Posted by Isidore Goodfellow in Health & Fitness | 0 Comments
7 Things Your Eye Color Tells You About Your Health
Our eyes may be not only for seeing, discovering our outside world, but also the mirror of our health conditions. It is no secret for anyone that the red in the white part of your eye may be a sign of allergic reaction. The yellow color in the white part of your eye may be alerting you about liver problems.
(Photo by Science Photo Library/Gety Images)A fogginess appearing over the pupil of the eye is a common sign of cataracts, a clouding of the vision common with aging. And people with dark eyes are at greater risk: A 2000 study published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology found that dark-eyed people had a 1.5 to 2.5 times greater risk of cataracts. Protecting your eyes from ultraviolet rays is one of the crucial steps of cataract prevention for anyone, but the researchers recommend dark-eyed sunbathers take particular caution. (Wearing sunnies and a hat with a brim is a good place to start!)
2. Vitiligo is less common among blue-eyed people.
A 2012 review of vitiligo research published in Nature found the autoimmune disease, which causes the loss of skin color in blotches, was less common in people with blue eyes. Of the nearly 3,000 vitiligo patients—who were all Caucasian—involved in the research, 27% had blue eyes, 30% had green or hazel eyes, and 43% had brown eyes, whereas the typical breakdown of eye color among Caucasians is 52% blue, 22% green or hazel, and 27% brown.
The researchers discovered that variations in two particular genes, TYR and OCA2, which play a role in blue eye color, also decrease risk for vitiligo, says study author Richard A. Spritz, MD, director of the genomics programs at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
3. Melanoma is more common in people with blue eyes.
From a genetic standpoint, “melanoma and vitiligo look like they’re opposites,” Spritz says. “The same variations we saw as protective for vitiligo increased the risk for melanoma.” One theory as to why: vitiligo is an autoimmune disease, meaning our natural immune response mistakenly attacks our own bodies. Over-activity of that response could be what makes brown eyed people more susceptible to vitiligo—and what fights off melanoma, he says. The exact relationship is unknown, but the genes that protect against vitiligo, those that protect against melanoma, and those that simply dictate the amount and type of pigment you’re given all seem to be intertwined, he says.
4. People with dark eyes may be more sensitive to alcohol.
If your eyes are black or brown, you may drink less than your blue- or green-eyed friends, according to a 2001 study published in Personality and Individual Differences. The researchers found higher self-reported alcohol use among women with light eyes as well as more frequent alcohol abuse among a group of light-eyed prisoners who they studied. They hypothesized that dark-eyed folks may be more sensitive to alcohol and other drugs in general, which may lead them to drink less to achieve the desired effects.