A sunshine-cataract connection

Nutrition Health Review, Wntr, 1989

A Sunshine-Cataract Connection

Exposure to the sun over a lifetime can increase one's risk of developing cataracts, or opaque spots on the lens of the eye that impair vision, new research has confirmed.

Gwen W. Collman of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C., and colleagues looked at 113 patients with cataracts and 161 controls without cataracts, aged 40 to 69, who visited a private ophthalmology practice in Asheboro, N.C. All subjects estimated their lifetime sun exposure after answering questions about how much time they spent outdoors, and also reported medication use and other factors that can affect cataract formation.

Collman found that dark-eyed persons and persons taking tranquilizers had a higher risk of cataracts. The finding that the brown-and hazel-eyed subjects in her study had more cataracts than did the blue-, gray-, and green-eyed subjects supports earlier studies by other researchers, and suggests, Collman said, that greater amounts of melanin, or iris pigment, in dark-eyed people lead to greater absorbance of solar radiation, causing greater damage to the lens.

The tranquilizer results were surprising, Collman said. Some tranquilizers are known to make people light-sensitive, but further study is needed before any conclusions can be drawn about those results.