The researchers from the School of Medicine at the University of Tokyo proposed to treat this disease with the help of coffee.
Many people are familiar with the dry eye syndrome, which often happens in the elderly people. It makes them feel uncomfortable and really poisons people’s life. Dryness, itching, and pain in the eyes, photophobia, and fatigue are just the major symptoms of the disease.
It is known that caffeine stimulates the production of fluids, such as saliva and gastric juice, but it also stimulates tear glands. Armed with this knowledge, a team of Japanese scientists conducted an experiment, inviting 78 elderly people to participate. They did not suffer from high blood pressure, allergic reactions, the dry eye syndrome, glaucoma and other eye diseases. Six days prior to the experiment, they were asked not to take medicines and not to consume caffeine. Half of them were first offered to take pills that contained caffeine and then placebo. The other half of the participants first received placebo and then caffeine. The amount of tear fluid was measured 45 minutes after taking the pills. The results showed that the dry eye syndrome developed in only 13% of the participants, who had received caffeine, compared to 17% of those, who had been given placebo.
