Drinking “this alcohol” is effective in preventing cataracts (210403)
Drinking “this alcohol” is effective in preventing cataracts
According to a recent study, drinking alcohol, especially wine, reduces the chance of cataract surgery.
Researchers from the Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology conducted a longitudinal observational study of both cohorts to investigate the link between drinking and cataracts.
The study used data from 469,387 people (average age 56) enrolled in the UK Biobank and 23,162 people (average age 59) enrolled in the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer (EPIC)-Norfolk.
The UCL team analyzed 19,011 and 4,573 cases of cataract surgery in a cohort group of British Biobank and EPIC-Norfolk, respectively. Follow-up studies for each cohort were conducted for an average of 95 months in the UK Biobank and 193 months in EPIC-Norfolk.
After covariate adjustment, statistical analysis showed that drinkers were less likely to undergo cataract surgery than non-drinkers. The risk ratio for the British Biobank cohort group was 0.89 and the risk ratio for the EPIC-Norkfolk cohort was 0.90.
The research team reported that in the EPIC-Norkfolk cohort group, the risk of cataract surgery decreased as the amount of alcohol consumed increased, but a U-shaped association was observed in the British Biobank cohort group. Among them, wine consumption has been shown to have the greatest protection against cataracts.
Those in the category with the most wine consumption had a 23% lower probability of undergoing cataract surgery in the EPIC-Norfolk cohort and 14% lower in the British Biobank cohort.
"The occurrence of cataracts is due to the gradual damage caused by oxidative stress during aging," the research team said. "The results of this study may suggest that polyphenols, an antioxidant-rich in red wine, help prevent cataracts."
The study was published February 8 in the American medical journal Ophthalmology and reported April 1 in HealthDay, a US health information site.
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