Posted by myco on April 11, 2009, at 1:38:06
In reply to Re: depression and alcohol--is my pdoc right? » garnet71, posted by Deneb on April 11, 2009, at 1:33:08
It not as intense as that sounds really....my chinese,korean and japanese friends...by majority....will get a lil red faced from drinking. That being said...a couple korean guys I know could drink many of us under the table easily lol. I wouldnt say its not cultural...asian cultures do drink quite a bit.
> I couldn't find out the source for this, but I found this on some blog. No source, so I don't know how accurate this info is, but it is interesting.
>
> http://madminerva.blog-city.com/asian_alcohol_intolerance.htm
>
> Roughly half of all people of east-Asian descent (including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) lack an enzyme necessary for the efficient metabolism of alcohol. For readers who like biology stuff, this enzyme is known as the low-Km aldehyde dehydrogenase isoenzyme, or in short, ADH. The absence of this enzyme is the culprit for your flushed cheeks and feelings of sickness in response to alcohol use. Without this enzyme, the byproduct of alcohol (the toxic aldehyde dehydrogenase) cannot be removed from the bloodstream nearly as well as it is in people who do have the enzyme. The aldehyde accumulates in a person's system as a result because it cannot be broken down as quickly.
>
> A person with this condition is likely to experience toxic effects such as flushing, rapid heartbeat, headache, nausea, drowsiness, swelling and skin itchiness. In addition, it is easier to get drunk upon consumption of even just a few alcoholic beverages.
>
> While this condition can be seen as an inconvenience, epidemiological studies have shown that because of these adverse side effects, people of Asian descent tend to consume less alcohol, and therefore rates of alcohol use and incidence of alcoholism are lower than those of other ethnic groups.
poster:myco
thread:889629
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090408/msgs/889906.html