People who blush when drinking have a high chance of developing esophageal cancer

In the hot summer, the heat is unbearable and alcohol is indispensable at the daily dinner table. Many people blush when they drink. If this group of people continue to drink frequently, their chances of developing esophageal cancer may be much greater than those who "do not change color" after drinking. What's more serious is that once these people who blush when drinking develop esophageal cancer due to excessive drinking, even if they receive various treatments, their survival rate over 5 years is only 12% to 31%.

People in East Asia blush when they drink alcohol mainly because of a hereditary deficiency of aldehyde oxidase 2. People with this trait have a greatly increased risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma even when drinking moderate amounts of alcohol.

About 1/3 of Japanese, Chinese and Korean people carry one or two Ly alleles of ALDH2, which can encode an inactive protein. Lys/Lys homozygous physical examinations cannot detect the activity of ALDH2, which causes these people to react strongly to alcohol, mainly manifested as flushing, nausea and tachycardia, which many people cannot tolerate. Therefore, these people basically do not drink alcohol, which can protect their esophagus and reduce their risk of disease.

Because the Lys heterozygotes of ALDH2 have some residual ALDH2 activity, their response to alcohol is not very strong. As a result, some people develop alcohol tolerance and gradually become alcoholics. Some even believe that the redder a person's face is, the more they can drink. This makes them very susceptible to esophageal cancer.