'Asian Flush' Spurs Quest for Cures
Doctors Urge Caution
For Those Who May Suffer
From Drinking Condition
By LORETTA CHAO
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
August 16, 2005; Page D6
Han Fang Lim remembers the first time she had a drink with friends. She was 19 years old, and they were in a nightclub celebrating their college graduation. After just a quarter of a glass of beer, she found herself struggling to stay awake.
"I was conscious, but I couldn't really walk, I wouldn't talk and my face was all red," Ms. Lim said. In later years, Ms. Lim, who is Chinese, tried alcohol a few more times, and the result was always the same: Just a few sips of wine would be enough to make her heart pound. The 26-year-old environmental engineer now avoids alcohol altogether.
Like millions of other Asian drinkers, Ms. Lim may have the Asian flush, a hereditary condition that makes her unable to process alcohol normally. With 40% of Asians having the deficient gene that causes this condition, known medically as severe acetaldehydemia, a few small companies are rushing to test new products that they say will alleviate flushing symptoms and allow this group to drink comfortably. Meanwhile, doctors warn that those who don't know about their underlying condition yet continue to drink may put themselves at a higher risk for alcohol-related diseases like liver or esophageal cancer.
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, most adults can handle as many as two drinks daily, with men able to safely metabolize more ethanol than women. However, for people with the Asian flush, a smaller amount of alcohol triggers an unacceptably high level of the toxin acetaldehyde. These drinkers can get red, blotchy skin, feel dizzy and nauseated, or have an irregular heartbeat. In a particularly severe case of the Asian flush, recorded in Japan, a 25-year-old man died of alcohol poisoning. His autopsy results showed a blood-alcohol level of 2.00 milligrams, though the concentration generally considered fatal ranges from 2.25 mg to 6.23 mg.
When alcohol is metabolized, it is broken down to acetaldehyde. That toxin is broken down further by an enzyme called ALDH2, producing acetic acid. Studies show that an inactive variant of ALDH2, common to many Asians, makes it difficult for drinkers to rid their bodies quickly of acetaldehyde.
That inactive variant is found in 45% of Chinese and Japanese, 30% of Koreans, 10% of Thais and 1% of Filipinos, according to research first conducted in 1992 by Heinz Werner Goedde at Hamburg University. About 5% of these five groups have inherited the trait from both their parents, making them almost completely alcohol-intolerant.
While non-Asian drinkers can be more sensitive to alcohol depending on body weight and genetic factors, this specific condition is known to affect only Asians. According to Tamara Wall, a psychiatry professor at the University of California in San Diego, other genetic variants can cause similar, but less severe, reactions to alcohol. One variant is found in 90% of Asians and less than 10% of Caucasians, she said. Separately, some people are allergic to sulfites in wine, or sugars and other additives.
Tetsuji Yokoyama, a senior researcher and epidemiologist at Japan's National Institute of Public Health, said symptoms of the Asian flush are a good predictor of whether the person has a deficient ALDH2 enzyme. And because it is possible to have the deficiency and not experience flush symptoms (and vice versa), many doctors recommend that certain Asians get tested for the gene.
The common advice physicians give to those with the Asian flush is to limit drinking. But drinkers haven't given up their quest for remedies.
Algae pills, which can be purchased as nutritional supplements in health-food stores, have been used to protect the body from hangover symptoms. Many scientists, however, including those at the University of California, Berkeley's Public Health Department, are skeptical.
Kenneth Krul, a biochemistry consultant based in San Diego, said that while massive doses of B-complex vitamins can be effective against hangovers in many people, it is "impossible" to enhance your body's processing of alcohol "if you don't have the enzyme."
The Food and Drug Administration hasn't monitored dietary supplements since the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act was issued in 1994, so there are no controlled studies showing whether any existing products work, or whether they are healthy to take.
Dynamarketing Group Inc., San Diego, sells a product over the Internet called Cheerz (formerly known as Rebound), aimed at battling the effects of alcohol. The product combines succinic acid with known antioxidants like young barley grass and vitamin C. Spirit Sciences Inc. employs similar ingredients in RU-21, made in Russia and sold in General Nutrition Centers as well as online. Both products are marketed to treat hangover symptoms as well as the Asian flush.
Meanwhile in South Korea, Edward Jung, an executive with Intellectual Ventures, is trying to create a pill that will exclusively treat the Asian flush. He sees a big market for such a product in Asia, where he says drugstores sell a vast array of herbal supplements for this purpose.
Write to Loretta Chao at loretta.chao@wsj.com3
[url]http://online.wsj.com/article_email/article_print/0,,SB112415285208413941-IBjfoNplaN4m5yqaoGHaKuCm4,00.html
Alas my drinking turn red in the face pass out and puke curse has a name Acetaldehydemia
Bastard Acetaldehydemia!! Curse You!
