A coffee a day could help keep eye diseases at bay.
That’s according to a joint study out of South Korea and the US,
which concluded that powerful antioxidants found in coffee can play
a role in preventing age-related eye diseases and the degeneration
of eyesight.
For their research, scientists looked at the impact of chlorogenic
acid or CLA, a strong antioxidant that has been shown to prevent
retinal degeneration in mice.
To conduct their experiment, mice were treated with nitric oxide,
which creates oxidative stress and free radicals and leads to
retinal degeneration.
Those that were pretreated with CLA developed no sign of retinal
damage.
"Studies concluded that powerful antioxidants found in coffee can
play a role in preventing age-related eye diseases and the
degeneration of eyesight."
The retina is a thin tissue located on the back wall of the eye
that receives and organizes visual information, researchers
explain.
It’s also one of the most metabolically active tissues and requires
high levels of oxygen. Without it, the tissue is particularly
vulnerable to oxidative stress and prone to the production of free
radicals, which leads to tissue damage and loss of sight.
However, it’s not yet known whether or not drinking coffee delivers
CLA directly to the retina, researchers stress.
Future studies could lead to the development of a special brew
customized for retinal support, or CLA delivery via eye drops.
The study, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food
Chemistry, is the latest to vaunt the nutritional merits of
coffee.
Another large scale, US-led study published recently in the
journal European Association for the Study of
Diabetes found that people who drank three or more cups of
coffee a day had the lowest risk of type 2 diabetes – 37 per
cent lower than those who consumed one cup or less per day.
Scientists looked at the coffee consumption patterns of 95,000
women and 28,000 men.
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