Long-term Nutrient Intake and 5-Year Change in Nuclear Lens Opacities

Abstract

To determine if usual nutrient intake is related to a 5-year change in the amount of lens nuclear opacification assessed by computer-assisted image analysis.Design: A sample of 408 Boston, Mass-area women from the Nurses' Health Study aged 52 to 74 years at baseline participated in a 5-year study related to nutrition and vision. Usual nutrient intake was calculated as the average intake from 5 food frequency questionnaires that were collected over a 13-to 15-year period before the baseline evaluation of lens nuclear density. Duration of vitamin supplement use before baseline was determined from 7 questionnaires collected during this same period. We assessed the degree of nuclear density (opacification) using computer-assisted image analysis of digital lens images with amount of nuclear density measured as a function of average pixel gray scale, ranging from 0 (clear) to 255 (black).

Diet, vegetarianism, and cataract risk

“…Indeed, our finding of a positive association between intakes of protein and retinol and cataract risk contrasted with the inverse associations showed in some (20,24,30,31), but not all (32,33), previous studies. Intakes of various B vitamins including thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and folate have been associated with lower cataract risk or a reduced progression of age-related lens opacification (3,34,35), but of the B vitamins, only vitamin B-12 was associated with cataract risk in our study. Intake of PUFAs was not associated with cataract risk in our study.…”

“…There was no association of cataract risk with carbohydrate intake, whereas positive associations between cataract and carbohydrate intake and between lens opacity and dietary glycemic index have been reported elsewhere (36,37), although a high dietary glycemic load was not associated with cataract risk in a large prospective study (38). Finally, studies of cataract risk or lens opacity in relation to the use of vitamin supplements have generally (3,24,27,34), but not always (7), shown an inverse association, but we found no difference in cataract risk between regular dietary supplement users and other participants.…”

Vitamin B1 Content in Potato: Effect of Genotype, Tuber Enlargement, and Storage, and Estimation of Stability and Broad-Sense Heritability

“…A cross-sectional study of 2,900 Australian men and women, 49 years of age and older, found that those in the highest quintile of thiamine intake were 40% less likely to have nuclear cataracts than those in the lowest quintile (Cumming et al 2000). In addition, a recent study of 408 U.S. women found that higher dietary intakes of thiamine were inversely associated with 5-year change in lens opacification (Jacques et al 2005). High dose thiamine therapy may also help reverse microalbuminuria in patients with type 2 diabetes (Rabbani et al 2009).…”

The Association of Dietary Lutein plus Zeaxanthin and B Vitamins with Cataracts in the Age-Related Eye Disease Study

“…13,14,16,33,35,36,45 We found that increased dietary intake of riboflavin and B12 were inversely associated in the cross sectional baseline comparison for both nuclear and cortical cataracts. The association with B12 intake was seen when comparing several of the higher quintiles to the lowest quintile of intake levels (Table 8).…”

“…36 Observational studies have also reported a decrease in the prevalence and progression of nuclear 13,16 and cortical lens opacities 18 in participants with the highest dietary intake of niacin, thiamin, and riboflavin. While most studies suggest no effect or a beneficial effect on cataract development of vitamin supplementation, some studies have raised the possibility of a possible harmful effect of supplementation, particularly for PSC cataract.…”