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Heavy smoking damages vision

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Smoking more than 20 cigarettes in a day can damage your vision.

In a study conducted in Rutgers University, US, and published in the journal of Psychiatry Research revealed that consuming substances with neurotoxic chemicals can cause overall color vision loss.

The research conducted in 63 people who are heavy smokers and 71 non-smokers showed that the smokers had less ability to discriminate contrasts and colors compared to the non-smokers.

The participants aged between 25-45 years were asked to differentiate subtle difference in shadings and colors while seated 59 inches away from 19 inch cathode ray tube monitor.

The smokers displayed difficulty in differentiating red-green and blue-yellow color vision.

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According to Steven Silverstein, the Director of research at the university and the study’s co-author, cigarettes smoking is dangerous to the health as it decreases layers of brain and decreases activity in the area of the brain that processes vision.

“Our research shows that excessive use of cigarettes and affect visual discrimination, supporting the existence of overall deficits in visual processing with tobacco addiction,” said Mr Silverstein.

“Studies done before have showed that long-term smoking doubles the risk for age-related macular degeneration, a factor causing lens yellowing and inflammation,” he added.

He further suggested that smoking and nicotine harm the vascular system and also damage blood vessels and neurons in the retina.

Written by
Brenda Gamonde -

Brenda Gamonde is reporter with Business Today. Email: [email protected]

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