A new study shows that regular exercise and drinking on occasion can protect one's vision. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health discovered, after adjusting the age, that people who exercise at least three times a week have 58 percent less of a chance of becoming visually impaired than people who were inactive, according to the Huffington Post.
The study was published in the journal Ophthalmology, and is based on data from about 5,000 adults ranging in age from 43 to 84-years-old, the Huffington Post reported. The researchers defined visual impairment as the loss of vision, due to disease or trauma, that cannot be corrected with glasses or contact lenses.
"While age is usually one of the most strongly associated factors for many eye diseases that cause visual impairment, it is a factor we cannot change," said study researcher Dr. Ronald Klein, M.D., MPH. "Lifestyle behaviors like smoking, drinking and physically activity, however, can be altered. So, it's promising, in terms of possible prevention, that these behaviors are associated with developing visual impairment over the long term."
The researchers adjusted the age again when they focused on occasional drinkers and non-drinkers, Medical News Today reported. Occasional drinkers were calculated to be 49 percent less likely to become visually impaired than people who did not drink. 11 percent of non-drinkers developed loss of vision, while 4.8 percent of occasional drinkers experienced the same problem. Occasional drinkers were classified in the study as people "who had consumed alcohol in the past year but reported zero servings in an average week." Non-drinkers were classified as people who had not consumed alcohol in the past year.
The study also found that heavy drinkers and smokers were just as likely to develop loss of vision as non-drinkers, Medical News Today reported. Despite the results, it cannot be said that exercising and drinking can directly cause, or prevent, vision impairment because the study only showed an association between lifestyle factors and lose of sight, the Huffington Post reported.
"Further research is needed to determine whether modifying these behaviors will in fact lead to a direct reduction in vision loss," Klein said.
