Coffee with Glaucoma?

[NAngleClosedGlaucoma]

I’m interested to hear what your thoughts are on this topic. I do drink coffee and love it but have been told that it can raise IOP? Should I give it up? I’m on daily drops to maintain a 15L/17R eyes approx. Is diet important?

[mrswaffle]

I have just one coffee a day, a flat white, made in our own machine. I’d hate to have to give it up! By the way, it seems to me that lots of things can briefly raise eye pressure. I suppose the recovery rate is the important thing.

[Ticketybo]

I have one cup of coffee - freshly ground beans - at breakfast. I really don’t want to give it up either. No other caffeine after that. Had an eye exam last week in the morning at the optician and pressures in both eyes were 15 so coffee didn’t seem to have raised my eye pressure. If someone is very sensitive to caffeine perhaps there might be more of an effect.

[Laura7777]

Hello,

I only drink decaff coffee (and then only one mug a day), because of my glaucoma. However, I have normal tension glaucoma, have already lost my peripheral vision and have just 5% of my central vision left. I need to keep my pressures as low as I can (below 10).

I have had glaucoma for nearly 40 years and the advice re caffeine intake has varied a bit during that time (in the 1980s, I had a leaflet listing do's and don'ts which included no caffeine😒). The latest advice (courtesy of Google) seems to be that generally, caffeine intake does not increase intraocular pressure or glaucoma risk; with the exception being for folk who have a strong genetic predisposition to higher eye pressures where caffeine may slightly raise eye pressure/increase risk of glaucoma.

As to your question about the importance of diet, I was advised by a highly eminent Professor back in 1990 that I would stand a better chance of keeping my remaining sight for longer if I kept healthy. He advocated lots of green leafy veg, not drinking too much liquid at any one time, keeping active and, not doing exercise that involved my heart being above my eyes (headstands were out😃!). I thought that was all quite sensible advice and have more or less followed it.

As with many things in life, I suppose we all have to use our own judgement, taking account of our own circumstances and likes/dislikes, all the while remembering that anything to excess is usually bad for us

[NAngleClosedGlaucoma in reply to Laura7777]

Thanks for your reply. Yes I’m probably similar in my thinking to you but in practice I fall short! ie I love coffee and use to drink a few mugs a day. I have cut back to one or two max a day. Otherwise fingers crossed but still find such conflicting advice about it all like supplements and antihistamines! However your advice seems to be working well for you so I’ll try to do same. It does make sense. I’ll miss my headstands though 😂😅

[KieranGlaucomaUK Administrator]

I would also echo the above comments. Caffeine is ok for eye pressure/glaucoma when consumed in moderation. Usually no more than a couple of cups a day, then opt for decaf.

[NAngleClosedGlaucoma in reply to KieranGlaucomaUK]

Thanks that’s exactly what I’ve started doing actually. Love it too much to give up entirely unless of course it was definitively proven to raise IOP. 😅