Is it true that blue eyes lead to faster macular degeneration?

[Flying Purple People Eater]

This is probably a pretty stupid question and shouldn't be in science, but I was arguing with a black supremacist on the net (purely accidental - it's not like I have that much time on my hands to spare), and they kept going on about these studies about connections between having lighter eye pigments and myopia (don't exactly know what for - apparently it was a talking point for superiority or something). Apparently macular degeneration is most prevalent in Europe where green and blue eyes are most common in the population.

Now I've just brushed this off as bullshit, and haven't found any really credible studies on the internet to support such a claim, but it still irks me and I started worrying about the state of my eyesight (which is yellow-green) and all this other stuff. I'd go to an optometrist but I don't know of any in my area.

So am I just being paranoid, or is it true that you are more at risk of having eyesight decay with lighter eyes?

[Rafiq]

I don't know, maybe if you live in an environment where the impact of sun rays is more significant?

[GiantMonkeyMan]

I went on the wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macular_degeneration#Causes_and_risk_factors) about macular degeneration because I didn't even know what it was and there's literally a map that shows that Europe actually has a low level of signs of the condition. There is a bit which says that race is a factor in the numbers of those with the condition but if Europe has comparatively low numbers in comparison to African countries then it's far more likely that environmental/societal factors impact the condition such as poverty/malnutrition etc brought on by capitalism essentially.

[Full Metal Bolshevik]

It might be true but so what?

Races are indeed different, in medicine you can actually discriminate between races, because treatments can be different for different races.

Take glaucoma for example, much more common in Africa, according to this (http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/22490.aspx) it might be because they have more oxygen in their eyes.

[Red Commissar]

For my part I've never heard of anything indicating a connection between eye color and a condition like macular degeneration. Wikipedia says that diagnosis rates of myopia on the other hand are less prevalent among Africans relative to other groups, at least according to this article it sources

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1123161/


Additional evidence supporting the role of genetics in the development of myopia includes the wide variability of the prevalence of myopia in different ethnic groups. The prevalence of myopia in Asia is as high as 70-90%, in Europe and America 30-40%, and in Africa 10-20%. But as to how you'd go and say that ties in to eye color, that's a stretch.

Eye color doesn't really do much when it comes down to UV radiation and other things that wear down on your eyes over time.

[Psycho P and the Freight Train]

Ehh, anyone who labels themselves as a racial supremacist should have their claims taken with a big-ass grain of salt. It could be true, because races are physically different in many aspects. But, if it is true, it really doesn't matter. If you get glaucoma, smoke weed. I'm being serious, too.