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- Excessive consumption of alcohol can lead to lasting genetic change.
- A new study suggests that some genes damaged by excessive alcohol consumption produce certain proteins.
- These changes can lead us to want to drink more.
Alcoholism has been linked to specific genes in scientific research, suggesting that there is a hereditary component to addiction. According to a new study, the consumption of large amounts of alcohol could also affect our genes.
The research, published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, was conducted by Rutgers University. It was a small study, comprising only 47 people, but the results showed that excessive alcohol consumption could trigger lasting genetic change, which would result in greater food cravings. # 39; alcohol.
"We have found that people who drink a lot can change their DNA in ways that make them more likely to consume alcohol," said Dipak K. Sarkar, the lead author of the study. "This could help explain why alcoholism is such a powerful addiction, and could one day contribute to new ways of treating alcoholism or preventing people at risk from becoming addicted."
Read more: Why do you feel a hangover or "fear of beer" after a long night of drinking?
Previous research has shown how alcohol can alter the brain pathways that affect memories and encourage us to drink more. But this new research suggests that more and more drinking is causing new changes in our DNA, which can make reduction even more difficult.
The team drew blood from three groups: moderate drinkers, heavy drinkers and heavy drinkers. The occasional excessive consumption of alcohol was defined as seven drinks a week for women and 14 drinks a week for men. To qualify as a heavy drinker, women had to drink at least eight drinks a week and men at least 15.
They then badyzed participants' blood by checking the levels of PER2, a gene regulating certain brain functions, and POMC, a gene responsible for the production of a stress response protein.
Drinking and heavy drinking had alterations in the DNA of these two genes, making it harder for the cells to produce the proteins that they encode. The researchers said that these changes increased with higher alcohol consumption and that the desire to drink participants was increased.
Sarkar told Inverse that in studies on mice, when the PER2 and POMC genes are not expressed, they drink more.
"In animal studies, we have evidence that these two genes are very involved in the positive reinforcement of alcohol consumption," he said. "We think this has a profound effect on the body's functioning and behavior, which led us to think that this may imply addictive behavior."
The results show a strong correlation, but researchers can not say with certainty what was the causality. Alcoholism is probably the result of many different things, including inherited genes and alterations over time.
But according to the researchers, their findings could help identify biomarkers in people, which could indicate their risk of excessive or excessive consumption of alcohol.
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