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Editors Selection IGR 11-4

Risk Factors: Running reduces glaucoma risk

Comment by Henry Jampel on:

24571 Relationship of incident glaucoma versus physical activity and fitness in male runners, Williams PT, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 2009; 41: 1566-1572

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Glaucoma patients frequently ask their physicians if there is anything they can do to help lower their intraocular pressure. We have known for at least a couple of decades that regular exercise can lower the intraocular pressure of sedentary individuals without glaucoma. The study by Williams (1748) of a cohort of young, male, mainly Caucasian runners provides further evidence that physical exercise may reduce the likelihood of developing glaucoma. The author followed almost 30,000 runners for an average of seven years, with 200 cases of incident glaucoma. Faster times for running ten kilometers, and greater distances run per week, were inversely related to the development of glaucoma. The greatest strength of the study was the large number of individuals followed over an extended period of time. However, there are limitations to the study that mandate that the results be interpreted with caution. Most importantly, the diagnosis of glaucoma was patient-reported, without any verification or confirmation by medical record review.

The benefit of distance is only manifest in the group running at least 25 miles per week

Secondly, the amount of exercise and degree of physical fitness was much greater than would be found in a population at risk for glaucoma. For example, the beneficial effect of speed does not become apparent until runners can finish a ten-kilometer run in under 48 minutes (under eight minutes per mile), and the benefit of distance is only manifest in the group running at least 25 miles per week. Furthermore, the cohort was also much younger, with a mean age of around 45 years than the population at risk for glaucoma. The results cannot be extrapolated to older individuals, woman, and non-Caucasians. Nevertheless, the results of this study should stimulate further research into exercise and other lifestyle modifications that can reduce the incidence of glaucoma.

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