We all know that smoking is a dreadful habit. It not only deteriorates the health, in far too many ways, of the person who smokes, but also the people who are present around that person as well. In one of the research studies carried out in Sweden, it was found the people who smoke are at a higher risk of getting cataract than those who don’t. In other words, smoking and cataracts go hand-in-hand.

What was the research all about?

As part of the research, close to 45,000 men from the country were evaluated for the rise of cataract diseases. It was found that men who had given up smoking show a drop in cataract development as compared to men who continued to smoke. As a matter of fact, one of the results of this research indicated that over the course of twenty years the chances of these men developing cataract were reduced by almost half.

Here are some of the numbers from the research –

– Compared to men who never smoke, the ones who were smoking more than 15 cigarettes a day show 42% chances of cataract risk.

– Men who had quit smoking 20 years or before had only 21% risk of developing cataract.

– And, at the same time for men who were lighter smokers the chances of developing cataract were even less.

All these points clearly indicate that there is a direct link between smoking and the premature onset of cataracts!

While there are so many health programs and awareness initiatives being run to educate people about smoking and its ill-effects like cancer, hypertension, and other heart diseases, there is not much awareness about the serious impacts this habit can have on your eyesight in old age.

However, one of the research studies in the past had shown that when similar studies were carried out on female counterparts there were no significant differences in the risk of cataract development between women who smoked and had given up a decade back versus those who smoked the same number of cigarettes and had given up 20 years earlier.

So it is quite evident that the impact of smoking and development of cataracts is much higher in the case of men as compared to women. This in no way means that we can take the problem of smoking causing cataracts lightly.

Make people aware

Like mentioned earlier, there are not many awareness programs that tackle the impact of smoking on the development of cataracts in a people who smoke, especially men. We can change that! It is time that we all join hands and spread awareness about the same.

Thanks to people like Dr. John Haines, who has been working selflessly towards eradicating conditions like cataracts and other eye diseases, which are prevalent in developing and under-developed countries, a change can be seen. But, there is a lot that needs to be done. And, people like him need support from people like you. It is only by coming together that we can fight these dreadful conditions, which if taken care of, can be easily eradicated from global society.

So, are you ready to contribute? Are you ready to bring the change?