Damn you, Asian red-face syndrome

By Ernie | Monday, January 22, 2007 | 2 Comments

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Aaah, Asians and alcohol. As carefully documented by dozens of Asian-themed college parties, some Asians can drink to their hearts content. My father is one of those people, and his stories involving his Naval career and bottles of whiskey are legendary.

For some other people, me included… alcohol is, well, an issue. Half a beer will turn me bright red and itchy. A full one gets me nauseous. Three shots of the hard stuff will have me vomiting in potted plants the entire night.

Over the years, I have shrugged it off as an allergy, but this message thread from echeng.com reveals that it’s not an allergy, but rather a “defective” copy of the gene for aldehyde dehydrogenase. The thread is especially interesting for those into all that science stuff that makes my eyes glaze over. The gene isn’t even defective, per say: it seems that everyone elses genes are the defective ones and just conveniently give them the ability to drink people under the table.

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Lily

When I was researching for that ALDH article, I didnu00e2u0080u0099t find any scientific research substantiating the u00e2u0080u009cwhou00e2u0080u0099s the mutantu00e2u0080u009d claims. I think the ALDH2*2 allele (the name of the Asian version of the gene) is referred to as the mutation. I think the mutant is just the one thatu00e2u0080u0099s different, or less common, and the wild type is the one that most people have. It doesnu00e2u0080u0099t necessarily indicate which came first. But either way, there's nothing wrong with being the mutant. Mutation has this negative connotation, when actually, sometimes mutations are advantages.

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