An Indian study revealed that older adults who take very little vitamin C in their diets could have raised risk of developing cataracts. A clouding of the eye’s lens, that usually causes vision problems in elderly in known as cataracts. Several studies have shown that people intook high antioxidant including vitamin C have lower risk of developing the condition.
In order to analyze the impact of vitamin C researchers evaluated nearly six thousand Indian adults age sixty and above for cataracts. The study participants were also asked about their diets and lifestyle habits. The levels of vitamin C in the blood of all study participants were also measured.
On the whole, about seventy-three percent of the study participants were found to have cataracts. However, that risk dropped significantly as blood levels of vitamin C blood levels and intake of vitamin C mounted. One-quarter of older adults with highest levels of vitamin C had forty percent lower risk of cataract, in comparison to people with the lowest levels of vitamin C.
Other aspects such as smoking habit, income, high blood pressure and diabetes were also considered. It was found that more than half of the study participants had deficiency of vitamin C. Anything below eleven micromoles per liter is considered a vitamin C deficiency. Even in the group with the highest vitamin C levels, the typical amount was just thirty-eight micromoles per liter.
According to lead researcher Prof Astrid E. Fletcher from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the UK, vitamin C is an antioxidant, which means it helps protect body cells from damage caused by so-called oxidative stress. Laboratory and animal studies show vitamin C plays a very significant role in defending the lens of the eye against oxidative stress.
She added the eye is particularly susceptible to oxidative stress as the seeing organ of the body. Light is crucial for vision but light is also very damaging. The lens absorbs ultraviolet radiation, a major source of oxidative stress. But that biological plausibility does not mean that older adults should load up on vitamin C supplements to ward off cataracts.
Fletcher stated the current findings have relevance primarily for India, where vitamin C levels of the people are generally low. They might also have implications for other lower-income countries. The study findings were published in the journal Ophthalmology.