Green Leafy Vegetables Protect Against Glaucoma

Author: Alexander Bruni Time for reading: ~1 minutes Last Updated: August 08, 2022

Green Leafy Vegetables Protect Against Glaucoma

Consumption of nitrates from spinach, lettuce and kale reduces the risk of developing glaucoma.

A diet rich in nitrates found in spinach , kale and lettuce reduces the risk of developing glaucoma by 30%, researchers say. Glaucoma is a group of diseases in which damage to the optic nerve is observed . As a result, some of the nerve cells die, leading to the loss of parts of the visual field to complete loss of vision .

According to researchers, these data may prevent the development of new cases of the disease.

A team from Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, USA, is studying the link between nitrate consumption and primary open-angle glaucoma . This disease is a leading cause of blindness among people over 60 years of age.

From previous studies, it is clear that nitrates in green leafy vegetables are good for blood circulation . Thus, the initiators of the present study decided to test whether these nitrates would have any effects in glaucoma .

For the purpose of their study, they analyzed the diet, while also conducting eye examinations of nearly 64,000 women and 41,000 men between 1984 and 2012 . Eye examinations are performed every two years.

Each participant was over the age of 40 at the beginning of the study and no one suffered from glaucoma .

Volunteers completed questionnaires that allowed researchers to assess nitrate intake and glaucoma risk . During the study period, 1,483 of the participants developed the disease.

The researchers found that those volunteers who had a higher intake of nitrates from green leafy vegetables had a 20-30% lower risk of developing glaucoma .

The study data are available on the JAMA Opthalmology website .

Green Leafy Vegetables Protect Against Glaucoma

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