Monday, August 13, 2007
I've been sleeping at unearthly hours of 3, 4am lately. It's bad cos i stayed up the whole night watching Forensic Heroes. But now that i've completed the whole series, i don't seem to be able to sleep early either. I tried counting 1-100 in French, reading, listening to S-L-O-W songs. It's no use! Perhaps i could make use of this time to study ehh. I can probably hear the rats scamper past, not that i can spot any in my house. =P Can't wait for my exams to be over before i start hardcore crunchyrolling again.
When surfing the net last night, I came across this:
Alcohol flush reaction, (also known as Asian flush, Asian glow and ADH deficiency) is a condition where the
body cannot break down ingested alcohol completely, due to a deficiency of an inactive enzyme, aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) which is normally responsible for breaking down
acetaldehyde, a byproduct of the metabolism of alcohol. Since acetaldehyde is a toxin, it accumulates and causes flushing if the human body can't break it down.
Approximately
half of all Asians have a sensitivity to alcohol due to this condition and there is some evidence that this condition exists frequently in people of Jewish descent as well.
If you suffer from the flush, you know what happens: almost as soon as you take a drink, your acetaldehyde levels shoot up 6 to 20 times that of people with normal ALDH-2.
This burst of acetaldehyde triggers facial flushing, elevated heart rate and dilated blood vessels, followed by headache, nausea, dizziness and vomiting.
Although most people with this condition view it as a minor inconvenience, it has been suggested that people with alcohol flush reaction may be at higher risk for alcohol related conditions, such as liver disease, asthma, and cancer of the esophagus. -
WikipediaForget all those scientific terms. To put it simply,
if you can't drink, don't drink.
sprinkle some dust 1:33 PM