(Image source from: Pick leafy greens to save your eyes})
Research revealed that leafy greens like spinach, kale, and lettuce have the potential to lower the risk of glaucoma by around 30%. Nitrate-rich vegetable diet helps in boosting blood circulation, indicating the prevention of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG). POAG is one of the four types of the condition, discovered by Harvard Medical School.
According to Assistant Professor of Medicine Dr Jae Kang, "Higher dietary nitrate and green leafy vegetable intake was associated with a lower POAG risk." Published in the journal JAMA Ophthalmol, the study involved over 104,000 patients.
The study found that participants who consumed a nitrate-rich diet had lower levels of the rare condition involving chronic or acute sudden painful build-up of pressure in the eye. In POAG, the conditions implicated are increased pressure and a disruption in the flow of optic nerve blood flow.
Dr Kang said, "Evidence suggests that nitrate or nitrite is beneficial for blood circulation, "Dietary nitrate is predominately derived from green leafy vegetables, which contribute approximately 80 percent of nitrate intake.
"To our knowledge, dietary nitrate intake as a specific nutrient has not been evaluated therefore, we evalated it in a longer-than-25r year prospective study of 63,893 women and 41,094 men. "These findings could have impor tant implications if the association of higher f dietary nitrate and green leafy vegetable intake with a lower POAG risk is confirmed."
- Sumana
