Caffeine consumption linked to exfoliation

Heavy consumption of caffeine may be linked with an increased risk of exfoliative glaucoma.

A large retrospective study of over 78,000 women over forty and without glaucoma, published in this month's Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, looked at their coffee drinking habits over 22 years.

Heavy coffee consumption, but not any other caffeinated drinks, was found to have a positive association with exfoliative glaucoma, a particular form of the disease where matter enters the anterior chamber to reduce the outflow of aqueous.

The study follows another major research finding published in this month's Ophthalmology journal which found that older people with high cholesterol who had taken statins for two years had an 8 percent reduced risk of developing open-angle glaucoma.