Genes may protect against alcohol issues

[The Straight Story]

Genes may protect against alcohol issues


ST. LOUIS, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say a pattern of genetic markers seems to protect against alcohol problems.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis looked at adults sexually abused as children and at high risk for alcohol problems who did not become alcohol dependent.

The researchers had access to DNA samples of study participants and found a handful of specific sites in the genome that allowed classification into one of two sets of genetic variations -- haplotypes -- known as H1 or H2.

The study, published in Addiction Biology, found those with the H1 haplotype had three times the risk of heavy drinking and alcohol dependence as those who had not been sexually abused, but abuse victims with the H2 haplotype seemed to be protected against the risks.

Lead author Dr. Elliot Nelson and colleagues analyzed data from more than 1,100 people in 476 Australian families in the Nicotine Addiction Genetics project, which also looked at whether participants met the diagnostic criteria for alcohol dependence.

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2010/02/05/Genes-may-protect-against-alcohol-issues/UPI-72321265410809/

[Parche]

1. I always wear my 501's when i drink Heineken

:woohoo: :hi:

[The Straight Story]

3. Do you put them on your head and drink through the zipper?

:rofl:

[ddeclue]

2. Does that mean someone is busy inventing an alchoholism vaccine?

[icymist]

6. Or a DNA test to screen out job applicants?

eom

[Donnachaidh]

10. uh yeah, it's included with the cancer vaccine

and they are working hard on both :eyes: :rofl: :sarcasm:

FAR too much MONEY to be made to find a cure for alcoholism...

[laughingliberal]

4. Have been in recovery from alcoholism for 32 years and come from a long line of them

Most of us who have dealt with alcoholism have long suspected a genetic connection. I suspect we will find it to be true of all addictive disease, eventually.

[virgogal]

5. Me too-----29 years for me and a family plagued with alcoholism-----some made it,

some didn't.

[monmouth]

7. Me too! Ten years this time. Long line on both sides right on down

to my kids who are both in recovery for a long time now...Thank God or whatever higher power we thank every day..Whew, glad that chaos is over..

[pipi_k]

8. I guess I lucked out, then

I've got alcoholics on both sides of the family tree. My father was an alcoholic...so was his father...probably uncles as well.

My mother wasn't/isn't an alcoholic, but her mother died from alcoholism at the age of 34, when I was only 3 months old. Who knows how far back that problem goes in her family tree...

The family is rife with alcoholism, but I never became an alcoholic myself. There's wine and rum and beer in the house that's almost a decade old. I'm happy with a (tiny) drink once or twice a year. That's it. One of my two full blooded sisters is an alcoholic. Go figure. And my two kids do have problems with alcohol.

My half brother, who had a different father, shares my mom's genes with me but also has his father's genes...a man who died at the age of 44 of complications associated with alcoholism. My brother will be 40 in April, and he is already killing himself with booze. His wife took the kids and left...he's almost gotten fired from work, and he tried to admit himself to a rehab program but they told him he should be in a hospital instead because his skin was so yellow.

Odd how it all works...

[laughingliberal]

9. Yeah, I'm the oldest of 4. 2 of us have it, 2 of us don't

Guess it's just the gene lottery.

[BlueIris]

11. Woah; really, really interesting. nt

[Redstone]

12. I'm half American Indian and half Irish...I'm genetically doomed.

Redstone