I went to my ophthalmologist a few months ago because of a new set of floaters. The floaters are considered normal and I have no retinal tears etc.
When I reached out to his office about why he set me up for another appointment only6 months from that last appointment.
His office staff told me, it’s because I have blue eyes.
I mean I think my eyes are green but still.
So this opened a can of worms for me and I was surprised to learn a few things about light eyed people.
We are 9% more likely to develop type 1 than darker eyed people.
We are 12% more likely to get retinopathy, that includes with diabetes and without diabetes. Cataracts are 10% more likely in blue eyed people, which makes sense that more light is hitting our lenses. And cataracts are known for growing from UV exposure.
I’m 59 and no one in my life ever told me this. As it happens in my family everyone has brown eyes except me and my maternal grandfather. And I’m the only one with type 1. I know that’s not a big enough sample to make conclusions, but it’s clearly a risk factor.
Happy to know my daughter has brown eyes. She is the same age that I was when diagnosed.
There are other risk factors like being ectomorphic ( thin) like I was as a kid. But there was no direct link the way blue eyes seems to be.
This tells me that there is a strong genetic pathway for type 1 probably on the same gene or group of genes that blue eyes is contained.
I always knew that Northern Europeans had a higher prevalence of type 1 , but the truth is, if you only look at dark eyed people from Northern Europe, you see the same rates of type 1 as people in the rest of the world. So blue eyes are skewing the data even in Northern European countries.
I also read that all humans were blue eyed at one point, even Africans, and that has been shrinking over time, so maybe this blue eyed mutation is not something that is beneficial since it has a higher prevalence of certain diseases attached
I was today years old when I learned this. Is this common knowlwdge and I’m just hearing about it?
It’s said that blue is recessive, and I’m no expert on this, but anecdotally, wife and dad both have brown eyes so we figured our kids would too. Nope, even more than me, bluest of blue.
Sorry to hear that might mean elevated risk for certain eye concerns, but it’s not like you can control this
Both of my parents have brown eyes and I have blue/green. There re 2 genes that regulate eye color so it’s not as simple as once believed. My brother has brown eyes but his left eye has a blue spot. I have green eyes but there is a gold ring around my pupil.
It’s called hetero chromia but mostly my eyes look like a bright green
I think you can add macular degeneration to your list of eye conditions for which blue eyes are a risk factor.
Also, assuming your daughter’s been tested for antibodies and you’re not relying on brown eyes for reassurance.
No of course not. She was tested when she was 12 but the doctors said there is no point in testing her unless she starts having glucose issues, and she is almost 21, so making most decisions on her own.
Awesome. I have blue eyes. Now I know that I have to worry about more than retinopathy in my eyes! 
Well, I already go to an ophthalmologist every year.
Both of my parents and my brother have brown eyes. I believe that my blue eyes came from both of my grandfathers. They both died at relatively young ages (one before I was born and the other when I was about 5 years old) so I’m not sure what all health conditions they had. (They both died from smoking related diseases.)
I don’t think blue eyes in themselves are the only risk factor, but yes the cluster of Nordic genetic traits - pale skin, freckles, red or light colored hair, blue eys, lactose tolerant - is indeed clustered with T1.
I myself have brown eyes but am very pale, have freckles, and (long before it became grey) had bright red hair. And T1.
I have blue eyes, fair skin, blond hair and red beard (bald and white now) Alsatian and Rhineland mostly. No T1 history in my family and I’m T2. In fact no history of any type diabetes in my family. My joke is. I got it from my father in law 
Strangely enough I had a mix of red hair and brown hair and I have a red beard, my red head hair fell out but my dark hair held on. My beard is now nearly white.
But my eyes are still green or blue. With a gold center near my pupils.
Blue eyes are definitely Nordic traits, but there was a study done on Mediterranean people with blue eyes and they also had high rates of type 1.
It was also determined that all people with blue eyes are related to one person who lived only 5000 years ago.
70 percent of Americans were blue eyed when the revolutionary war happened ( non Native American of course) now it’s 12 percent
Yes I know most of the European invaders were from Northern Europe, but still it’s a huge shift in a short 250 years
A HS friend had that as well. When Joe was losing his temper that gold would flare. I never noticed that in anyone since.
I’ve never heard this either. Like you I have eyes that look green to me but are often called blue by others. I was diagnosed with T1 at age 23. When I was 48 I was diagnosed with macular degeneration and have never had any retinopathy. To make a long story short I started getting treatment at the University of Michigan’s Kellogg Eye Center. They think I have a genetic condition that can cause T1, vision loss and hearing loss. My mom suffered extreme hearing loss in her mid-twenties. They have awareness of this but no fix for it. I’m so glad genetic research and knowledge is expanding. There’s hope on the horizon!
I was also diagnosed with macular degeneration but not retinopathy when I was 70. Retinopathy was always on my radar, not macular degeneration. Both conditions threaten eyesight.
There are several studies in different populations that point to blue eyes being related to type 1. But there was not a cause and effect proven. Blue eyes are a risk factor for type 1.
Probably it is a faulty gene that is on the same gene as blue eyes.
However I also have had life long tinnitus, dx before I was 5, and I’ve learned to ignore it, doc tells me it could lead to hearing loss at some point.
I hadn’t thought those two were related but seems like we don’t know till we know
There is an article in a recent Scientific American ([Surprising Ways That Sunlight Might Heal Autoimmune Diseases | Scientific American](https://Can Sunlight Cure Disease?)) that reports a statistical linkage between longitude and several autoimmune diseases (particularly muscular sclerosis, but also type 1). Living further from the equator seems to increase rates of both. This is written by a journalist rather than a scientist, but it does include some of the data. But correlation is not causation. The observed link between blue eyes and diabetes reported elsewhere might simply be that both are correlated to the same something else (UV exposure?).
Should my blue eyes be spending more time outside in the Oregon sunshine and less time worrying about sunscreen?
My ancestors has less sun exposure, but I live in LosAngeles and was here when I was diagnosed.
Interesting. I’ll bring it up to my eye doc. I would appreciate having my eyes examined every 6 months.
I think it’s just a coincidence because both traits were/are very comimon in the same geographic region, rather than having any direct causal relationship.
While T1 has developed independently all around the world, it is definitely most common amongst those with Northern European ancestry. Finland has the highest per capita rate.
Blue eyes are also most common in those with Northern European ancestry. There’s speculation that everyone with blue eyes has a common ancestor that lived in the Black Sea region something like 10,000 years ago and their descendents moved north during the neolithic northern expansion. Hence, putting both genetic traits in the same region to mingle. It’s just genetic lottery if you get both.
I’m another one of those weird ones. When I look in the mirror, they look green to me, but I’ve been told they’re blue, and even grey, by others. I discovered during Covid that there’s a whole Reddit group devoted to people asking others what color their eyes are! Apparently, it’s a common problem, and I was really surprised how many votes there were for blue when I thought they looked green. I did not post my own for public scrutiny.