Researchers have found that moderate alcohol consumption increases the risk of...Cataractshaving to undergo surgery is reduced by almost a quarter. The study found that drinking wine was most effective: five or more glasses per week reduced the need for cataract surgery by 23 percent. While the reason for this connection remains unclear, experts suspect that polyphenol antioxidants - which are particularly abundant in red wine - may play a protective role.
The study, carried out by Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and University College London's Institute of Ophthalmology, found drinkers who consumed up to 14 units a week - the maximum recommended by the NHS - were less likely to need surgery for removing cloudy spots on the lens of the eye.
The most significant reduction in risk was associated with drinking wine rather than beer or spirits. People who drank wine five or more times a week were up to 23% less likely to have cataract surgery than non-drinkers. However, people who drank a lot of beer, cider or spirits did not have a significantly reduced risk.
14 units of alcohol per week is equivalent to approximately 10 small glasses of wine. A 750 ml bottle of red, white or rosé wine (alcohol content 13.5%) contains 10 units. Moderate drinking is defined as around 6.5 glasses of wine per week.
The study is the largest of its kind to date and examined data from more than 490,000 people in cohort studies at the UK Biobank and EPIC-Norfolk. A team of experts compared the number of people who had cataract surgery and their reports of their alcohol consumption, taking into account factors that could influence the outcome, such as age, weight and gender.
“Our results suggest a lower risk of undergoing cataract surgery when consuming low to moderate amounts of alcohol. The connection was particularly clear with wine consumption,” write the researchers.
However, the experts pointed out that drinking large amounts of alcohol is linked to a number of serious health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. It is estimated that 30 percent of people over 65 have cataracts, which affect vision in one or both eyes.
Dr. Anthony P. Khawaja, who led the research, said: "We observed a dose-response relationship in our results - in other words, there was evidence that the likelihood of requiring future cataract surgery was progressively higher Alcohol consumption is decreasing, but only to moderate levels within current guidelines. This supports a direct role for alcohol in the development of cataracts, but further studies are needed to investigate this.”
Dr. Sharon Chua, who also worked on the study, said: "The fact that our results were particularly clear in wine drinkers may suggest a protective role for polyphenol antioxidants, which are particularly abundant in red wine."
The study was carried out in theOphthalmology journalpublished.
