Healthy diet and not smoking can cut risk of surgery for cataracts

Cutting out fatty food and salt significantly protected women from the lens-clouding eye disease.

US scientists looked at the eating habits of almost 2,000 women aged 50 to 79 living in Iowa, Wisconsin and Oregon.

A questionnaire was used to give the women Healthy Eating Index scores based on dietary advice.

Participants with higher scores consumed less than the guideline levels for fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and salt-derived sodium.

They also ate vegetables, fruits, grains, milk and protein-rich meat, beans, fish or eggs at recommended or higher levels.

Women with the top 20 per cent of healthy eating scores were found to have a 37 per cent lower risk of developing cataracts than those in the bottom fifth of the table.

Although diet was the biggest risk factor, smoking and obesity were also linked to the disease, as was having brown eyes, being short-sighted, and having high blood pressure.

The researchers, led by Dr Julie Mares from the University of Wisconsin, wrote in the journal Archives of Ophthalmology: "Lifestyle improvements that include healthy diets, smoking cessation, and avoiding obesity may substantively lower the need for and economic burden of cataract surgery."

Cataracts are primarily an age-related condition, caused when cloudy patches appear in the lens of the eye making vision blurred or misty.

In Britain, more than half of people over the age of 65 are believed to have some cataract development in one or both eyes.

Among the women taking part in the study, 41 per cent either had cataracts or had previously undergone surgery to have them removed.

A second study published in the online version of the same journal suggested that certain drugs combined with the effects of sunlight could increase the risk of cataracts.

Researchers asked 5,000 participants about their use of common medications including diuretics (which empty the bladder), antidepressants, antibiotics and the pain-reliever naproxen.

All are known to increase the skin's sensitivity to sunlight.

After adjusting for age and sex, an interaction between sun-sensitising drugs and exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun was linked to the development of cataracts.