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The disturbing reason some people turn red when they drink alcohol


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2017 Apr 9, 6:17am   5,088 views  20 comments

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Some people will have their face turn extremely red when they drink alcohol, and it is not a good sign. Those who do turn red after drinking alcohol have a condition called alcohol flush reaction. They're literally poisoning their bodies whenever they drink. (1:32 Minute Video in Link.)

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-some-people-turn-red-drink-alcohol-2017-4

Also see: People with flushed faces while drinking alcohol are more likely to have high blood pressure. http://www.prevention.com/health/health-concerns/red-face-while-drinking-increases-high-blood-pressure-risk

#Medicine #Alcohol

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1   FNWGMOBDVZXDNW   2017 Apr 9, 6:24am  

We used to say they lacked the enzyme. Most people I knew like that were Asian.

2   Y   2017 Apr 9, 6:52am  

This should only be disturbing to alcoholics...

anonymous says

The disturbing reason some people turn red when they drink alcohol

3   Indiana Jones   2017 Apr 10, 9:00am  

Thank you for researching this. This is giving a name to something I've experienced all my life. My friends even called me tomato head when I'd drink back in the day. I could never drink wine nor champagne without an immediate severe headache, and all other types of alcohol gave me a horrible headache usually within 3 hours which felt so awful that it negated the reason to drink alcohol in the first place. I hardly drank any alcohol besides a little beer past my mid twenties and now haven't drunk a sip of alcohol for years. Even a little sip can make me feel flushed and it feels as if I am poisoning myself. I don't even like to eat food cooked with too much alcohol.

The problem is in social situations people think I am are judging them for drinking alcohol while I sip my sparkling water. Now I can tell everyone I have "Alcohol Flush Reaction" and hopefully people won't feel uncomfortable that I am not imbibing.

5   anonymous   2017 Apr 10, 9:21am  

They're literally poisoning their bodies whenever they drink.

-------------

That applies to everyone. Alcohol is a toxin. Drink enough, and you die.

The government loves when the sheep poison themselves, it kills brain cells and makes you sick and stupid. Society bears a terrible cost, because the government also forces the rest of us to subsidize the immense costs that come from alcohol consumption.

Why else do you think that the government subsidizes the populace poisoning themselves, and criminalizes consumption of anti-inflammatory medical plants, like cannabis?

6   FNWGMOBDVZXDNW   2017 Apr 10, 9:47am  

errc says

That applies to everyone. Alcohol is a toxin. Drink enough, and you die.

There is no fine line between food, drugs, and poisons.

7   indigenous   2017 Apr 10, 9:52am  

Lends a new meaning to "Redskins".

As errc stated Alcohol is a poison as are all drugs even coffee is a poison.

8   Ceffer   2017 Apr 10, 9:52am  

All alcohols are general metabolic poisons. Ethyl alcohol is just one that we have evolved to metabolize fairly rapidly. Ethyl alcohol and it's metabolic breakdown product, aldehyde, are both toxic, but aldehyde even more so. Fortunately, aldehyde is in the system only briefly, and causes flushing in everybody, just lesser flushing in those with lots of the enzyme to convert it to non-toxic double chain carbon that can be utilized by the body's energy cycle.

The flushing is the mobilization of the inflammatory response, and as such, alcohol precipitates a generalized inflammation in the body. As noted, alcohol is also a carcinogen.

All other alcohols have similar mental effects briefly, but the fact that they cannot be metabolized easily or quickly means that their use results in severe toxic effects i.e. wood alcohol causes blindness.

Alcohol products are also potent sources of calories, minor sources of nutrients and easy to manufacture and store indefinitely. The main advantage in less civilized eras was potability, in days when it was safer to consume alcohol containing beverages than raw water due to alcohol's antiseptic qualities, which are a product of it's general toxicity.

Alcohol is water soluble, which means that it's toxic effects apply to every water containing space in the body i.e. brain, muscle, joints, heart etc. There are probably all manner of auto immune conditions and orthopedic conditions that are exacerbated by alcohol consumption, even in routine amounts.

The concept that alcohol is good for you at any level is idiocy promoted by the alcohol lobbies to keep the addicted buying large quantities. The mythologies surrounding alcohol are generated by the mind altering effects and the profiteers/vendors.

Alcohol is good for you if you are holed up in freezing weather, have limited access to nutrition, don't have any reasonable safe source of drinking water, or need something to help you survive to more clement times.

Otherwise, it is just an endemic poison that human beings have partially evolved to handle.

9   anonymous   2017 Apr 10, 10:14am  

YesYNot says

errc says

That applies to everyone. Alcohol is a toxin. Drink enough, and you die.

There is no fine line between food, drugs, and poisons.

Huh?

10   Patrick   2017 Apr 10, 11:50am  

errc says

That applies to everyone. Alcohol is a toxin. Drink enough, and you die.

