An individual's eye color could predict health problems later in life, a recent study suggests.
Eye color may be linked to alcohol dependence, according to a new research.People with light colored eyes including brown, blue, green and grey have a greater chance of becoming alcoholics as compared to those with dark brown eyes, according to a unique new study by genetic researchers at the University of Vermont, The Huffington Post noted.
Arvis Sulovari, a doctoral student in cellular, molecular and biological sciences said in a statement, "This suggests an intriguing possibility -- that eye color can be useful in the clinic for alcohol dependence diagnosis."
For the study, Researchers collected and analyzed data from over 1,000 alcohol dependent patients with European ancestry. Within this sample, researchers found that people with blue eyes had the strongest tendency for alcohol dependence.
The study outlines the genetic components that determine the color of an individual's eye and shows that they line up along the same chromosome as the genes related to excessive alcohol use.
Sulovari said, "What has fascinated me the most about this work has been investigating the interface between statistics, informatics and biology.
It's an incredible opportunity to study genomics in the context of complex human diseases," Sulovari added.
"We still don't know the reason," molecular and biological sciences, and Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Dawei Li, Ph.D.
Li, who has studied psychiatric genetics for a decade came to the University of Vermont in 2012. During that time, he has worked with physicians as well as scientists throughout the Northeast who have collaborated to build a clinical and genetic database of over 10,000 individuals, mostly African Americans and European Americans, diagnosed with at least one psychiatric illness.
Many have multiple diagnoses of diseases, such as depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder along with addiction and alcohol or drug dependence, ScienceDaily noted.
"These are complex disorders," Li says. "There are many genes, and there are many environmental triggers."
Sulovari and Li retested their analysis three times after noticing the eye-color connection. They arranged and rearranged the groups to compare age, gender and different ethnic or geographic backgrounds including southern and northern parts of the continent.
According to another report from Newser, a 2000 study arrived at a similar conclusion. While women with darker-colored eyes averaged 4.91 drinks in the last month, light-eyed females' average was 5.78.
