Thirty six percent of East Asians (Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans) show a characteristic physiological response to consuming alcohol that includes facial flushing , nausea, and tachycardia. This “alcohol blush” is now considered a risk factor for esophageal cancer, one of the deadliest cancers worldwide with a 5-year survival rate of only 15.6% in the United States. Heavy alcohol consumption greatly increases the risk for esophageal cancer among these individuals, who comprise about 8% of the world’s population. Therefore, by simply knowing whether you have this this characteristic response to alcohol, you can decrease your esophageal cancer risk by limiting alcohol intake.
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Tags: alcohol, alcohol flush, asian, esophageal cancer, esophagus, flushing
Dr. Steven Chang, the author of DailyDose, is a staff physician with Kosmix RightHealth. Dr. Chang practices Family Medicine at the University of California Davis Medical Center, where his medical interests include both pediatric and geriatric care, public health, gay and lesbian health, and sleep medicine. Dr. Chang trained at the Stanford University affiliated O'Connor Hospital, and was a research fellow at the National Institute of Health. He holds an M.D. from McGill University and a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.
April 14th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
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