Red Face When Drinking

Article found in The New Year Times
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
by Nicholas Bakalar

People whose face turn red when they drink alcohol may be facing more than embarrassment. The flushing may indicate an increase risk for a deadly throat cancer, researchers report.

The flushing response, which may be accompanied by nausea and a rapid heartbeat, is caused mainly by an inherited deficient in an enzyme called ALDH2, a trait shared by more than a third of people of East Asian ancestry - Japanese, Chinese or Koreans. As little as half a bottle of beer can trigger the reaction.

The deficiency results in problems in metabolizing alcohol, leading to an accumulation of toxin called acetaldehyde in the body.

People with two copies of the gene responsible have such unpleasant reactions that they are unable to consume large amounts of alcohol. This aversion actually protects them against the increase risk for cancer.

But those with only one copy can develop a tolerance to acetadehyde and become heavy drinkers.

"What we're trying to do here is raise awareness of the risk factor among doctors and their ALDH2-deficient patients," said Philip J. Brooks, an investigator with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and an author of the report ecently published in the PLoS Medicine. "It's a pretty serious risk."

The malignancy, called squamous cell esophageal cancer, is also caused by smoking and can be treated with surgery, by survival rates are low.