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Rose Hip Juice for Glaucoma

May 31, 2011 | By Kay Rockwell
Rose Hip Juice for Glaucoma
Photo Credit BananaStock/BananaStock/Getty Images

The front section of your eye contains fluid called the aqueous humor, which provides nourishment to eye tissues. If you have too much aqueous fluid in your eye, you might have high eye pressure, which can damage your retina and cause permanent vision loss, a condition known as glaucoma. You might consider herbal supplements such as rose hip juice to reduce your eye pressure, but this supplement does not have any known benefit in reducing aqueous pressure.

Rose Hip Juice

After rose blooms fade, rose hips appear. These berry-like hips might range in color, but they often have a bright red or orange appearance. Rose hips offer a significant source of vitamin C and other nutrients, and drinking rose hip juice might provide an easy way to take in nutrients. Even though this nutrient-rich product might have health benefits such as relieving gastric problems or having diuretic properties, food and drinks such as rose hip juice do not have any known effect on eye pressure.

Study

Rose hips contain lycopene, an antioxidant that researchers studied at the Channing Laboratory at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital. In this 2003 study, these researchers evaluated lycopene and other antioxidants to determine if a connection exists between these antioxidants and the risk factors for having open-angle glaucoma. The study determined that antioxidants such as lycopene did not reduce the risks of developing this eye disease.

Treatment

Because rose hip juice does not have any known benefit in treating or preventing glaucoma, you should not stop taking prescribed medications to use this herbal product exclusively. Most glaucoma medications notoriously cause eye irritation and redness, but unless your doctor tells you to stop using the eyedrops, you should continue use to ensure that you do not have long periods of high pressures that could further damage your eye or eyes. If the side effects cause significant discomfort, talk to your doctor about alternative therapy options.

Considerations

You should not consume large quantities of the berries or juice because high doses of vitamins and minerals could interfere with treatments or medications you take for health conditions. Rose hips and rose-hip juice do not have any known, serious complications, but allergic reactions could occur.

References

Article reviewed by OmahaTyppo Last updated on: May 31, 2011

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