test_doc.txt

docno: LA091189-0070
internal id: 90300
date: September 11, 1989
headline: IN BRIEF: SCIENCE / MEDICINE; CATARACTS LINKED TO SMOKING
document length: 171

raw document:
<DOC>
<DOCNO> LA091189-0070 </DOCNO>
<DOCID> 105894 </DOCID>
<DATE>
<P>
September 11, 1989, Monday, Home Edition 
</P>
</DATE>
<SECTION>
<P>
Metro; Part 2; Page 3; Column 5; Metro Desk 
</P>
</SECTION>
<LENGTH>
<P>
160 words 
</P>
</LENGTH>
<HEADLINE>
<P>
IN BRIEF: SCIENCE / MEDICINE; 
</P>
<P>
CATARACTS LINKED TO SMOKING 
</P>
</HEADLINE>
<BYLINE>
<P>
By From staff and wire reports 
</P>
</BYLINE>
<TEXT>
<P>
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute have found that men who 
quit smoking 10 or more years ago have half the risk of smokers of developing 
the most common type of cataracts, a condition in which the lens of the eye 
becomes cloudy and later opaque when proteins inside the cells of the eye's 
lens undergo structural change. By age 70, most people have some evidence of 
nuclear cataracts, which form in the center of the lens. 
</P>
<P>
"The mechanism by which smoking might damage the lens nucleus is unclear," said 
Dr. Sheila K. West, the study's principal investigator. "Among the 
possibilities is the damage from toxic byproducts in cigarette smoke. The 
reduced cataract risk among the men who stopped smoking suggests that damage to 
the lens may be reversible." 
</P>
<P>
In the past, cataracts have been related solely to aging, and most 
ophthalmologists believed that nothing could be done to alter the cataract's 
course. From staff and wire reports 
</P>
</TEXT>
<TYPE>
<P>
Brief; Column 
</P>
</TYPE>
<SUBJECT>
<P>
CATARACTS; SMOKING; EYESIGHT; HEALTH HAZARDS; MEDICAL RESEARCH 
</P>
</SUBJECT>
</DOC>