Are you a person with a red face when you drink? The more red you are, the more you can drink; the more you drink, the more you can say: red face means I have a good heart. Don’t believe that “the amount of alcohol is practiced” this nonsense, for people who drink red, can not drink but also have to drink, is equivalent to chronic suicide! The harm caused by drinking alcohol mainly comes from acetaldehyde, which is also the culprit that makes you blush. In order to eliminate this harm, acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, which specializes in metabolizing acetaldehyde, is particularly important. After drinking, alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream in the digestive tract, of which less than 10% is excreted in its original form by the lungs and kidneys, while the remaining 90% is metabolized in the liver. In simple terms, alcohol is first catalyzed by ethanol dehydrogenase and turned into acetaldehyde; then, acetaldehyde is turned into acetic acid by the action of acetaldehyde dehydrogenase; then, acetic acid is involved in several metabolic pathways in the body, and finally carbon dioxide and water are obtained and excreted from the body. This, in addition to ethanol itself has a certain degree of toxicity, the most harmful is acetaldehyde, it is toxic to many tissues and organs, may cause DNA damage, leading to tissue cell carcinogenesis, is an important factor in many malignant tumors such as liver cancer. Acetaldehyde is even used in animal tests as a mutagen in cancer models. If acetaldehyde dehydrogenase goes wrong, acetaldehyde tends to build up in large amounts and soon you’ll be blushing. And, the problem is genetic, so there is nothing you can do about it in this life. Studies have shown that for alcoholics, the genetic defect that makes you blush also has a significant impact on the incidence of esophageal cancer, and those with the “one good, one bad gene” may have a higher risk of developing esophageal cancer if they drink heavily than those without this genetic defect. So doctors can determine whether patients have an acetaldehyde dehydrogenase defect by asking them if they are prone to blushing when they drink, and they should advise them to drink less and increase screening for esophageal cancer. The main subjects in this study were people in Japan and Taiwan, China. As a complement, a 2010 paper also examined the situation in mainlanders. The conclusions were similar: alcoholics with defects in the acetaldehyde dehydrogenase gene had a higher chance of developing esophageal cancer than normal alcoholics. In summary, drinking and blushing is not a bad thing; it suggests that you have a genetic defect. Many people judge whether they should continue to drink based on whether they are drunk or not, and some even think that after a period of exercise, they will be fine if their drinking capacity grows. In fact, people who were not able to win the alcohol tolerance after exercise, but will drink more wine, resulting in the accumulation of more acetaldehyde in the body, causing more harm. Therefore, it is better for people who drink and blush not to drink or drink less, not only to prevent cancer, but also for many diseases.