Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

Many people cannot imagine a day without caffeine-based drinks – coffee drives our morning commutes and facilitates our social events. But what is the relationship between those extra cups of java and eye health? An international group of researchers has established that – where there is a strong genetic predisposition to elevated IOP – high caffeine consumption increases pressure and heightens the risk of glaucoma three-fold. However, in people without a strong predisposition to increased IOP, high caffeine intake is loosely associated with lower IOP and doesn’t contribute to glaucoma prevalence. The data used was compiled through the UK Biobank and enabled a huge sample size, but more research is needed to fully confirm the gene-diet interactions found in this study.