That's not exactly true. A moderate amount of alcohol in normal people reduces the risk of both cancer and heart disease. Red wine works particularly well, probably because of the resveratrol in addition to alcohol.

This has been known for a long time, and soundly reconfirmed recently, see "The French Paradox". The problem is that alcohol above a moderate amount negates the benefits, and above that, rapidly increases mortality. Thus we have the famous "Alcohol J-Curve":

11   Ceffer   2017 Apr 10, 12:53pm  

Alcohol also has lots of non-attributed morbidity and deaths other than the common ones cited through accident or cirrhosis. Usually, the pathologies will be cited without any citation of cause and effect. High blood pressure (a common effect of drinking and withdrawal), stroke, heart disease, cancer etc. etc. in which alcohol is a contributing factor are seldom mentioned.

How often do you read an obituary stating: "Died from the effects of drinking alcohol".

12   MMR   2017 Apr 10, 5:40pm  

indigenous says

coffee is a poison.

Can't say I agree....coffee is protective against several cancers in a dose dependent manner

Caffeine is actually good for the liver

13   anonymous   2017 Apr 10, 6:12pm  

That applies to everyone. Alcohol is a toxin. Drink enough, and you die.

-------------

@Patrick says " that's not exactly true"

I dunno Patrick, AFAIK

- Alcohol is a toxin

- Drink enough, and you die

- this applies to everyone

While I understand your case that "the poison is in the dose", what I said, is in fact, exactly true.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/science/2011/mar/07/safe-level-alcohol-consumption

14   Dan8267   2017 Apr 10, 9:57pm  

rando says

That's not exactly true. A moderate amount of alcohol in normal people reduces the risk of both cancer and heart disease. Red wine works particularly well, probably because of the resveratrol in addition to alcohol.

I think its the grapes, not the alcohol. Just eat fruit and you'll be fine.

15   FNWGMOBDVZXDNW   2017 Apr 11, 9:22am  

errc says

Huh?

It would have been more clear if I said that there is no distinct line between food, drugs, and poisons. Whatever we ingest is just a bunch of chemicals. These have a variety of impacts on us, and those impacts depend on interactions between other things we eat, microbes in our guts, our genetics, our activities, etc. We form categories to help us understand things, but those categories are often imperfect.
How do you qualify something as food? Is it calorific value? Is it just that you chew it? Is it nutritional value?
There are often J or U shaped curves like Patrick showed for alcohol. I'm not sure that I believe this one for alcohol. It's hard to tease our real cause and effect, and there's a lot of debate about whether a small amount of alcohol is neutral, good, or bad for you. What we do know is that a small amount doesn't have much of an effect. A large amount is definitely bad for you for a variety of reasons.
Beer and peanut butter both have calories. They both are carcinogenic. They are both a preserved food and a poison. Kim chi and sauer kraut are probably also slightly carcinogenic ways of storing cabbage.
Minerals and vitamins (including salt) can be necessary, but too much are bad for you (poisonous). They have U shaped curves. Even water can kill you if you have too little or too much at once.
There's a difference between acute poisoning and chronic poisoning.
It's generally accepted (you might argue) that the macronutrients are good for you in small quantity, but bad for you in overdose quantities. So, the primary building blocks of food can be good or bad for you.
Drugs like Coca leaves can be chewed and used like caffeine, or concentrated and overdosed on. Sugar could be called a food or a drug. Milk is the same way. Both are addictive, lighting up parts of the brain that more obvious drugs affect. Some drugs are clearly pharmaceutical while others are clearly recreational. Some are right on the line. Many drugs can save your life and / or kill you (e.g. cancer treatments).
So, we really just ingest chemicals that can have a variety of effects on us. Most are dose dependent.

Our categories are oversimplifications and are rarely useful in communicating any real information to an educated adult. They are handy to teach a child what to eat and what to avoid. They may be useful in helping adults make those decisions. Nancy Reagan tried that. But that doesn't seem to work too well.

16   Patrick   2017 Apr 11, 10:06am  

Dan8267 says

I think its the grapes, not the alcohol. Just eat fruit and you'll be fine.

I have not heard anything about fruit or even unfermented grape juice having the same protective effects as resveratrol. Got a link?

Small amounts of alcohol also clearly have beneficial effects. So there are two distinct health benefits to red wine, one from alcohol, and one from resveratrol.

In small amounts, like I said. Provable optimum for a man is between a quarter and a third of a bottle of red wine per day. Sure, large amounts can kill in both the short and long term. But I think the health benefits of small amounts of alcohol are beyond scientific question at this point.

17   Dan8267   2017 Apr 11, 10:27am  

rando says

I have not heard anything about fruit or even unfermented grape juice having the same protective effects as resveratrol. Got a link?

Grapes: Health Benefits, Facts, Research by Medical News Today.

