No difference in the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration Research has shown that lighter iris colors are associated with:Ī higher risk of ocular uveal melanoma (a type of eye cancer) Melanin in the iris appears to help protect the back of the eye ( retina) from damage caused by the UV radiation that comes from the sun.īecause blue eyes contain less melanin than most other eye colors, they may be more at risk of certain damage. SEE RELATED: How color contact lenses can make anyone’s eyes blue 5. This color transition can take anywhere from a few months to three years to run its course. It’s completely normal to see blue become brown, hazel, or even green as they get a little older. So don’t be concerned if your child begins to lose their baby-blue eye color. This is why many babies are born with blue eyes, only to have their eye color change as their irises develop more melanin throughout early childhood. Human eyes don’t have their full amount of melanin pigment at birth. Blue eyes at birth doesn’t mean blue eyes for life Both parents may have icy blue eyes, but that’s no guarantee their child’s eyes will even be blue at all. In other words, it’s impossible to know for sure if your children will have blue eyes - or any other color. In addition to genetics, the anatomic structure of the iris can also affect eye color to some degree. Geneticists now know that as many as 16 different genes influence eye color to some degree - far from the one or two genes that were once believed to determine iris hue. Common knowledge said that you could predict a child’s eye color if you knew the color of their parents’ eyes, and possibly the color of their grandparents’ eyes. You can’t predict if a child will have blue eyesĪt one time, it was believed that eye color, blue eyes included, was a simple genetic trait. SEE RELATED: Is blue the rarest eye color? 3. Eyes only appear to be these colors because of the way light strikes the layers of the iris and reflects back toward the viewer. Brown eyes have the highest amount of melanin in the iris, and blue eyes have the least.īrown melanin is the only pigment that exists in the eye there is no pigment for hazel or green - or blue. The color of our eyes depends on how much melanin is present in the iris. Schedule an appointment with a local eye doctor today!īlue eye color is determined by melanin, and melanin is actually brown by nature. So keep in mind, if you want to protect and preserve those baby blues, you need to keep up with routine eye exams. Plus, although this cancer is extremely rare, light-eyed folks are also more susceptible to sun damage from exposure to UV rays. While it's a very rare type of cancer, people with blue eyes are at higher risk of developing ocular uveal melanoma. “They have all inherited the same switch at exactly the same spot in their DNA.” “From this we can conclude that all blue-eyed individuals are linked to the same ancestor,” said Eiberg. In addition to having significantly less melanin in their irises than people with brown eyes, hazel eyes or green eyes, blue-eyed individuals don’t have very much variation in the part of their DNA responsible for melanin production.īrown-eyed individuals, on the other hand, have a lot more variation. This genetic switch limits how much melanin is produced in the iris - effectively “diluting” dark brown eyes to a shade of light eyes, like blue. Melanin is also responsible for the color of our skin, eyes and hair. “But a genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a ‘switch,’ which literally turned off the ability to produce brown eyes.”Įye color depends on how much of a pigment called melanin lives in the iris of the eye. “Originally, we all had brown eyes,” said Hans Eiberg, associate professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the university. That little DNA blip was blue eye color, according to researchers at the University of Copenhagen.Īs far as researchers can tell, this was the first blue-eyed person, and everyone who has blue eyes today is a (very) distant relative of this ancient human. Everyone with blue eyes is relatedīetween 6,000 and 10,000 years ago, a baby was born in Europe with a harmless genetic mutation. Rather than including a blue pigment, they actually just lack the pigment that makes eyes brown. Worldwide, fewer than 9% of people have blue eyes. About half as many Americans have blue eyes as brown eyes.
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