Alcoholism is a serious problem not only at the level of a specific family, in which there is a sick person, but also in a nationwide sense. The treatment of patients with chronic alcoholism spends a lot of money, the nation is gradually degrading, and this can not help but make you think. The search for the causes of this devastating disease is not only practiced by specialists in narcology, but also by genetics. Why can one person moderate to drink on holidays all his life and remain a decent member of society, while the other quickly rolls into the abyss, leaving in binges after long holidays? Is all the fault of the genetic predisposition to the development of alcoholism?
Genetic Aspects of Alcoholism
The first scientists to study the genetic nature of the development of alcohol dependence were the American scientists. Surveys of hundreds of families where there is a large number of patients with alcoholism, professors of the University of Baltimore found in such people the features of the exchange of endogenous opioids, responsible for the predisposition to the rapid formation of alcohol dependence. Because of this disturbance, the human brain, after severe shocks, is not able to produce natural relaxants, so the person subconsciously reaches out to any means of obtaining relaxation. This violation is transmitted from generation to generation.
Russian scientists have long remained aloof from this type of research. However, an increasing number of alcoholics in our country made researchers at the Institute of General Genetics named after NI.Vavilov tackle this problem.
The issue of the inheritance of alcoholic illness is of great interest to parents, especially those in whose family history there were cases of serious hobby by the green dragon. Science unequivocally affirmatively answers this question - alcoholism can indeed be transmitted from generation to generation.
This issue was once taken seriously by American psychiatrist Donald Goodwin. He proved that children of alcoholics are five times more likely to become victims of this pathology than those whose parents do not drink at all. Moreover, the study involved children who are not raised by their parents, alcoholics, and who live in non-drinking families. But nevertheless heredity played a role in the formation of these guys desire to drink alcohol.
In brief, Goodwin's thesis can be summarized as follows:
- Children whose parents have been addicted to alcohol have an increased predisposition to alcoholization, regardless of who is raising them - their parents or adoptive family.
- Such children are subject only to alcoholism, they do not inherit any mental deviations accompanying alcoholism of their parents.
However, in order not to upset the time for all those who have an ancestor-alcoholic in their family history, it is worth mentioning the fact that the trigger mechanism for the formation of dependence is still the environment in which the child was raised from an early age. Especially alcoholism affects those children whose mothers used alcohol at the time of conception, during pregnancy and feeding.
On the video lecture on the relationship between genes and alcoholism:
Alcoholic mentality
The phenomenon of alcoholic mentality in different nationalities is very interesting. Thus, in the 70s of the last century a curious study was carried out concerning the genetic contribution to the formation of the culture of drinking in different nationalities. It turned out that the overwhelming majority of Asians( and they include the Japanese, Chinese, Koreans) have a genetically programmed mechanism of aversion to alcohol.
OPINION OF SPECIALISTS!
Elena Malysheva:
"Is Alcoholism Cured? Yes! Use an effective home remedy. .. "
Read more. ..
To make it clearer what this mechanism is, you need to understand how the ethanol metabolism takes place:
- The cleavage of alcohol in the human body takes place in two stages - initially the alcohol is converted with the help of the alcohol dehydrogenase enzyme into the strongest toxin acetaldehyde. Then this toxin is gradually utilized by another enzyme - acetaldehyde dehydrogenase and turns into acetate.
- Asians have a very low activity of the second enzyme in the rapid fermentation of ethanol. Thus, alcohol instantly turns into acetaldehyde, but the cleavage of the toxin is too long. But, as we know, it is acetaldehyde that affects the cells in a toxic way and causes bad health.
In European nations, the rate of alcohol breakdown is fundamentally different - a long first stage is combined with a short follow-up stage.
Most Russian nationalities are happy owners of a fast alcohol dehydrogenase, which protects the nation from alcoholism. In particular, many such people in Moscow, oddly enough.
