In 2014, American scientists substantiated the hypothesis that alcohol addiction may be predetermined by a person’s genetic nature.
Previously, it was believed that alcohol addiction was hereditarily passed on from parents to children. But a number of experiments helped to establish that certain features of genetics make a person predisposed to form this disease.
The study, which involved laboratory analysis of brain tissue of alcoholics and non-drinkers, revealed a specific correlation between a set of genes and human addiction.
The latest bioinformatics technology made it possible to identify a specific set of different DNA genes that, when combined, increase a person’s risk of developing addiction by several dozen times.
Professor A. Harris of the University of Texas believes the discovery will help improve the treatment of alcoholism:
“The emergence of rapid physical and psychological attachment to alcohol has become a more understandable process for scientists, which will make it possible in the future to develop new effective methods of combating the disease.
Identifying a possible risk group, will help produce early prevention, which will significantly reduce the overall rates of alcohol addiction development.”
Genetic aspects
Alcoholism is one of the main problems in our country. Geneticists, doctors, addictologists and experts in many other fields of science and medicine have long been trying to unravel the causes of the spread of this disease. The search for answers continues to this day.
With the development of technology, scientists have access to tools that allow them to go deeper into the study of genetics and its characteristics in the formation of alcohol addiction. Thanks to this, we now know exactly how alcohol is metabolized and what changes in neural connections it leads to. Taken together, this knowledge allows a better understanding of the full picture of the disease development.
Metabolism
Once ethanol enters the body, it undergoes two stages of processing. First, ethanol is broken down to acetaldehyde, which is facilitated by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase. Then acetaldehyde is converted to acetate by the enzyme acetaldehyde dehydrogenase. It turns out that the alcohol consumed eventually turns into vinegar. However, we are interested in the intermediate stage of splitting, since it is acetaldehyde that has a toxic effect on the body and causes those very unpleasant symptoms after drinking alcoholic beverages.
The speed of the described process is determined by genetics and different variants of both genes.
This can be seen in the population of Southeast Asia. As it turned out, most Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans have a very slow acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, but alcohol dehydrogenase functions much more efficiently. What do we end up with? When ethanol enters the body, it quickly turns into toxic acetaldehyde and then stays in the body for a long time, causing serious damage. This peculiarity of genetics helps the peoples of Asia not to sink into the problem of alcoholization that has engulfed Russia and Europe. A kind of genetic protection against addiction.
Neural Connections.
The first time one tries alcohol, no one likes the taste, but almost everyone likes the effect it has. It becomes easy, fun, a person feels liberated and confident. All these feelings are caused by certain hormones, which are activated in the process of drinking. Euphoria is replaced by more unpleasant feelings and pain when the effects of alcohol end.
But even when the intoxicated state passes, ethanol still has an “invisible” effect on the brain and body.
This is what happens at the genetic level. The dopamine surge that was caused by drinking is so strong that it is no longer possible to repeat this effect without alcohol. Unfortunately, our psyche is built in such a way that once we try it, we will feel discomfort without it in the future. The more often we repeat taking alcohol, the more difficult it is for a person without it. This very feeling of dissatisfaction and discomfort can be inherited, namely an imbalance of certain neurotransmitters.
Genetics play a very important role in the formation of alcohol dependence, but is not the only cause, but only one of many. Heredity does not make a person an alcoholic, it can only predispose to it.
