Health - damn red face when drinking!

[seriousmoose]

Anyone know why my face always gets red when i drink... my grandma says it's a japanese thing... hmmm

[Cure20]

as many as 50 percent of people of Asian descent experience a flushed complexion after drinking alcohol. Alcohol flush reaction, the more technical name, describes the body's inability to break down ingested alcohol completely. You and others like you have an inactive enzyme, aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2), which is normally responsible for breaking down acetaldehyde, a byproduct of the metabolism of alcohol. Acetaldehyde is a toxin and if your body can't break it down, it accumulates and causes flushing.

[Chaote]

Well when anyone or most ppl drink to much they get red noses and ears but asian ppl are more seseptible (sp?) to it, its quite funny in clubs seeing red faced people stumbling around, I see it more in asian women too

[Nature Boy]

How peculiar. I've never come across anyone with it. Then again, half my country are alcos.

[bonghed]

Happens to me aswell friend ect always notice but people that don't know me to good seem to be oblivious, it runs in my family, try asking your family members, i never have really searched for the cause

[seriousmoose]

do any like ALDH2 supplements exist that you know of?

[shrello]

I'm caucasian and this also happens to me...it can be pretty embarassing my forhead and my cheeks and my chinget bright red.

[Urban]

it happens to my boyfriends dad...who is irish.... but then maybe its beacsue he is an alcoholic...
(actualy i don't see how this would make it worse other then the fact that he drinks non stop...) but maybe because he aleays has alcohol in his system...

x

[fatmanstan]

Well, this weekend I drank (quite) a few paralyzers (vodka, kahlua, milk, and cola) and my face was beet red for most of the night. Now that I think of it, it seems to redden up my face everytime I drink alot of those sneaky bastards. Maybe it's the milk, i don't know, but just thought I'd share.

[jduba]

white guy here and when i drink strong drinks or after a couple i turn purple! under eyes, neck, ears, chest, back, and forehead. i would love to know how to make that shit quit! any sugg?

[napoleon in rags]

I'm 100% white and my face gets flushed when i've been drinking too much.

My cheeks get really red and blotchy

[grecian]

i occasionally get very red blotchy skin when i drink. i read somewhere that its common for jews aswell as asians. as far as i know i dont fit into these categories but it is genetic, my older brother and my dad get it too.

one thing i have noticed is that for me its highly inconsistent. some days i can drink pints and pints of cider and not get it at all and other days i get thru half a pint and look as red as a spanked ass.

also i seem to be affected less by spirits than beer and cider. cant understand why though.

[jduba]

i've found if i consume more potent liquer faster opposed to beer slower the innflamation and red/purpleness is sub lowered. but have alos found out that i am illergic to alch more so than most ppl so woopty fuckin do!!!

[Mo0dy]

I'm eurasian and I got that too. My face feels really hot. I don't always get that though, don't know why ..

[INodHardOhYeah]

This is a natural occurence and appears quite frequently in many people, the cause of this is an alcohol dehydrogenase deficiency, which means they lack the enzyme used to metabolize alcohol. This condition is more common in Asians (myself, well half anyway). Symptoms include flushing of the face, muscle weakness, and nausea when drinking. It terms of enzyme deficiency it would be intersting to see if this had any connection to alcoholism, I'll look into it, very interesting topic.

[INodHardOhYeah]

sorry, didn't read cure20s post, my bad.

[Richard_smoker]

Too funny! I saw the title of your post "damn red face!" and I immediately jumped in here to say, HEY ARE YOU ASIAN!??? As you've already been told by others, this is so damn common in asians that I already knew your ancestry before I even read your post.

This is probably one of the biggest blessings in disguise that you could ever ask mother nature/god to grant you. Something that prevents you from becoming a raging alcoholic! Kind of like the opposite of how god 'blessed' the native american with the proclivity toward alcohol consumption (I forget the enzyme involved in that one). So, good news is, you can use this to your advantage... no cirrhosis, no alcoholic hepatitis, no fatty liver changes, no pancreatitis, no liver failure followed by death!! Woohoo!! and just think: you might actually be able to restrict your substance use to things like marijuana!
Good luck!