In fact, it’s not just blue eyes, but any lighter colored eyes, including green, grey, hazel, and those which may have some brown in the middle but a ring of blue on the outside.
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The researchers found that European Americans with light-colored eyes had a higher rate of alcohol dependence than those with dark brown eyes.
Genes are responsible for about half the risk for alcoholism, with environmental factors responsible for the remainder, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism says.
Researchers said they still do not know the real reason behind the link. It revealed a statistically significant interaction between the genes for eye colour and the genes associated with ethanol dependency.
Other studies have hinted at a link into the correlation between eye color and problem drinking – notably a 2001 George State University study that involved a survey of more than 10,000 prisoners and roughly 1,800 free women. This specific gene, besides being connected to alcoholic tendencies, could also be pertaining to schizophrenia and also bipolar disorder.
The researchers examined an extensive database and filtered out the alcohol-dependent patients with European ancestry.
But the study’s authors, Arvis Sulovari and Dawei Li, both from the University of Vermont, don’t think that it is. The results suggest hopes of finding the roots of alcoholism, and potentially many other psychiatric illnesses.
Li wants to get into the relationship between the cultural background and genetic makeup, which is all part of his quest to find the mechanisms behind mental illness. “A large number is still missing, is still unknown”.
People with blue eyes tend to drink far too much.
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“What has fascinated me the most about this work has been investigating the interface between statistics, informatics and biology”, Sulovari said. “It’s an incredible opportunity to study genomics in the context of complex human diseases”.
