Drinking wine daily in low to moderate amounts may help prevent cataracts, a study from February 2021 has found. Conducted at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and University College London, the study analyzed data from 490,000 volunteers. The participants who consumed low to moderate amounts of alcohol, particularly wine, on a daily basis were less likely to need cataract surgery.*

Cataracts and surgery

Cataracts occur when proteins in the lens of your eye break down and turn the lens cloudy. Objects will look blurry and colors less vivid. Cataracts become more common with increased age, and the typical treatment is surgery, in which the cataract is removed and replaced with a clear new lens.

How is moderate drinking defined?

For the purpose of the study, moderate drinking was defined as approximately 6.5 glasses of wine per week. Participants who consumed more than the recommended daily amount were 6% more likely to require cataract surgery. 

What’s the connection between wine and eye health?

“Cataract development may be due to gradual damage from oxidative stress during aging,” explained Sharon Chua, M.D., the study’s lead author. “The fact that our findings were particularly evident in wine drinkers may suggest a protective role of polyphenol antioxidants, which are especially abundant in red wine.”

Chua’s fellow researcher, Anthony Khawaja, M.D., added that the cataract-preventive benefits of alcohol should not be viewed in isolation. “It could be that alcohol drinkers have other behaviors that are protective against cataracts,” he said. “We did aim to control for those factors, but it is never possible to fully account for them in these types of studies.”

How to proceed

Despite the study’s eye-healthy findings, it’s important to remember that regular alcohol consumption is also linked to a variety of serious chronic health conditions, including:

• Heart disease 
• Diabetes 
• Cancer

This study is not a recommendation for excessive drinking or dramatic lifestyle changes.

*Hazanchuk, V. (2021, Mar. 31). Casual Wine Drinkers Less Likely to Get Cataracts. American Academy of Ophthalmology. https://www.aao.org/eye-health/news/casual-wine-drinkers-less-likely-to-get-cataracts 

Any sources from outside of Prevent Blindness do not imply an endorsement from Prevent Blindness. The contents of the material used are the responsibility of the authoring organization, Responsum Health.