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Health News Archive 214 - Cataract
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Vitamin E Helps Prevent Cataracts

Tufts University researchers say long-term intake of vitamins B, E and C may inhibit cataract development. A new study has found yet another reason for people to start supplementing vitamin E in their diet: to help prevent cataracts. As the most common cause of blindness worldwide, cataracts increase with age from less than five percent in persons under 65 to approximately half of those 75 years of age and older. Cataracts refer to lens cloudiness that gradually interferes with vision and leads gradually to a loss of vision.

In this study, 408 women aged 52 to 74 years completed five food frequency questionnaires over a 13- to 15-year period before the baseline evaluation of lens nuclear density. In addition to these questionnaires, researchers assessed vitamin supplement use with seven other questionnaires collected during this same period. Finally, they used computer-assisted image analysis of digital lens images to assess lens changes and cataract formation.

At the end of the study, researchers found women who never supplemented with vitamin E had a 42% higher risk of getting cataracts than women who had supplemented vitamin E for 10 years. Unfortunately, the amounts and isomers of supplemented vitamin E were not discussed. Geometric mean 5-year change in nuclear density was inversely associated with the intake of riboflavin (P trend = .03) and thiamin (P trend = .04) and duration of vitamin E supplement use (P trend = .006)

Despite not examining vitamin E amounts, the researchers concluded that “long-term use of vitamin E supplements and higher riboflavin and/or thiamin intake may reduce the progression of age-related lens opacification.”

Source: Jacques PF. Long-term Nutrient Intake and 5-Year Change in Nuclear Lens Opacities. Arch Ophthalmol. 2005;123:517-526