New Study Links Caffeinated Coffee To Vision Loss

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New Study Links Caffeinated Coffee To Vision Loss

Posted by timothy on Thursday October 4, 2012 @03:20AM from the whiskey-linked-to-vision-blurriness-in-followup dept.

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.'"

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Coffee is... by Ashenkase · 2012-10-04 03:23 · Score: 5, Funny

Good for you... Coffee is bad for you... Coffee is good for you... Coffee is bad for you...
Coffee is making me sea sick.
1. Re:Coffee is... by JustOK · 2012-10-04 03:32 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Try the sea weed
  
  --
  rewriting history since 2109
2. Re:Coffee is... by Hatta · 2012-10-04 03:36 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Smoke some Cannabis. It will help with both the nausea and the glaucoma.
  
  --
  Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
3. Re:Coffee is... by Anrego · 2012-10-04 03:37 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Indeed.
  Personally I figure anything in moderation is probably less toxic than the world in general. If you enjoy coffee, drink a few cups a day and don't worry about it! Don't specifically drink coffee if you don't like it, and don't drink 15 cups a day..
  The interesting thing is that we worry about these kind of slight threats to our health, but ignore the absolute real killers: sitting on our asses for most fo the day, not getting enough sleep, eating food that is barely food, stress...
  I like to think any of those things are going to be a much bigger factor on my longevity than the cup of coffee I had this morning..
4. Re:Coffee is... by cayenne8 · 2012-10-04 03:54 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  So...it is the coffee that is making me go blind...
  All this time, I thought it was the other thing....
  :)
  
  --
  Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
5. Re:Coffee is... by Dr+Herbert+West · 2012-10-04 05:47 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  You could infuse hot milk with some cannabis, then add it to your coffee!
6. Re:Coffee is... by Rockoon · 2012-10-04 05:52 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  my eyes arent too good, can you inspect my palms for me?
  
  --
  "His name was James Damore."
OK... Next question: by lorenlal · 2012-10-04 03:27 · Score: 4, Funny

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...
Re:Damn... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-04 03:29 · Score: 4, Funny

Just don't masturbate into your coffee.
Not statistically significant? by Tepar · 2012-10-04 03:29 · Score: 5, Insightful

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?
Pluheese.... by bagboy · 2012-10-04 03:30 · Score: 4, Informative

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!
Coffee and wine are the fashionable miracle cures by blahbooboo · 2012-10-04 03:33 · Score: 4, Insightful

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...
Re:OK... Next question: by ColdWetDog · 2012-10-04 03:44 · Score: 5, Insightful

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!
Re:Correlation != Causation by freeze128 · 2012-10-04 03:56 · Score: 4, Funny

"Outside temperatures, sun exposure and gender may trigger glaucoma"
Oh my GOD! *I* have a gender... I wonder if I'm at risk...
Statistically Meaningless Conclusions by Geoffrey.landis · 2012-10-04 04:02 · Score: 5, Informative

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
1. Re:Statistically Meaningless Conclusions by frosty_tsm · 2012-10-04 05:35 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  On top of this, why were people drinking so much coffee? Because they were working long days? Staying up late? Other activities that can lead to eye strain?
  
  Sorry but this sounds like correlation rather than causation.
Everything kills you. by metrometro · 2012-10-04 04:04 · Score: 4, Insightful

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?