Long and careful research was conducted on different representatives of almost all nationalities: Evenks, Indians, Africans, Spaniards, etc. It was revealed that there is no genetic predisposition to the peoples of Siberia, North America, the Far North, Eastern Europe to alcoholism.
Studies have identified the most and resistant to alcoholism nationality. It's South American Indians. They have an active alcohol splitting enzyme along with the active enzyme acetaldehyde hydrogenase, which allows the Indians to sober up, without really feeling drunk.
Again, it is worth noting that any representative of each nation can become an alcoholic. Genetic protection against alcoholism should be combined with the cultural traditions of the family and the inner circle of communication.
Alcohol genes
The number of analytical studies of the human genome has increased significantly in the last few decades. Including, on the inheritance of alcoholic genes. Of course, there is no special gene responsible for alcoholism in our body, but there are several options for biological indicators responsible for the risk of pathology.
The so-called alcoholism genes can be conditionally divided into two groups:
- markers responsible for the metabolism of alcohol in the body;
- is a group of genes responsible for neuropsychic activity.
Responsible for the metabolism of
Ethyl alcohol, getting into the human body, is metabolized by liver cells - hepatocytes. About how the oxidation of alcohol, a little said above: for this are responsible for two enzymes - alcohol-dehydrogenase and acetaldehyde-hydrogenase. On how active both enzymes are, the rapidity of the onset of intoxication, the duration of intoxication itself and the rapidity of sobering depend. So, if a person inherited the so-called Asian genes from both his father and mother, then the intoxication occurs instantaneously, and the oxidation of acetaldehyde lasts a considerable amount of time. As a result of this set of genes, a person simply can not become an alcoholic, he becomes physically unwell with any amount of ethyl alcohol.
Responsible for neuropsychic activity
Getting into the human body for the first time, alcohol acts relaxing, there is lightness, the clamping is removed. This is the effect of ethyl alcohol on the cerebral cortex. The psychic of a person is arranged in such a way that once having tried something very pleasant, the brain demands the repetition of these sensations again. This is due to the work of the neurotransmitter - dopamine, which, according to scientists, is responsible for the development of alcoholism. Accustomed to excite the brain with alcohol, a person does not need to look for other ways of obtaining pleasure.
In addition to this gene, there are genes of monoamine oxidase, responsible for the formation of deviant behavior in humans, the gene of the serotonin transporter responsible for the propensity for depression, the GABA gene responsible for relaxation and many others.
In recent years, a large number of genes have been identified, which one way or another can affect the formation of a person's predilection for substance abuse, to which alcohol can be fully attributed. But you need to understand that the presence of one or two genes in itself can not testify to anything bad. Only the aggregate of "unsatisfactory" genes, plus raising a child in unfavorable social conditions, can have serious consequences in the form of alcoholism.
The truth about the hereditary alcoholism
And yet, is alcoholism transmitted over genes? This is a really serious question, because many potential adoptive parents are afraid to take abandoned children with "bad heredity", and women are afraid to give birth to children from husbands whose family was ill with alcoholism. In fact, such opinions, long established in society, such as "alcoholism is transmitted through a generation" or "whether there is a gene for alcoholism that is necessarily inherited" are myths. What really is inherited, so this tendency to depression, antisocial behavior, pleasure only with the help of alcohol.
Nevertheless, there is no research proving the formation of alcoholism in humans only under the influence of genetic factors. Alcoholism is a disease with social roots. Being brought up in a family where alcohol is the norm, the child subconsciously carries these principles through his life and in the future, even without a genetic predisposition to alcoholism, can copy the behavior of his parents.
And yet to have an idea of the genetic predisposition to the disease is necessary at least in order to timely adjust your lifestyle or the behavior of your child, not allowing the development of addiction. To do this, it is necessary to approach the prevention of alcoholism in a comprehensive way - not only the family, but also the school, health care, government programs for promoting healthy lifestyles and family values should work.