Meditating for an hour a day helps to ward off major cause of blindness

♦ Meditation could prevent, or slow down, one of the most common causes of blindness, a study suggests.

Glaucoma affects 500,000 people in Britain and occurs when a build-up of pressure in the eye compresses the optic nerve. Until now, scientists had not considered that the pressure might be caused by stress.

When scientists asked 45 glaucoma patients to try mindfulness meditation for an hour a day for three weeks they discovered that the pressure in their eyes lowered by 25 per cent compared with patients who stuck to eye drops.

Lowering of eye pressure is the only proven therapy for glaucoma and is normally achieved through eye drops, laser therapy or surgery.

Dr Bernhard Sabel, from the Institute of Medical Psychology, University of Magdeburg, Germany, said: “The study suggests that mental stress may be one of the main causal factors for glaucoma, and using this ancient meditation technique to reduce stress is a powerful tool to treat the patient as a whole and not just the eye, a holistic approach to manage the disease and also improve overall patient well-being.”

The research was published in the Journal of Glaucoma.