Despite all the known health and social problems of alcohol, there are millions of staunch defenders of this not-so-innocent beverage.

Alcohol advocates usually support moderate consumption especially for social functions and gatherings.

They argue that it is impossible to wipe it out completely and that a more rational approach is to bring its consumption under control.

They also argue that excessive intake of alcohol is causing all the predicaments and not alcohol per se.

In the United States alone, 30 percent of adults have experienced alcohol abuse or alcoholism. Almost 600,000 college students are injured while under the influence and1,800 die every year. According to health experts, alcohol causes up to 30 percent of all cases of esophageal cancer, liver cancer, liver cirrhosis, epilepsy, homicide and motor vehicle accidents.

Alcoholism is a chronic and often progressive disease in which there is a problem controlling the drinking habit. Alcohol consumption increases to get the same effect (physical dependence) and upon rapidly decreasing or stopping consumption, withdrawal symptoms occur.

The notion that alcoholism runs in families is not new. In the 1970s, some studies documented that many children whose parents were alcoholics later grew up to inherit the drinking habit. What the investigations failed to prove at that time, however, was whether the phenomenon was something genetic or environmental. Did the children become alcoholics because they inherited a gene from the alcoholic parents or because they learned the habit from poor role models?

Scientists later ventured more seriously into this matter and began conducting proper scientific research to find out if there were genetic components involved in alcoholism. In 2004, a researcher and psychiatrist, Dr Subhash C. Pandey from the University of Illinois, suspected a gene that produces cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) to be the possible cause of anxiety-like behavior and thus an inclination to problem drinking. The function of the CREB gene is to regulate the brain in learning processes and it is involved in tolerance, dependence and withdrawal symptoms.

Pandey and colleagues used a group of rats specially bred with deficient CREB protein and observed that they drank 50 percent more alcohol than normal rats, preferred alcohol over water, and showed more anxiety-like behavior which was pacified by alcohol consumption.

In a second study by a research group led by Prof José Rico Irles of Granada University conducted in 2007, it was found that addiction to alcohol could be genetically predisposed due to a hereditary lack of endorphins. Endorphin is a chemical released by the brain in response to various conditions such as pain. It is regarded as an endogenous analgesic as it functions by numbing or reducing the intensity of pain.

Chronic alcoholics have low levels of endorphins causing them to seek an external source. As the body becomes accustomed to an exogenous supply and progressively greater amounts of alcohol are consumed, the body eventually stops producing this morphine-like substance and this is when dependence starts.

In his study of 200 families, Irles found that children who had at least one alcoholic parent were found to have lower beta-endorphin levels than normal children. These levels were even lower when both parents were alcoholics. The researchers concluded that there are many ways by which alcohol consumption affects people and the differences of endorphin levels make some more vulnerable to alcoholism than others.

In April 2011, a study by researchers at the University of Michigan Health Systemwas published in Molecular Psychiatry suggesting that variations of the GABRA2 gene play a role in alcoholism by influencing impulsive behaviors. 449 people from 173 families were involved and 75 percent of these families had at least one member diagnosed with alcohol dependence or abuse. Those with certain variations of the GABRA2 gene showed a higher tendency to develop alcohol dependence symptoms and more impulsiveness when responding to stress.

However, all the scientists involved in the study agreed that genetic components do not act alone and simply inheriting the gene does not make alcoholism one’s destiny.

Why Do People Drink?

Why do you drink, one might ask. This very tough and painful question has never found an answer. Surveys, however, give the following top five answers:

1. To help me deal with my problems.
2. It helps me loosen up and have a good time.
3. Drinking makes me happy.
4. It’s just cool.
5. All my friends drink!

http://www.onislam.net/english/health-and-science/science/468483-the-genetics-of-alcoholism.html

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