Yeah, i know. What else is new? Yet another thing that causes cancer. The list of things that don't cause cancer would be much easier to present. I think it would be a blank sheet of paper.

People whose faces turn red when they drink alcohol may be facing more than embarrassment. The flushing may indicate an increased risk for a deadly throat cancer, researchers report.

The flushing response, which may be accompanied by nausea and a rapid heartbeat, is caused mainly by an inherited deficiency in an enzyme called ALDH2, a trait shared by more than a third of people of East Asian ancestry -- Japanese, Chinese or Koreans. As little as half a bottle of beer can trigger the reaction.

The deficiency results in problems in metabolizing alcohol, leading to an accumulation in the body of a toxin called acetaldehyde. People with two copies of the gene responsible have such unpleasant reactions that they are unable to consume large amounts of alcohol. This aversion actually protects them against the increased risk for cancer.

But those with only one copy can develop a tolerance to acetaldehyde and become heavy drinkers.

...
Reducing drinking can significantly reduce the incidence of this cancer among Asian adults. The researchers calculate that if moderate- or heavy-drinking ALDH2-deficient Japanese men reduced their consumption to under nine drinks a week, 53 percent of esophageal squamous cell cancers in that group could be prevented.

Over 9 drinks/week is considered moderate?? I suppose if it were spread out over the entire 7 days, it's not really that much.......still sounds like alot to me, though.

I get flushed. So does most of my family. And there's also talk of itchy feet when drinking's being done. I wish someone would do a study about that.

At any rate, i never really liked the taste of any alcohol unless it was so disguised that it didn't really taste like alcohol anymore (unless it's rum, which i apparently can't actually taste, hence my deadly New Year's Rum Punch. the fumes alone will get you tipsy), so not much of a hardship for me. Besides, i can't afford the brain cells.

Man that's depressing. I think I need a drink now.