- Subscribe NowLimited Time Offer
Time: 7:30 am - 10:00 am
Place: Hilton San Francisco Union Square - Grand Ballroom B
Put down those carrots! Coffee is what's good for your eyes
Forget whatever your mom told you about how bad coffee is for you, as new research shows caffeine increases the eye’s ability to make tears.
Researchers from the University of Tokyo medical school found that caffeine intake boosts a person’s ability to produce tears, and they hope their work might improve the treatment of dry eye syndrome, a common ailment in people over 50.
Yes, you read that right. Eyes feeling dry and gritty? Order up a double espresso and drink it guilt free!
Though dry eye syndrome is most often just an annoyance, it does sometimes develop into a disease that threatens vision. It’s caused by a malfunction in the rate of tear production, or in the quality of tears and how quickly they evaporate off the eye surface.
Todai’s Reiko Arita, M.D., had seen an earlier study showing a reduced risk for dry eye in caffeine drinkers. It showed 13 percent of users had dry eye versus 17 percent of non users. Arita also already knew that caffeine was likely to stimulate tears as it also stimulates other secretions in the body, such as saliva and digestive juices.
Arita’s team gave some participants placebos and others caffeine after screening their DNA samples to determine genetic variations that affect caffeine metabolism. Those people who had two particular genetic variations produced more tears.
Tear volume was measured 45 minutes after testees took tablets of caffeine or the placebo. Participants abstained from all other caffeine intake for six days (which may explain why they were crying!) and took no other drugs.
Subjects had to be free of high blood pressure, dry eye syndrome, allergies that affect the eye, glaucoma and other eye diseases that might affect tear production.
Steven E.F. Brown is web editor at the San Francisco Business Times.
If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.
- Most popular
- Megadeveloper teams up with Oakland's massive stadium project
- San Francisco hospital to hire 100 nurses for expansion
- PwC: San Francisco's office, multifamily sectors face downturn
- Digital design startup moves headquarters from S.F. to Oakland
- Pioneering Bay Area med device entrepreneur dies in Thailand accident
- Why Floyd Kephart is Oakland's best (read: last) hope to keep Raiders
- Oakland’s real estate boom pads city budget but doesn’t silence
- New food market will anchor former Sears building in Oakland
- Alameda County jumps into huddle for new Raiders stadium
- Slack, Stripe and other billion-dollar ‘unicorns’ hunt office space
Sign up to receive San Francisco Business Times's Morning Edition and Afternoon Edition newsletters and breaking news alerts.
Epidemiologist, AncestryHealth AncestryHealth | San Francisco, CA
Chief Health Officer, AncestryHealth AncestryHealth | San Francisco, CA
Vice President of Business Development, AncestryHealth AncestryHealth | San Francisco, CA
Clinical Genomics Scientist, AncestryHealth AncestryHealth | San Francisco, CA
Head of Regulatory, AncestryHealth AncestryHealth | San Francisco, CA