Drinking hot tea may prevent glaucoma

Sometimes all you need is a hot cup of your favourite tea to soothe and relax you during your very busy days.

Besides being a very relaxing beverage, tea is also known to have many health benefits and now scientists have added another benefit to that list.

Drinking a cup of hot tea at least once a day is linked to a significantly lower risk of developing a serious eye condition – glaucoma, according to researchers.

After accounting for other risk factors such as diabetes and smoking, hot tea drinkers were 74 per cent less likely to have glaucoma.

Glaucoma is a condition where the optic nerve gets damaged due to the build-up of fluid inside the eye known as intraocular pressure. It is one of the leading causes of blindness in the world and affects 57.5 million people globally with those numbers expecting to rise to 65.5 million by 2020.

Previous research has suggested that caffeine can alter intraocular pressure but no study has investigated the impact of decaffeinated and caffeinated drinks on glaucoma risk.

The researchers looked at data from the 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) in the US. This is a nationally representative annual survey of about 10,000 people and it includes interviews, medical examinations and blood samples designed to gauge the national health of adults and children in the US.

In this particular year, the examination also includes glaucoma tests. Out of the 1678 participants who had eye tests 5 percent or 84 adults had developed glaucoma.

They were asked how much and how often they had consumed caffeinated and decaffeinated drinks including soft drinks and ice tea in the 12 months preceding the survey with the help of a validated Food Frequency Questionnaire.

The data showed that those who drank hot tea every day had a lower risk of glaucoma compared to those who didn’t drink.

After accounting for other risk factors such as diabetes and smoking, hot tea drinkers were 74 percent less likely to have glaucoma.

But no such associations were found for coffee — caffeinated or decaffeinated — decaffeinated tea, iced tea or soft drinks.

While there are many limiting factors in this study and because conclusions have been drawn from an observational study, researchers believe that further research is necessary to establish the role that tea drinking plays in the prevention of glaucoma.

Although they do verify that tea has been associated with lower risk of serious conditions including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes as tea contains antioxidants and anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective chemical and previous research has suggested that oxidation and neurodegeneration may be involved in the development of glaucoma, making tea a significant contributor to lowered risk of developing glaucoma.

A cup of freshly brewed tea goes a long way in helping you stay fit and healthy.

Source: British Journal of Ophthalmology