Last year was published a study by researchers at the University of Vermont in which they specify that people's eyes are an indicator of alcoholism, and is that as described in that work, people with blue eyes have a greater Tendency to dependency on alcohol than those who have dark eyes. But it is wrong to think that having blue eyes causes alcoholism, or vice versa; The authors discovered a strange correlation but did not provide any help in the diagnosis of this disease or the genetic understanding behind it.
In the study, published in the American Journal of Medical Genetics, researchers used a database of more than 10,000 patients from across the northeastern United States who included people who had been diagnosed with at least one psychiatric illness (Such as alcoholism). The researchers found that those of European origin, those with the clearest eye color were diagnosed with alcoholism more often than those with dark eyes.
Almost every disease we know has a genetic component, and alcoholism is no exception. Researchers are beginning to suspect certain genes that might be connected to various diseases, but it is not an easy task. The handful of genes that have been linked to alcoholism in the last 20 years "can only explain a small percentage of cases," explains study author Dawe Li. "A large number of genes that could be linked are still unknown," and who knows if this gene that could lead to alcoholism could also be linked to the one that determines eye color.
However, for most diseases, our genes are only a predisposition towards them, also determined by environmental factors. And for a disease like alcoholism, there are a large number of non-genetic factors that can influence how and why people drink, such as social or cultural attitudes, income level, education or stress. Thus, while eye color might be related to alcohol intake, no one is completely sure of the cause of this connection.
In the future, researchers hope to pursue more connections between genetic background and mental illness. But if you are now worried about the genes that "control" alcoholism, for now it is more logical to worry about the family history than the color of eyes.
Reference:
Popular Science
