Feeling drunk before others, genetic
Medical Daily has just posted an article about a certain gene possibly being the reason why some people react strongly to alcohol. This gene is located on chromosome 10 and is called CYP2E1. Researchers say this gene may be the protection for some against alcoholism.
The research and study for this was completed by researchers at the University of North Carolina and Dr. Kirk Wilhelmson, a genetics professor there. The research was compiled by observing over 200 pairs of siblings who were college students and had a parent who was an alcoholic. The participants were given a mixed drink of soda and alcohol and then asked to describe how this made them feel. This showed that the gene variant CYP2E1 determined how strongly the alcohol affected them. Researchers said more work needs to be done before any treatments can be made for alcohol addiction. However, they said later on CYP2E1- like drugs could be administered to help alcoholics.
I found this article very interesting, however I do not agree with it. I believe that your tolerance towards alcohol is affected by your weight, how often you drink, how much you have drank and how quickly you have drank it. I believe much more research needs to be done before it should even be said that a gene controls how quickly you get drunk. However, if this is true I believe it''ll be very helpful for creating treatment for alcoholics.
Although much of alcoholism is environmental as you pointed out I believe that some people ARE predisposed to be alcoholics. Isn't that the reason why children of alcoholics have a greater chance of being one themselves? There HAS to be a heritable factor that gets passed on.
ReplyDeleteI believe there have been studies (http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh301/14-17.pdf and http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh301/28-31.pdf) on rates of alcoholism in ethnic groups but the research was based on a gene that produce alcohol metabolizing enzymes (Alcohol dehydrogenase and Aldehyde dehydrogenase). They suggested that people with variations of the enzyme can have adverse effects when consuming alcohol which correlates to less chances of being an alcoholic. Conversely, when people who have these enzymes that work "too well" they may have to consume more alcohol to get drunk.
Having experienced the adverse effects of alcohol myself, I wouldn't want to go overboard when the symptoms can be fatal.
I agree with your statement that much more research must be done. I also agree that all the factors you named (weight, tolerance, time and amount) all have to do with how alcohol affects someone. However I also believe that some people are more likely to be alcoholics if it runs in their family. Maybe it's genetic and there's something in their genes that makes them more prone to being an alcoholic. On the other hand, maybe it's environmental factors that cause them to be at a higher risk for being an alcoholic. If they spend the majority of their time with family members who are alcoholics then they may decide that drinking a lot is normal; they therefore may eventually become alcohlics themselves.
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