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Genetic study leads to an intriguing question: Do blue eyes make you a drinker?

 
comment on a study that links blue eyes to heavier drinking at The Getaway bar in St. Petersburg. [KATHLEEN MCGRORY | Times]
comment on a study that links blue eyes to heavier drinking at The Getaway bar in St. Petersburg. [KATHLEEN MCGRORY | Times]
Published July 4, 2015

As she polished off a pina colada at a St. Petersburg tiki bar called the Getaway, Shay Anthony pondered whether her striking blue-green eyes had anything to do with her social drinking habits.

"It's a bizarre question," she said, glancing at her hazel-eyed boyfriend, Brandon Baker. "I've never really thought about it."

She paused.

"So I have an excuse if I'm an alcoholic?"

The question arose on the heels of a widely read study suggesting a link between eye color and alcohol dependence. Its conversation-sparking conclusion: People with baby blues are more likely to be excessive drinkers than people with darker eyes.

The study, first published in this month's American Journal of Medical Genetics, lit up social media this week, surprising the University of Vermont professor who authored it.

"We thought in academia, other geneticists may be interested," said Dawei Li, a microbiology and molecular genetics professor. "I never thought about the general public."

The findings were actually kind of an accident.

Li and his fellow researchers had been using the genetic profiles from 1,263 European-American people to explore whether antisocial personality disorder and depression were associated with alcohol dependence. That's when they noticed eye color was a signal, too.

At first, the team suspected an error.

"There was no mistake," Li said. "We repeated the analysis in different ways, and the link was still there."

The research didn't address causality or determine the reason for the link.

Li hopes to tackle that question next.

"Is it because of genetics?" he mused. "Do (the two traits) share some genetic pathway or some protein? Or is it because of cultural or environmental factors, or a mix of the two things?"

Here's one clue: Li observed that one eye-color gene and several genes linked to alcohol dependence are "physically located on the same chromosome on the human genome," he said.

Finding an answer, he said, could help researchers determine new risk factors for alcoholism.

"This tells us that when we study addiction and alcohol dependence, we need to broaden our view, and not only focus on factors that are already known," he said. "There are other factors that are not known."

Patrons enjoying the live music at the Getaway on Thursday night had their own theories about the link.

"I'm Irish," said Dotty Tarbox, a 67-year-old retiree from Clearwater who was nursing a plastic cup of cabernet sauvignon. "We have light eyes, and we, as is well-documented, are good at drinking."

Her green-eyed husband, David, was quick to interject.

"I wouldn't be surprised if it had to do with the long winters," he posited. "Winters are longer up North, and the eyes are lighter up North."

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Pete Krull, who was sipping a Bud Light at the bar, had stumbled on an article about Li's study earlier in the day. The St. Petersburg resident said he hadn't expected eye color and alcohol dependence to be related, but conceded it might be possible.

"I don't know that many alcoholics or blue-eyed people," he said.

A few miles away, the man behind the bar at the St. Petersburg World of Beer shrugged off the study.

"I have light eyes and I come from a family of light-eyed heavy drinkers," Kyle Rogers said, flashing his baby blues. "But I don't see any difference in the people I serve. If you are ordering a drink, I'm happy to help."

Contact Kathleen McGrory at kmcgrory@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8330. Follow @kmcgrory.