Eyelid Spasm, Prevented by Drinking Coffee
The involuntary eye spasm called primary late onset blepharospasm makes the eye lids blink uncontrollably and can leave the eyes effectively ‘blind’.
A new Italian study claims that drinking coffee protects from this condition.
The effect was proportional to the amount of coffee drank and one to two cups per day were needed for the protective effect to be seen. The age of onset of the spasm was also found to be later in patient who drank more coffee — 1.7 years for each additional cup per day.
The study findings suggest that caffeine blocks adenosine receptors as has been proposed for its mechanism in protecting against Parkinson’s disease and an estimate that people need to drink one to two cups of coffee per day for the protective effect to be seen.
‘Considering that the caffeine content of a cup of Italian coffee (60–120 mg) is similar to the average content of a cup of American coffee (95–125 mg), the protective effect on the development of blepharospasm might be exerted at caffeine doses greater than 120–240 mg, comparable with the caffeine doses suggested to be protective in Parkinson’s disease.”
Findings were published online ahead of print in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
Read the full report.
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Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] I’ve already confessed what a coffee-junkie I am. A few years ago, I might have felt bad, even guilty about it, but with more and more studies showing the health benefits of caffeine, I actually start to think I’m doing myself good with this little addiction. I still think that like with anything else, moderation is the key and too much of anything cannot be good. But isn’t it amazing how many diseases a cuppa can help prevent– a search for coffee on this blog will return a myriad of articles heart disease, liver cirrhosis, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, pain management, and more recently, even on eyelid spasms. [...]