Blue eyes linked to alcoholism

Blue eyes linked to alcoholism


Some individuals may be more likely to experience alcohol dependence, and a recent discovery has pointed to a new possible indicator: eye color.

A study in the American Journal of Medical Genetics revealed that there is a direct link between eye color and alcohol dependence. By studying European Americans’ genes, researchers at the University of Vermont found that those with light-colored eyes, such as green, grey and blue, had a higher incidence of alcohol dependency compared to those with brown eyes.

Blue-eyed individuals had the strongest tendency toward alcohol dependency of all eye colors.

From a database of 10,000 people, the researchers focused on 1,263 European-Americans. They found that the same genetic components that determine eye color line up along the same chromosome as the gene related to excessive alcohol use. The researchers aren’t sure why these genetic components line up and want to conduct more research into the subject to find the answer.

One explanation for the link between alcoholism and blue eyes could be that darker-eyed people are more sensitive to alcohol than lighter-eyed people, according to a separate study from 1999.

To control for other factors that could be influencing the results, the researchers retested the data for age, sex and genetic ancestry.

They do caution that environmental factors, such as social or cultural attitudes, income level, upbringing and stress, can cause alcoholism as well as genetic factors.

Researchers are excited by this discovery because it could lead to finding the origin of alcoholism and other psychiatric illnesses. Understanding what causes these conditions could lead to better ways to treat them.

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