Can certain medications reduce cataract risk? The answer is “yes,” according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin.
Cataracts form painlessly. The most common symptom of a cataract is cloudy or blurry vision. Everything becomes dimmer, as if seen through glasses that need cleaning. Most often, both eyes are affected with cataracts, though vision is usually worse in one eye than in the other. Other symptoms of cataracts include glare, halos, poor night vision, a perception that colors are faded or that objects are yellowish, and the need for brighter light when reading. In some cases, double vision occurs with cataracts.
Another symptom of cataracts is the need for frequent changes in eyeglass and contact lens prescriptions. These symptoms can develop rapidly (in a matter of months) or almost imperceptibly, over many years.
In the early stages of a nuclear cataract, some people may temporarily have an improvement in vision. For example, a person who previously needed reading glasses for presbyopia is able to read without them. This change, which is referred to as second sight, occurs because the cataract alters the shape of the lens, making it better able to focus on nearby objects. Over time, however, this improvement in vision is lost, and progression of the cataract impairs vision.
Recently an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Volume 295, page 2752 ) reported that statins, normally used to lower cholesterol, may also lower the risk of nuclear cataracts, the most common type of cataract, occurring in the center of the eye lens.
Some animal studies had earlier suggested that statins might actually increase cataract risk. However, subsequent animal studies and a large British health survey found no risk.
Now, in a five-year follow-up of 1,299 people at risk for developing nuclear cataracts within five years, researchers at the University of Wisconsin, analyzing data from the Beaver Dam Eye Study, found that 12.2% of the statin users had developed nuclear cataracts compared with 17.2% of people who did not use statins. After adjusting for factors like diabetes and smoking, which increase nuclear cataract risk, statin users had a 40% lower the risk of developing nuclear cataracts than nonusers.
The investigators believe it may be the antioxidant effects of the statins that protect eyes. Other studies have shown a link between antioxidants and lowered risk of age-related cataracts. Statins, however, did not lower risk of the other two types of cataracts, cortical (affecting the lens cortex, the layer surrounding the nucleus) and posterior subcapsular (affecting the rear of the lens capsule).
