Giants of Science: Dr. Irwin Stone

"There have been quite a few papers published on reducing intraocular pressure with high oral doses of vitamin C." Dr. Andrew Saul (1)

Introduction
Stone was a renowned biochemist. He favored megavitamin treatment with high doses of vitamin C for a wide variety of diseases including glaucoma, cataracts, heart disease, cancer, stroke, etc.
Glaucoma
"Yet, in spite of significant advances in eye research, the incidence of blindness is increasing. Megascorbic therapy might one day help to reverse this trend." Dr. Stone (The Healing Factor, 1972)
What he meant by "megascorbic" is large doses (grams) of vitamin C. Sounds a lot like Linus Pauling, doesn't it? This is no coincidence. Pauling got some of his ideas from Stone. Unfortunately both Stone and Pauling are deceased. Their work is being carried on by Dr. Andrew Saul (1) of Canada.
More Recent Work on Glaucoma
At lot of work has been done since Stone's 1972 book. Much of this work has been confirmatory. Work by Pauling and by Hoffer have confirmed Stone. However, some work has implicated other factors including caffeine. Caffeine is considered to be adverse to glaucoma. There is also some work that has favored the use of marijuana.
Ref. 2 is an example of more recent work. This paper was written at the Department of Ophthalmology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, MA 02114, USA. Louis_Pasquale@meei.harvard.edu
The article is about open-angle glaucoma.
"Yet certain lifestyle activities increase IOP including playing high wind instruments, drinking coffee, engaging in certain yoga positions, wearing tight neckties, and lifting weights." Pasquale & Kang (2)
"A typical cup of coffee, the primary dietary source of caffeine, causes a 1−4 mm Hg rise in IOP that lasts for at least 90 minutes." Pasquale & Kang (2)
Refs. 3 & 4 detail the effects of caffeine.
Exercise
Exercise was found to lower the intraoptic pressure (5, 6). Refs. 6-8 reported similar findings.

"This study concludes that hard working is associated with physical fitness and physical fitness is associated with reduced resting IOP. It would seem reasonable at present not to discourage subjects who have ocular hypertension from exercise; perhaps, on the contrary, it should be encouraged to increase their physical fitness."

Qureshi IA, Wu XD, Xi XR, Yang J, Huang YB. (9)

Department of Physiology, Rawalpindi Medical College, Pakistan.

Oxidative Stress

Ref. 10 supports Stone because vitamin C is an antioxidant.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Ref. 11 supports the use of omega-3 fatty acids for glaucoma.

Conclusions

Although Dr. Stone did brilliant work, it does appear that caffeine, exercise, omega-3 fatty acids, and other factors influence glaucoma as well as vitamin C. Caffeine is a bad guy, but exercise and omega-3 fatty acids appear to be good guys. Vitamin C appears to be a good guy. The same thing is true of cardiovascular diseases and stroke. Cholesterol is a major factor in cardiovascular diseases and stroke. Body mass is also a factor. The electrolytes sodium and potassium are factors in hypertension. Sodium is a bad guy and potassium is usually a good guy. Potassium is antihypertensive and tends to protect against heart failure.

Thus I give Stone good grades for his time, but more recent work has implicated many other nutritional factors as well as vitamin C. This is also true in cancer.

References
1. www.doctoryourself.com.

2. J Glaucoma. 2009 Aug;18(6):423-8. Lifestyle, nutrition, and glaucoma. Pasquale LR, Kang JH.

3. Ophthalmology. 1989 May;96(5):624-6. The effect of caffeine on intraocular pressure in glaucoma patients. Higginbotham EJ, Kilimanjaro HA, Wilensky JT, Batenhorst RL, Hermann D.

4. Avisar R, Avisar E, Weinberger D. Effect of coffee consumption on intraocular pressure. Ann Pharmacother. 2002; 36 :992-5.

5. Harris A, Malinovsky VE, Cantor LB, et al. Isocapnia blocks exercise-induced reductions in ocular tension. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 1992; 33 :2229-32.

6. Martin B, Harris A, Hammel T, Malinovsky V. Mechanism of exercise-induced ocular hypotension. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 1999; 40 :1011-5.

7. Qureshi IA, Xi XR, Huang YB, Wu XD. Magnitude of decrease in intraocular pressure depends upon intensity of exercise. Korean J Ophthalmol. 1996; 10 :109-15.

8. Passo MS, Goldberg L, Elliot DL, Van Buskirk EM. Exercise training reduces intraocular pressure among subjects suspected of having glaucoma. Arch Ophthalmol. 1991; 109 :1096-8.

9. Qureshi IA, Wu XD, Xi XR, et al. Resting intraocular pressure of steel factory workers is related to their physical fitness. Ind Health. 1997; 35 :259-63.

10. Am J Med. 2003 Jun 1;114(8):638-46. Oxidative deoxyribonucleic acid damage in the eyes of glaucoma patients. Izzotti A, Saccà SC, Cartiglia C, De Flora S.

11. Nguyen CT, Bui BV, Sinclair AJ, Vingrys AJ. Dietary omega 3 fatty acids decrease intraocular pressure with age by increasing aqueous outflow. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2007; 48 :756-62.