Doctors Urge Caution
For Those Who May Suffer
From Drinking Condition
By LORETTA CHAO
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
August 16, 2005; Page D6
Han Fang Lim remembers the first time she had a drink with friends. She was 19 years old, and they were in a nightclub celebrating their college graduation. After just a quarter of a glass of beer, she found herself struggling to stay awake.
"I was conscious, but I couldn't really walk, I wouldn't talk and my face was all red," Ms. Lim said. In later years, Ms. Lim, who is Chinese, tried alcohol a few more times, and the result was always the same: Just a few sips of wine would be enough to make her heart pound. The 26-year-old environmental engineer now avoids alcohol altogether.
Like millions of other Asian drinkers, Ms. Lim may have the Asian flush, a hereditary condition that makes her unable to process alcohol normally. With 40% of Asians having the deficient gene that causes this condition, known medically as severe acetaldehydemia, a few small companies are rushing to test new products that they say will alleviate flushing symptoms and allow this group to drink comfortably. Meanwhile, doctors warn that those who don't know about their underlying condition yet continue to drink may put themselves at a higher risk for alcohol-related diseases like liver or esophageal cancer.
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, most adults can handle as many as two drinks daily, with men able to safely metabolize more ethanol than women. However, for people with the Asian flush, a smaller amount of alcohol triggers an unacceptably high level of the toxin acetaldehyde. These drinkers can get red, blotchy skin, feel dizzy and nauseated, or have an irregular heartbeat. In a particularly severe case of the Asian flush, recorded in Japan, a 25-year-old man died of alcohol poisoning. His autopsy results showed a blood-alcohol level of 2.00 milligrams, though the concentration generally considered fatal ranges from 2.25 mg to 6.23 mg.
When alcohol is metabolized, it is broken down to acetaldehyde. That toxin is broken down further by an enzyme called ALDH2, producing acetic acid. Studies show that an inactive variant of ALDH2, common to many Asians, makes it difficult for drinkers to rid their bodies quickly of acetaldehyde.
That inactive variant is found in 45% of Chinese and Japanese, 30% of Koreans, 10% of Thais and 1% of Filipinos, according to research first conducted in 1992 by Heinz Werner Goedde at Hamburg University. About 5% of these five groups have inherited the trait from both their parents, making them almost completely alcohol-intolerant.
While non-Asian drinkers can be more sensitive to alcohol depending on body weight and genetic factors, this specific condition is known to affect only Asians. According to Tamara Wall, a psychiatry professor at the University of California in San Diego, other genetic variants can cause similar, but less severe, reactions to alcohol. One variant is found in 90% of Asians and less than 10% of Caucasians, she said. Separately, some people are allergic to sulfites in wine, or sugars and other additives.
Tetsuji Yokoyama, a senior researcher and epidemiologist at Japan's National Institute of Public Health, said symptoms of the Asian flush are a good predictor of whether the person has a deficient ALDH2 enzyme. And because it is possible to have the deficiency and not experience flush symptoms (and vice versa), many doctors recommend that certain Asians get tested for the gene.
The common advice physicians give to those with the Asian flush is to limit drinking. But drinkers haven't given up their quest for remedies.
Algae pills, which can be purchased as nutritional supplements in health-food stores, have been used to protect the body from hangover symptoms. Many scientists, however, including those at the University of California, Berkeley's Public Health Department, are skeptical.
Kenneth Krul, a biochemistry consultant based in San Diego, said that while massive doses of B-complex vitamins can be effective against hangovers in many people, it is "impossible" to enhance your body's processing of alcohol "if you don't have the enzyme."
The Food and Drug Administration hasn't monitored dietary supplements since the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act was issued in 1994, so there are no controlled studies showing whether any existing products work, or whether they are healthy to take.
Dynamarketing Group Inc., San Diego, sells a product over the Internet called Cheerz (formerly known as Rebound), aimed at battling the effects of alcohol. The product combines succinic acid with known antioxidants like young barley grass and vitamin C. Spirit Sciences Inc. employs similar ingredients in RU-21, made in Russia and sold in General Nutrition Centers as well as online. Both products are marketed to treat hangover symptoms as well as the Asian flush.
Meanwhile in South Korea, Edward Jung, an executive with Intellectual Ventures, is trying to create a pill that will exclusively treat the Asian flush. He sees a big market for such a product in Asia, where he says drugstores sell a vast array of herbal supplements for this purpose.
Write to Loretta Chao at loretta.chao@wsj.com3
[url]http://online.wsj.com/article_email/article_print/0,,SB112415285208413941-IBjfoNplaN4m5yqaoGHaKuCm4,00.html
Alas my drinking turn red in the face pass out and puke curse has a name Acetaldehydemia
Bastard Acetaldehydemia!! Curse You!