Could Your Eye Color Make You More Susceptible to Alcohol Dependence?

According to The Huffington Post, a new study from the University of Vermont suggests people with light colored eyes may have an increased chance in becoming dependent on alcohol. Researchers defined light colored eyes as blue, green, or gray, or with brown at the center. The study characterized alcohol dependence utilizing the criteria from the DSM-IV, which defines alcohol dependence as a maladaptive pattern (a trait in one which is more harmful to life than it is beneficial) of alcohol use, leading to clinically significant impairment or distress.

Researchers found of the sample of 1,263 European-American research participants, those with light colored eyes have a higher prevalence of alcohol dependence in comparison to those with dark eyes. According to the study, people with blue eyes had the highest rates of alcohol dependence.

The study also discovered a “statistically significant” interaction between genes for eye color and those associated with alcohol dependence. A genetic interaction is characterized by a phenomenon where the effects of one gene are modified by one or various other genes, according to Nature.com.

Researcher Dawei Li told Huffington Post that the next step in elucidating the connection between eye color and alcohol use disorders would be to attempt replicating the results from the study. If Li and his team of researchers find a correlation in future experiments, Li says the researchers will then try to determine whether the link between eye color and alcohol dependence is strictly caused by genetics, or if cultural factors have an influence on the phenomena.

Li told the Huffington Post he and his team are still in question of what drives the link between eye color and alcohol dependence. However, Arvis Sulovari, a Ph.D. student on Li’s research team said in a release that the research “Suggests an intriguing possibility — that eye color can be useful in the clinic for alcohol dependence diagnosis.”

According to Huffington Post, these findings are in line with a similar study published by Georgia State University in 2000- which found light eye colored people “consumed significantly more alcohol” in comparison to their dark-eyed peers.

 

What do your eyes say about you?

 

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The post Could Your Eye Color Make You More Susceptible to Alcohol Dependence? appeared first on Harbor Village Florida.

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