Seriously!
According to the BBC News:
Drinking coffee protects against an eyelid spasm that can lead to blindness, a study suggests.
Italian researchers looked at the coffee drinking and smoking habits of 166 people with blepharospasm.
Sufferers have uncontrollable twitching of the eyelid which, in extreme cases, stops them being able to see.
One or two cups of coffee a day seemed to reduce the risk of the condition, the team reported in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
Not that I've ever heard of blepharospasm ;) It is a great disease name though - I'll give you that!
Comments
I had a blepharospasm last week and assumed it was because I was drinking too *much* coffee. Go figure.
Posted by: Ed Yong | June 20, 2007 1:52 PM
Well good to know that coffee protects eyes. At least good news for the people who can't start their without coffee. But caffeine can give you some health problems for example sleep disorders.
SHZ.
Posted by: Self Help Zone | June 21, 2007 3:14 AM
To follow up on SHZ, this article from the webMD folks was somewhat interesting:
http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic3115.htm
It would be incredibly hard to pinpoint the actual frequency of psychiatric disorders associated with caffeine because its consumption is so ubiquitous, but they suggest here that caffeine-related disorders tend to co-occur with other mood disorders or substance abuses.
Of course, if you haven't been diagnosed yet, how would you know? Just check the symptoms (aside from the gastrointestinal disturbance one... that's kinda why I drink it!) and be safe, young coffee drinkers!
PS: Drinking coffee an hour or two prior to going to sleep doesn't count as a disorder, just bad judgment ;)
Posted by: Brian | June 21, 2007 12:46 PM
i'll remember this next time my heart is palpitating after my fifth cup.
Posted by: kate | June 26, 2007 7:28 PM