Glaucoma is an eye condition that could be dangerous to the optical health of a person. Glaucoma manifests because of a pressure buildup in specific parts of the eye and eventually disrupts the functions of the organ due to severe optic nerve damage. As the leading cause of loss of eyesight and blindness, glaucoma has been studied for years in the field of ophthalmology to find potential solutions that could effectively prevent and treat the disease. Among the latest research that was developed includes the utility of statins.
Statin Effective Against Blood Pressure Build-up in Optic Nerves
Statins are medications commonly used for patients with intense rates of cholesterol in their system. This drug is proven to have properties that could lower high pressures of blood that could lead to common heart problems or even severe cardiovascular diseases. The good thing about statins is that they could also target the nerves connected to the eye organs or optic nerves and modify the volumes of blood flowing through them. With the properties of statin discovered for both cholesterol and glaucoma, many people will have a chance to protect their eye sights inflicted by high blood pressure.
Harvard Medical School Department of Medicine's Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital expert and author of the study Jae Hee Kang said in a ScienceDaily report that the results suggest a potential link that is more than just the known cardiovascular benefits over long-term statin use. Based on the findings, the authors were able to specify the neuroprotective functions of the same drug to the cells which are composed in the optic nerve.
The study regarding the correlation of statin, cholesterol, and glaucoma was examined through the help of 136,782 participants that are from the age group of 40 years and older. The subjects are all in good shape, but among the total participants, over 800 individuals were confirmed to have open-angle cases of glaucoma in the span of years 2000 to 2015. Throughout the examination, the subjects were asked to fill up a questionnaire that required personal data from their serum cholesterol levels and frequency of statin medication.
High Blood Pressure Could Lead to Glaucoma
According to the results, the subjects treated for cholesterol with a statin for five years or over had a lower risk of being diagnosed with open-angle glaucoma, and this advantage scaled to up to 21 percent compared to the group that never had statin-induced medication. Throughout the participants, the study also found that an increase in cholesterol reflects higher chances of open-angle glaucoma complications. According to an Express report, 20 milligrams per deciliter of levels of serum cholesterol increases the risk of the same illness by 7 percent. In conclusion, the authors defined that high cholesterol rates are indeed significant contributors to glaucoma development.
Statin use for glaucoma will still be examined further in future studies to understand more about its other properties, side effects, and the possibility that it could scientifically work as a preventive treatment for the optical condition. The study was published in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology, titled "Association of Statin Use and High Serum Cholesterol Levels With Risk of Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma."
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