... But the last thing I need is another activity that supposedly makes me go blind...
Then stop! Not only does it make you go blind, but gawd kills a kitten every time you do it too!
coffee drinkers are more white-collar, sedentary types who read lot of documents either physical ones or on a LCD screen for the most part of the day... and at occasions, under poor lighting. Isn't this the cause of losing eye-sight ??
Personally, I consume reasonable amount of coffee daily basis and I am close to 30 now. So far I can manage reading without glasses. Since 2 years ago or so, I get very tired reading... somewhat an early sign of losing eye sight. Before that, for 10 years or so, I used to study + code... seems all these heavy duty work is paying the price.. not the coffee...
I upped my coffee intake to stave off Dementia and Alzheimer disease... bot now I'm gonna go blind....
Give a guy a break will ya scientists?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
A lot of people seem to associate coffee and caffeine, but all around the world, people get caffeine from other sources. Tea, chocolate, guarana, etc. Caffeine is not the only ingredient in these things that might affect you. For instance, the primary stimulant in cocoa is actually Theobromine.
One interesting example is a COFFEE ALLERGY. It doen't occur very often, but it does happen, and more often than with tea, for instance. Caffeine suppresses immune response (i.e. histamine production associated with an IgE reaction) to a limited degree and may therefore mask a mild allergy to other proteins found in the coffee. So you may not have any immediate allergy symptoms. But it does have an effect, and in the long term, it can lead to psychological disorders.
Doctors, can you please clarify this? Eating breakfast is becoming a terrifying experience. (Circle all that apply)
Coffee is good / bad for you.
Eggs are good / bad for you.
The healthier topping for my toast is butter(which has lots of saturated fat) / margarine(which is trans fat) .
I anticipate the stories of how whole wheat toast is secretly the cause of cancer.
If that's the case then half the people of Seattle should be walking with a cane. People there drink a LOT of coffee. I'd like to see a few more studies before I buy into this one.
If it is not illegal, Immoral or causes cancer it's just not good for you :-)
I'm here for the experience, not the Hyperbole.
people who drink coffee are less likely to smoke pot
What? Almost every pothead I know loves to drink coffee. Caffeine is the perfect counterbalance to the lack of motivation pot sometimes causes. Especially if you make some pot cream and add that directly to the coffee - like a "hippie speedball".
"But this one goes to 11!"
Or stop drinking when you need glasses.
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
And wait five minutes for the next one, which will of course sight different evidence, and say the opposite thing.
This signature intentionally left blank.
Coffee and wanking. :(
WTF? Isn't that what is called 'Coffee'? Caffeine isn't artificially introduced into coffee. It's part of coffee.
Not sure what those researchers wrote - I don't see any problem here!
---- I'll take you in a Hunt deathmatch any day.
Look, I work on medical studies in research all the time, and virtually ALL of them say that moderate caffeine consumption is good for you.
Cardiovascular risk factors are much more of a risk for far more people than vision problems are.
When you get old your eyesight will go. Deal with it.
Now step away from my double shot espresso or someone is going to get hurt ...
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
This is why I hate science reporting. This kind of study exists entirely to obtain funding for higher-quality research. But it's getting reported as though it were conclusive. The way research of most types works is that you do a cheap, low-quality study that tells you whether there's an interesting enough thing happening to warrant a more-expensive, more-thorough study. In this case, the conclusion is basically "hey, it's possible that caffeine intake might be a factor in glaucoma; we should really do more than just case review and self-reporting to see if it's real." But all we're going to hear about from the media now is how coffee makes you blind.
We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex—but Congress can. – Cullen Hightower
http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html
Caffeine doesn't motivate.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
It sure motivates my bladder.
"But this one goes to 11!"
I was fucking blind before I started drinking fucking coffee.
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
3 cups or more per day is bad for your eyes.
And its not a longevity thing but a quality of eyesight thing. I know people who drink lots of coffee and got this condition before they hit middle age (I think stress had something to do with it, but the excess coffee might have hurt them). It will be interesting to see if future studies agree with this paper.
So if I drink enough coffee, I can get a prescription for pot?
Sounds good to me.
Another day. Another study that finds something bad for you/kills you.
Eat bitter dark chocolate (over 70% cocoa and make sure not dutched, alkalized) with coffee. The cocoa lowers blood pressure. So net good.