Name: Asian flush, explained
Uploaded: 2016-11-07T09:47:45.000Z
Duration: 3 min 17 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

For most people when they drink alcohol, it can make them feel more confident and comfortable

But for me, drinking makes me feel less confident and uncomfortable.

That's because thanks to my DNA, alcohol makes my skin turn red

And it affects about 36% of North East Asians with higher rates among Asian Americans.

I guess we should probably show you what it looks like.

If I know that I'm gonna need to take pictures that I'll drink less until these pictures are over and then I'll go back to normal pace.

People tend to assume that a red face means that we're drunk, but that's a myth.

Facial flushing whether from embarrassment, or exercise, or alcohol,

it happens when the blood vessels under the surface of the skin dilate.

And in the case of Asian flush, this is part of an immune response.

The threat isn't the alcohol itself, but a substance that our livers produce while breaking down alcohol.

For me at least, the warmth starts in my chest and then it moves its way up.

It's weird. It's like my eyes are almost puffy.

When people drink ethanol, that's the chemical name for booze, the liver gets rid of it using two main enzymes.

The first reacts with the ethanol molecule to produce a substance called acetaldehyde.

And the second quickly turns acetaldehyde into acetate, which is similar to vinegar and easy for the body to eliminate.

It's that second enzyme that really screws things up for people with Asian flush.

If you look inside our DNA, you'll find that the gene providing the instructions for that enzyme was tweaked at some point in our history.

And that gene mutation produces an inactive enzyme.

So when we drink, our bodies accumulate acetaldehyde at a level about 6 times higher than normal people

If acetaldehyde sounds familiar that maybe because it's similar to formaldehyde.

That's why it triggers the immune responds.

And the red face is really the least of it.

After having that one beer, I didn't feel tipsy at all, but my heart rate doubled.

My eyes were bloodshot, and within half hour, I had a headache.

Even worse, acetaldehyde can cause cancer.

It's a problem because people can actually develop a tolerance to Asian flush, and that allows them to drink pretty heavily.

Studies have shown that heavy drinking raises the risk of esophageal cancer for everyone, but especially for people with Asian flush.

So it's potentially problematic that alcohol consumption in Asia has been increasing, especially in China.

So if you have an Asian flush, be careful.

And if you don't flush, well, just don't expect us to keep up with you.

You don't have to bring it up every time...like, yes I know that I turn red.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Asian flush, explained

weird

assume

immune

awesome