Blue eyes may be attractive, but this color is linked to an increased risk for alcoholism. Before you ask, how in God’s name are the two linked, let’s talk about the association.

Two studies, one recently and another published in 2000, revealed that those individuals with lighter colored eyes, defined as blue, hazel or light brown, appear to drink more and have a greater risk to become alcoholics than their darker eye colored compatriots.Of the three colors, blue has the strongest link.

For example, blue eyed gals consumed on the average 5.71 drinks per month compared with 4.91 for darker eye colored females. And the same held true with males.

Light eyes are associated not only with alcoholism, but also with increased competitiveness and decreased pain tolerance. Blue eyed hunks may look strong , but underneath they might just be wimps.

It turns out one of the genes for alcoholism is located near the gene for lighter eye color which explains why the two are associated. You might ask, who cares? I mean, why did some researchers, probably with taxpayer money as well, even do such a study?

Well, for those of us with lighter eyes, we now should be more careful about our alcohol consumption ( and perhaps also with ramping up our already competitive nature). Also, if a blood test were available to screen for alcoholism risk, this test would be best ordered on higher risk patients such as those with lighter eyes.