To your health. The protection offered by alcohol seems to depend on your genetic makeup
PHILADELPHIA -. For years, researchers have difficulty knowing exactly why moderate drinkers are less prone to heart disease than those who abstain or drink away. Is the alcohol itself, or something in their drinks? Now a genetic study may tip the balance in favor of alcohol. But the discovery, announced here on October 6 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics, also shows that the protective effects of a drink depends on your genes.
Since the early 1980s, studies have shown that moderate drinkers live longer and are less likely to suffer a heart attack than abstainers. Several compounds have been touted as responsible for this benefit. More recently, a study highlighted resveratrol, an antioxidant found in red wine ( Science NOW, 10 July). But Lisa Hines and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston believe that ethanol - the scientific word for alcohol in your drink - deserves credit
To back up his intuition, Hines watched. ADH3 , a gene responsible for the degradation of alcohol by oxidation. Its investigation was based on a previous observation: The rate at which the liver breaks down the ethanol depends copies of ADH3 genes people carry. So if there is ethanol that reduces the risk of heart disease, Hines speculated, then slow oxidizers should, on average, have healthier hearts, because ethanol would hang longer in their bodies.
And that's what she found, after analyzing DNA samples from 396 men with heart disease and 770 controls. Among the subjects with the metabolism of ethanol slow, moderate drinkers had a 86% lower risk of heart disease than abstainers. Moderate drinkers who metabolize ethanol quickly not so successful. Their risk of cardiovascular disease was only 38% less than those who abstained from alcohol. Drinkers with slow genes - which account for about 16% of the Caucasian population - also tend to have high blood levels of high density lipoproteins, which reduces the risk of heart disease
"It's a good start ., a good study, but not the whole answer, "said Sam Zakhari, a pharmacologist at the National Institute on alcohol abuse and alcoholism. other factors, such as weight and sex, influence also on the duration of the alcohol remains in the blood, Zakhari said, and they will play a role too if ethanol does indeed protect against heart disease. Hines, for his part, warned that his study shows benefits for mild to moderate alcohol consumption ". We are not advocating that everyone go out and drink "
Related Sites
Hines summary of the meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics
National Institute on alcohol abuse and alcoholism
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