There are lots of benefits of grapes and other fruits. However, fruit juice has relatively few of those benefits and lots of sugar. Red wine is much better for you than grape juice because all the sugar turns into alcohol, which may or may not be good in small doses but certainly is better than even short-term spikes in sugar. Spikes in blood sugar cause a lot of problems.

I did find one NY Times article that claims the fermentation process creates chemical changes in the grape that are good for you and that alcohol itself has a preventative effect on heart disease. I can image that being true if alcohol slows your heart so it doesn't work as hard, but I don't see how alcohol would prevent cancer. The other stuff in red wine could. Unfortunately the NYT article does not contain any linked study or justification for its claim, so I am skeptical.

Really, if you think about it, if alcohol itself were responsible for lowering heart disease or cancer, then vodka would work just as well. Any alcoholic drink should work. The fact that red wine stands out and the only other drink with any evidence of health benefits is white wine, suggests that it's the grapes, not the alcohol, responsible.

In any case, a glass of red wine with a meal a few times a week is a good idea. I don't drink nearly that much, but I eat small meals and red wine is really a pasta or steak thing for me. It doesn't make sense to drink enough red wine to get a buzz though. At that point, you are only getting the unhealthy aspects of drinking. There's no evidence that getting drunk is good for your health. It may feel good -- although I've never seen its appeal -- but it's not going to make you more healthy.

rando says

But I think the health benefits of small amounts of alcohol are beyond scientific question at this point.

Not beyond question. Again, one would have to see someone drinking moderate amounts of vodka or beer and showing the same health benefits to demonstrate that alcohol itself is the reason. I did find two reputable supporting links that alcohol might be good for your heart in small doses.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/alcohol/art-20044551

Moderate alcohol consumption may provide some health benefits, such as:

Reduce your risk of developing and dying from heart disease
Possibly reduce your risk of ischemic stroke (when the arteries to your brain become narrowed or blocked, causing severely reduced blood flow)
Possibly reduce your risk of diabetes

Even so, the evidence about the health benefits of alcohol isn't certain, and alcohol may not benefit everyone who drinks.

http://www.webmd.com/cancer/features/faq-alcohol-and-your-health#1

When it comes to your health, is it better to drink or not to drink?

It's becoming an even more complicated question, especially in the wake of several recent studies linking even a little drinking of alcohol to a higher risk of cancers.

In one of them, researchers found that women who had as little as one drink a day boosted their risk of cancer of the breast, liver, rectum, throat, mouth, and esophagus. Meanwhile, numerous studies dating back decades show that alcohol and heart health have a positive relationship.

"There's no one answer; it has to be individualized according to the specific person," says Arthur Klatsky, MD, a former practicing cardiologist and now an investigator for Kaiser Permanente's division of research in Oakland, Calif. He has published numerous studies on alcohol and health, especially heart health.

It's crucial to take into account age, sex, specific medical problems, and family history, Klatsky tells WebMD.

18   NDrLoR   2017 Apr 11, 12:02pm  

A friend, light complexioned, blonde and blue-eyed, who didn't drink, would periodically flush over a period of 10-15 years with no explanation from the doctors. He began having abdominal pains in 2005 and subsequent surgery revealed a very rare condition, carcinoid tumor which often originates in the area of the appendix--it tends to affect the endocrine system which causes the flushing--most doctors never see a case in the course of their practice. The only place that provided surgery was in New Orleans and his was a well advanced case. He held his own through 2008, but in 2009 serious deterioration began that couldn't be stopped and he passed away later that year at only 60.

19   Ceffer   2017 Apr 11, 1:35pm  

Due to gross under-reportage of damage caused by alcohol and gross over-reportage of "benefits" (usually shills for the alcohol lobbies or besotted users or addicts themselves), I would vote that it is far more damaging than beneficial at just about any level.

I could never believe that any doctor who spent even a couple of months in an emergency room at any point of his/her/it's career would ever believe or claim that alcohol consumption was "good" in any general or specific way unless he/she/it were paid off, much less do research to convince the public that alcohol was good for their health.

Many years ago a magazine did an article investigating the standard claims of "happy", contented and blissfuly aging drinking communities in Europe. However, instead of doing the usual superficial polling, they went to the local hospitals and emergency rooms and found an enormous amount of ongoing damage/morbidity from the use of alcohol that was just blithely ignored by the societies. Huge economies, and even government economic patency, rely on sales of alcohol and taxation of alcohol, so it is unlikely that you are going to get much but positive press and mythology.

There was speculation that the downfall of the Russian Czar Nicholas was partly because he attempted to restrict the sale of vodka in order to prevent the effects of massive, destructive drunkenness in the Russian military ranks and Russian society. The loss of income to the government and the resentment caused were cited as factors in the success of the Communist takeover. Even today, vodka taxes provide a significant percentage of the Russian government's income. The pusher man doesn't care who he hurts, as long as he walks away with the profits, even if it's the Gov.

20   rufita11   2017 Apr 15, 4:53pm  

Not drinking is the new drinking.

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