WINE MIGHT LOWER RISK OF BLINDING DISEASE

NEW YORK -- Drinking moderate amounts of wine might lower the risk of an
eye disease that's a leading cause of severe vision loss and blindness in
the elderly.

In a large study of people ages 45 to 74, researchers found that wine
drinking was associated with lower rates of age-related macular degeneration.

The disorder, which impairs sight in about 1.7 million Americans over 65,
robs people of their sharp central vision needed for activities such as
reading and driving.

The study found the lowest risk in people who reported having only about
one drink of wine a month, but because of faulty recall that could really
be two or three drinks, said Dr. Thomas Obisesan, chief of the geriatrics
section at the Howard University Hospital in Washington.

Beer and liquor showed no significant effect on the risk of the disorder.

Obisesan and other researchers report the study in the January issue of the
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Because of how the study was designed, it can't actually prove that wine
consumption lowered the risk of the eye disease. And it's not clear how
wine would reduce the risk of the disorder, researchers said.

Prior studies have concluded that moderate drinking reduces the risk of
heart disease.

For the new work, researchers examined data from 3,072 participants in a
huge federal study that was done in the 1970s. The participants had an eye
exam as part of that study, and 184 had the eye disease.