A new study has discovered that the risk of glaucoma — a fairly common eye condition in the older population that can result in loss of vision — was lower in people who drank hot tea every day.

Share on Pinterest Could one cup of hot tea per day have a protective effect against the onset of glaucoma?

Glaucoma is an eye condition characterized by damage to the optic nerve, which may result in partial or total loss of eyesight. Risk factors for developing glaucoma include age, a medical history of diabetes, obesity, and hypertension.

According to recent data from the National Eye Institute, in 2010 alone, 1.9 percent of the North American population aged 40 and over was diagnosed with a form of glaucoma.

Coffee consumption has previously been associated with an increased risk of developing glaucoma, due to increased intraocular blood pressure.

However, the results of further research were split, with some indicating that moderate coffee consumption did not affect the risk of glaucoma, and others obtaining mixed results.

Furthermore, some studies hypothesized that the consumption of other caffeinated and non-caffeinated drinks could also influence the risk of developing glaucoma.

So far, this notion has not been verified, since most of the research addressing the link between drinks and the risk of heightened intraocular pressure referred to small, and thus inconclusive, population samples.

Recently, scientists from Brown University in Providence, RI, and the University of California in Los Angeles have decided to compare how the consumption of various drinks — including hot tea, decaffeinated tea, iced tea, coffee, and soft drinks — influence the risk of glaucoma.

“No study to date has compared the effects of caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee, tea, and soft drinks on glaucoma,” write the researchers.

“The objective of this study,” they add, “is to examine the association between consumption of various caffeinated and decaffeinated beverages and glaucoma.”

The results of the study were published yesterday in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.