Body & HealthFact

The red face after one drink is an enzyme question.

Alcohol breaks down in two steps: alcohol dehydrogenase turns it into acetaldehyde, aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 turns that into acetic acid. If the second step is slowed by the ALDH2*2 variant, acetaldehyde builds up and the skin flushes. 20 to 30 percent of people of Chinese, Japanese and Korean ancestry carry at least one such allele.

Useful: It's the intermediate acetaldehyde, not the alcohol itself, that causes the flush.

Source: en.wikipedia.org

GenetikStoffwechsel

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