{"id":216940,"date":"2025-06-26T21:57:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T21:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/216940\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T21:57:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T21:57:12","slug":"certain-type-of-coffee-linked-to-crippling-eye-disease-as-doctors-warn-stop-drinking-it-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/216940\/","title":{"rendered":"Certain type of coffee linked to crippling eye disease as doctors warn: Stop drinking it, NOW"},"content":{"rendered":"

It already tastes significantly worse, but there might be an even bigger reason not to drink instant coffee.<\/p>\n

Chinese researchers say they have found a link between instant coffee and an eye disease that causes blurry or distorted central vision.<\/p>\n

They found that those with a preference for instant coffee were up to seven times more likely to develop the disorder than drinkers of other types.<\/p>\n

Known as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), it sees the small, central part of the retina wear down, affecting people’s ability to\u00a0read, drive and recognize faces.<\/p>\n

Researchers believe the link could be due to the way instant coffee is prepared, which releases a chemical called acrylamide which may\u00a0enter the bloodstream and damage the retina.<\/p>\n

Dr Qi Jia, an ophthalmologist who led the study, warned: ‘Instant coffee may increase the risk of age-related macular degeneration, and reducing its intake could help prevent[it].<\/p>\n

‘People at high risk of age-related macular degeneration should avoid instant coffee.’<\/p>\n

People who have a family history of the disease, are overweight, smoke or have high blood pressure are all at higher risk for the condition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Researchers <\/p>\n

Researchers have revealed a potential link between instant coffee and vision loss<\/p>\n

People with blue or green eyes are also at an elevated risk because their eyes contain less pigment, which means they can sustain more damage from sunlight.<\/p>\n

But the researchers caution their study was observational and does not prove that instant coffee causes AMD.<\/p>\n

Previous studies have actually shown that coffee could\u00a0reduce the risk<\/a>\u00a0of AMD.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A 2023 study involving 67,000 adults linked coffee drinking to a thickening of nerve fiber layers in the eye, helping to protect vision.<\/p>\n

However, the new study is one of the few to look at different types of coffee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n

The study used data on participants from the UK Biobank and the FinnGen consortium, which tracks genetic data on people in Britain and Finland.<\/p>\n

The study didn’t strictly look at whether someone drank instant coffee, it used a different methodology involving genes.<\/p>\n

There is some evidence that people’s genes decide which coffee they prefer, whether they prefer a more bitter or smoother taste and if they can easily tolerate caffeine.<\/p>\n

After dividing participants by their genetic predisposition for drinking instant, ground or decaffeinated coffee, they then analyzed the AMD rates.<\/p>\n

Results showed those placed in the instant coffee group were 692 percent more likely to be diagnosed with dry age-related macular degeneration \u2014 where the macula, in the center of the eye and responsible for central vision, deteriorates over time.<\/p>\n

They also said they were 159 percent more likely to suffer from wet age-related macular degeneration \u2014 where abnormal blood vessels grow under the macula, causing vision complications.<\/p>\n

Decaf drinkers were also found to be 80 percent more likely to suffer from dry AMD, although this difference was not significant.<\/p>\n

Participants were only considered to have developed AMD if it appeared after their 50th birthday and was diagnosed by a physician.<\/p>\n

AMD is a common condition among older adults, with approximately one in ten Americans aged 50 years or over suffering from the condition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is no cure for the condition, but doctors say that starting treatment early can help to slow its progression.<\/p>\n

This may include taking supplements like vitamin C, E and zinc, or drugs for wet AMD that can slow the growth of blood vessels in the eyes.<\/p>\n

Researchers emphasize that more work is needed to confirm the findings of the study.<\/p>\n

Overall, it included 7,600 participants who had dry AMD and 5,900 who had wet AMD.<\/p>\n

It was published in the journal Food Science and Nutrition<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It already tastes significantly worse, but there might be an even bigger reason not to drink instant coffee.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[92,769,105,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-216940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-finland","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114751907057417144","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}