Finally! I know now why I am a drunk! Wait for it.......I have blue eyes! Yes!
A new piece of "research" is out, that "links" the colour of your eyes to the probability of whether or not you will become an alcoholic.
At least that's the news headline (article here).
The study looked at more than 10,000 people who were already diagnosed with a form of mental illness, filtered out all those who had a dependency on alcohol - and bingo! Most of them had blue eyes.
Now, of course we don't have the full published study, so I have no idea what hypothesis they actually started with, or the assumptions they made (what "clinical' definition of alcohol dependency did they use?), or indeed, who was paying for the research - just the headline and the message out there that if you have blue eyes, you are more likely to abuse alcohol.
How handy for the alcohol industry! One more piece of research that they can wave at us and say "Look! It's not our fault! It's not the targeted advertising, or the lack of regulation, or the low price or availability of alcohol, or the fact that the pubs and liquor stores are open 24/7......it's the colour of your eyes!!"
Don't misunderstand me, I'm not blaming the industry for the decades of my wine drinking....but they sure made it easy for me, and I certainly contributed to the shareholder's annual dividend cheque.
In the same way, the tobacco industry didn't force people to smoke - but they made it seem sexy and appealing, and NORMAL to consume a drug that is addictive, and would eventually kill them....and that is exactly what the alcohol industry is being allowed to do today.
And this type of research that correlates eye colour to alcohol abuse doesn't help. The scientists admit that they don't know or can't find a causal link - just a correlation in a tiny sample of people.
If it was harder to get hold of wine, or more expensive, or if there were more of a stigma around drinking wine alone, or at lunchtime, or during the week....would I have still abused alcohol? I can't answer that, I don't know.
But I can tell you with absolute certainty.....it has nothing to do with the colour of my eyes.
Have a great weekend, and Happy 4th July to my lovely neighbours to the south xx
I think this just means it's cheaper to be a brown-eyed drinker (me) because it takes less wine to get me wasted. Good to know! Haha!
ReplyDeleteRegarding availability, I found an article about Prohibition in the US (1920-1933) that says initially alcohol consumption dropped about 30% at the beginning, but by the end was nearly back up to pre-Prohibition levels (presumably as people who wanted to drink found it easier to get around the law.)
However, to test the theory let's see if the US states that have recently legalized pot (OR,WA,AK,CO) see an increase in stoner population!
Ha ha, it will be interesting to follow!
DeleteI have blue eyes ... mystery solved then eh!!
ReplyDelete